Saturday 10 January 2009

january photo-a-day - frangipani flowers and socks

we're in the midst of summer here and, drought declared, so the ground is very dry which explains all the dirt and grit on my frangipanis after a wind brewed up late yesterday. i love frangipani flowers though the trees do look quite ugly when they lose all their leaves in winter.
click on images to enlarge

michelle and beau started washing their own clothes, of their own accord, when they were around 15 years old and i sure did appreciate it. i was hoping reece would follow suit but his motto seems to be - 'if i leave it there long enough, someone else will clean it up for me.' reece detests housework. his room is like a bomb has dropped most of the time and, when i've had enough of it i will have a bit of a rant at him to clean up his room. lately, reece's solution has been to pay aaron to tidy his room up for him and he will also pay aaron to clean and vacuum his car for him. the other day, he even coaxed aaron into hanging out his clothes for him. of course, reece made no attempt to bring them in. well.......i couldn't help but smile when i went to bring in reece's clothes from the clothesline today. note the socks! LOL

aaron obviously ran out of room so piggybacked all the socks together. i found three other groups of socks just like these two. i would never have thought of that. lol

21 comments:

  1. Love the photo of the socks. Why do boys always think the solution is to pay someone else to do it?

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  2. That is too funny with the socks and a clever idea, leave it to kids!
    Love the pretty yellow flower, makes me think of sunshine which I hope we get today.

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  3. Okay, the "sock rope" is about the most funny and creative solution to a problem I have seen in quite awhile. You gotta love boys.
    Your flower looks a lot like the Plumeria flower in Hawaii (which smells DIVINE). I wonder if they are related.
    Peace~
    Dawn

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  4. Beautiful flowers! They have this porcelain look to them, nice!

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  5. Serena- the sock thing is brilliant! Gosh I envy you for being able to hang your clothes outside to dry!! They must smell so good.

    Haha Reece paying Aaron to do the housework...SMART kid.

    That frangipani photo...would make a PERFECT painting.

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  6. What a clever boy you have there! Well, two clever boys, I'd say. One who pays his brother to do his chores(my brother used to pay the neighbor boy to cut the grass for him when we were young) and the other who comes up with terrific solutions for hanging out clothes.
    The flowers are gorgeous! They look like sugar flowers.

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  7. Those flowers are BEAUTIFUL!! Living in the high desert, we don't have lush flowers like that here so your photo is especially welcome.

    Ingenuity!! I would never have thought to do that with socks but it sure works!

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  8. Good goddess that is cute about the socks! I think Reece is a future CEO, while Aaron is destined for some creative outside the box thinking job!

    Gorgeous flower picture. I love how the front ones are open and the back ones still closed. (I don't know if we have fragipani here where I live. Your photo-a-day project is getting me more curious about our own flora here on east coast US.)

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  9. LMAO! Ingeniously hilarious! :)

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  10. The socks--very clever of him--hehe! Well, the one son is teaching the other son a good work ethic, I guess, eh? I can't get over those flowers! They look unreal to me. Gorgeous! Do they smell good or at all?

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  11. stretched out socks :p hmmm that might be why some of hubbies socks are different lengths.....

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  12. My brother used to pay me to do things for him!!

    I've never seen socks pegged like that either,lol :-)

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  13. p.s. forgot to add;

    I LOVE your frangipani pic!

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  14. love the frangipani.... mmmmm...

    Bad Reece, bad Reece.... lucky for him he doesn't live at my house. I learned early how never to have to tidy after anybody. I did warn them not to expect me to clean up behind them... there are laundry hampers for dirty things...and drawers for clean stuff. Even my young nephews and a couple of boarders learned early. If they still left clothing around...well, they would find socks with toes cut off..pants with one leg missing...an arm off a shirt etc. I washed them and put them in their drawers... hahahhah ... it was kind of funny....but, only to me. Then, they had to go out, buy new stuff and keep it tidy or even hide it... never happened twice. And, a few of them never even mentioned it....

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  15. I wonder if frangipani would grow here... what a splendid flower!! Does it smell as lovely as it's name implies??

    I have hung out my share of laundry over the years, and now I wonder why it never occured to me to "piggyback" small things together like that!! Thinking outside the box... indeed!

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  16. Your frangipani photo is beautiful.
    Sounds like your sons have it figured out, its a win win.

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  17. That is genius. You've got some pretty enterprising children! You've got to give Reece credit for getting the job done, even if it is via paying your other son to do it for him! It seems like a win-win situation. Kavindra said exactly what I was thinking, using the exact same words, too... a CEO and an Outside-the-Box thinker!

    Thank you for your compliments on my journal and for your good healing thoughts to me! xoxo Serena Pia

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  18. Your frangipani photos are gorgeous! I need to find that color and planted it with my pink ones.

    Oh, and those messy kids- I had them too-LOL! Love the clever way the socks were hung- hee hee!

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  19. Love your photo a day! I miss being able to dry clothes in the sun...makes them smell so good!

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  20. What an inventive young man! Yeah, I'd never have thought of that either Serena :) Enjoying your photos & stories that go with it! My son Nick has a terrible habit of taking out a new towel from the cupboard each time he showers ... then dumping them in a corner in his room!

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  21. thank you all for your great comments....i enjoyed reading them.

    dawn - 'plumeria' is the botanical name for frangipani.

    jessica - i love the smell of fresh air-dried clothes.

    vee - you are my new hero! i wish i could be more ruthless in my efforts to train reece into being tidy. your method would certainly make them think twice before doing it again. lol

    judi - yes, the frangipani has a beautiful perfume.

    maria - reece has been known to dump a wet towel on the floor or on his bed too. lol

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