Pretty Blooms, Slim Pickins' and The Wrong Kind of Dumpster Diving

After yesterday's incidental adventure with Casey at the Pier, I was still thinking with my camera and took to admiring the flowers on my back patio by way of the lens.              

Finally got a cool old pot with rusty handles to put some flowers in last week. It was free at a garage sale. Woo! The ladder has been patiently waiting out on my back porch for me to adorn it with just such beauty since I found it at a sale last year. 

The Zinnias do it up right!

Then I turned to testing out my close up skills on some flowers. I could use a little work on my focus as you'll see below. Some shots are better than others, but it's fun to see the details I would otherwise and ordinarily overlook. 

At this point in the late afternoon, the clouds had stepped aside to allow a few last sunny rays the joy of shining down and making me glad before the storm hit. But oh, what a difference a few hours made. The rains came down and the winds blew like crazy. We've had so many beautiful "blue sky and cool breeze" days, and it hadn't rained in what seemed like forever, but in reality I think it had only been a little over a week. Since last night's rain and the dreary day today that followed, now it's the sunshine that seems a distant memory. How quickly we forget!

As a reminder of colorful days, here are a few hues from yesterday. 

The lavender pretties seem to always be in bloom on this tree... not in abundance, but enough to make me smile.

More raspberry zinnias. I was playing with camera settings and the light was shifting as the storm was brewing. I have no idea what I did to elicit the electric glow on these zinnia images. I think it's just the way the light fell, and I may have had the camera set at a very fast shutter speed.

Patio lights through raindrops always intrigue me. 

Then came the rains...and the wild winds hammered the house for what seemed like hours. The Marine Corp flag Cael hung up before he left took a royal beating!

This morning it was still sprinkling, dark, dreary and very wet outside. I had a full garage sale itinerary mapped out for myself, and the weather did not look promising.

I didn't let that didn't daunt me. With pockets full of money that I shouldn't have even considered spending, camera in hand and high hopes for some terrific Saturday finds, I took to the road just after daybreak. 

I stole Casey's rain boots out of the trunk of her car - she wouldn't be up for hours - and I drove off wearing them. It's hard to hit the pedals right if you aren't used to their bulk, which I'm not, so I removed the right one as I drove. A woman of caution, I am. 

The boots ended up coming in quite handy as I had to splash through a couple of good puddles. Well, I didn't have to, but since I went to the trouble of stealing and wearing them, I thought I'd make them useful. I did get numerous compliments on them from garage sale passers-by. Too bad they were not complimenting my own stylish fashion sense. So, thanks to Casey's sleeping habits and my rise-and-shine-and-get-a-move-on ways, I can borrow Casey's trends for a morning and no one has to be the wiser to my true style misfortune.

While I was out, I stopped at the house of the woman from whom I purchased an old wall phone last time her community had a sale, but this time I came away empty handed. That phone was a fantastic find at $2.00. It graces my kitchen as a cool retro prop. Maybe I'll post that tomorrow.

I did make a few purchases from one seller today, although the pickin's were slim and the rain diminished the sales potential. Kind of disappointing, but at least I came back with my pockets still nearly full of the money I shouldn't have been spending anyway. 

When I arrived home, I went to the outside garbage can to throw away some trash. I had picked up a pearl earring off the seat of the car that I figured Casey had dropped, and had it in my hand with my trash. Wouldn't you know, by the time I got out of the car and walked the 10 steps to the trash can, I completely forgot I was holding it. I barely lifted the can lid, not wanting to look in there, and I threw everything in. I turned and thought, "What did I do with the earring?" [huge sigh] I, of course, immediately knew what I had done, my stomach sank, and I was...Seriously. Not. Happy. A line of black ants was proceeding to march from the can to the house or the other way around which told me all I needed to know about the state of the can contents. It was in no pristine condition and had quite a conglomeration of stinky stuff in it.

I first attempted to just lean in, hoping to find the earring lying politely on top. Right. I started gingerly moving the top bags and pulling things out as if the black plague could be held at bay if I only touched it with thumb and forefinger. Aside from garbage, there was all the dollar weed I uprooted yesterday and the container full of dirt that once held a plant but had been sitting on the back porch for a while. I dumped it out, whereby red ants and what looked like maggots began squirming about. Precious.

Heavy sighs and sounds of my annoyance and disgust could be heard across the early morning stillness. I had to move the mess around with a Target bag to see if the pearl had fallen in, and it was not miraculously appearing, dang-it. I dumped the entire contents onto the ground and started sifting... and taking pictures so I could show Casey what I had gone through on her behalf. I did so hope the neighbors were still asleep. The good news was I still had the boots on.

I'll have you know, I was about to give it up and tell Casey that's what she gets for being careless and leaving her stuff lying everywhere, but then it dawned on me... she doesn't really wear pearl earrings much... hmmm...ah, hem...ugh, but I do. It was all coming back to me... unfortunately. I began to sense that perhaps I may have lost one of her pearl earrings some time ago. Months and months ago maybe? So long ago I'd forgotten about it? That was sadly not entirely out of the question. Was it me, or was it her? I wasn't completely sure now. So I had to go on searching with a new diligence, a new fervor, in case I was the culprit. Man, humble pie is tough to swallow.

So I searched through unsightly sights and touched crap and shook out weeds and emptied trash bags and sifted through maggoty dirt and lifted open salsa containers that were spilling all over everything, and held my breath and prayed God would give me steely vision (which is quite an ask to be honest) 'til I found it. And then, yes!  There it was in the grass where I had no doubt knocked it during my garbage toss. God had granted me the perseverance to keep looking. There's the little bugger, there ner the center of the above photo. 

With the dumpster dive behind me, and my hands washed to within an inch of their lives, I admired my newly purchased treasure. Not much to it, but I got 13 of the little pedestal cups with the raised pattern (shown to the left in the picture above) and three white vases of various types and sizes to go with another one I have, and I got the clear carafe as well. 

That was it for today, unfortunately. Oh, but wait. I did find a headboard that was a dark wood version of the one I had growing up. It's like a long shelf, and at each end are small panels that slide open and closed. Oh the memories! The woman only wanted 3 dollars for it! But I had no way to get it home and I wasn't sure Casey would love it as I would, even though she needs a headboard. Oh gee, the nostalgia of such things could nearly kill me. 

Good thing I don't have a truck or I'd have drug home so much stuff by now we would be immobilized by junk. Here's to the stuff that got away!

Happy weekend!

Stop by White Wednesday at Faded Charm!