Thursday, April 30, 2009

Colors in my garden...

I was sitting outside in the back yard today after work and it hit me that summer is just around the corner in south Texas, which means the temps will soon be through the roof. It's still pleasant now, and I like to take advantage of it by opening my windows and let the breeze blow through the house. Not many people feel the same way down here. It seems like everyone keeps their windows and blinds shut. I was painting the outside of my house one morning a few weeks ago and was thinking that it was actually kind of chilly. Then I heard my neighbor's air conditioner kick on. I consider it a blessing when I don't have to turn my air conditioner on...especially considering how much it costs. But people around here seem to fire it up when it gets above 75.

Which leads me to another point which just boggles my mind. The university where I work keeps all the buildings at something like 75 degrees to keep everyone comfortable. Yet, most of the people who I know there are freezing their tails off. Many people, in fact, have little space heaters under their desk (me included) who keep them running during the day (even through the summer) because it's so freaking cold!! How much sense does that make, excuse me very much?!? So they're paying the utilities to air condition all those buildings (I think I read somewhere that their utility bill is about $2 million a year)...and yet everyone is running space heaters to keep warm!!! Duh!!! And we wonder why the economy is so screwed up.

Whoa...did I digress, or what?? I was sitting outside when I came home from work and was looking at all the pretty colors of flowers that I bought at Lowe's last week. What the heck does that have to do with air conditioning?? So let's get back to the flowers. I tried to buy something in every color I could find. I think I did a pretty good job.



Okay, so white's not a color, but they're still pretty.



I love this color...kind of a lavender/blue.



This is from a huge rose bush in my back yard.


Hey, this isn't a flower! This is my son's cat...her name is Daisy, so I thought she deserved an honorable mention on my flower post.

4 comments:

Life's a Beach! said...

Beautiful flowers! And the kitty pic is way too precious! We haven't turned on our air yet. We open up at night and cool it down. The temp gets up to about 80 in the house by the time I come home, then we just wait for it to cool off outside. But next week is supposed to be 100 degrees, so the A/C will come on. I'm trying to save money too!

Vee said...

Beautiful photos, Deb. I took some macro shots in my yard yesterday and will post them over the weekend.

Re the cold summers in the office, it's the same at the university where I work, and there's a big initiative to save energy. A woman spoke to our dept. at a meeting last summer. She explained that the university has a steam system, which we knew. The air must be brought down to a certain temp to dehumidify, then be heated. So it's cheaper - takes less energy - to have cooler air.

Happy Friday!

Paul said...

When it gets to be in the 70's for southern tier people it's actually sort of chilly. 'Course you're used to blistering heat. Up here in the mountains we don't put a jacket on until the temp drops down to the low 20's. You must still have some 'mountain' in you if 70 is too warm. Neat flowers. Daisy, a fitting cat name for a flower blog.

Ann said...

wondeful photos! I'm sneaking a few minutes at my brothers computer!