Tissues and Issues and Ants, Oh My!

Note: I plagiarized part of this post from my favorite forum and wanted to apologize to my home-girls beforehand! But it was my own post, so I'm not sure if you'd call it plagiarism or not! It's probably more like just lazyism! I'd also like to apologize for having no photos of peonies to put in this post.

TISSUES

I'm not a big peony fan ...sorry peony-lovers, but I have mental issues about them which I'll explain below... but I have to tell you...some of the beautiful peony blooms I see this time of the year remind me so much of when I was a kid and we used to take a bobby pin (remember those) and a pastel colored Kleenex (also a thing of the past...the colors I mean) and we'd fold the tissue like an accordion and put them into the bobby pin. Then we'd tear off the edges of the tissue an make it sort of raggedy and then spread the tissue out to form a flower. We used to make those all the time, I'd even spray them with my little girl perfume! Most of the time that was Chantilly Lace! Pastel peonies remind me for all the world of those flowers. I've got to find out the name of the pale pink/yellow one's I saw on the forum in photos posted by my friend Jackie. Jackie's photos are breath-taking, as is her garden! I think I may be able to get over my peony angst if I could have something that looked so much like my childhood tissue flowers and as lovely as Jackie's!!

ISSUES

As I get older, I realize I have issues with a lot of things and I love to try to figure out why. It's a challenge of sorts. Sometimes the reasons escape me and sometimes they are as plain as day to me, but I do know what it is about peonies that give me bad memories.

The first thing about peonies is that I hate big huge ants! Not just the harmless looking red or black itty bitty ants. I'm talking about those huge 3-sectioned, shiny, look-like-they-could-carry-away-a-Chihuahua ants!! They creep me out worse than spiders or snakes! And peonies are covered with those ants. All the time. I guess they have to do something to help the peonies bloom or something...the story goes that it's a necessary symbiotic relationship for the peonies to put on their gorgeous shows in the spring. I've also heard that that story is a myth, that peonies will bloom regardless of the ants...but ants are attracted to the buds because of the sweet goo they bleed...so where there are peonies, it's inevitable, there are gonna be ants. UGH!

The other thing was that when we first moved into this house (I was 23 years old at the time) I planted a couple of peonies in our new yard. My DH mowed them off. I planted two more. He mowed them off. I couldn't afford to buy any more peonies, so I got it set in my head that I DIDN'T NEED NO STINKIN' PEONIES. I've never ever tried to plant them since. And I was 23 a LONG LONG time ago!!

Now don't get me wrong, I love the looks of a peony and drool over all the ones I see this time of year, blooming all along my bus route. They are gorgeous and the colors just blow me away!! Especially the soft pastel colored ones and I also love the ones that are the closest to red you can get. I've never seen a true red peony...they are usually shades of magenta or dark pink. But if I could find a true red one, I'd be on it in a New York minute!

Yeah, I think I just may be ready for peonies. It would be me thinking outside of the little box I've got myself in. That's this years mantra for me, written all over my dream board for 2010..."Think Outside of the Box!"

Now if I just didn't have to have the ants!