Pinkie Promise

When I was a little kid, my brother would lure me into trouble by telling me that nothing bad would happen.

"Do you promise?" I'd say.
"I promise," he'd say.
"But do you pinkie promise?" I'd ask.
"I pinkie promise," he'd solemnly say.

And then something bad would happen (usually involving grasshoppers, which terrify me) and I'd go after him with my little noodle arms spinning like windmills (he was younger but bigger than me) until our momma would pull us apart.  I was usually the one who got in trouble.  I have a big mouth and can't stand injustice, while my brother possesses to this day an almost angelic smile.  (The fact that as he got older he somewhat resembled Patrick Swayze didn't hurt, either.)

Anyhow, I told y'all that so you'd understand that I take a pinkie promise very seriously.  Having been the victim of a false pinkie promise numerous times, I vowed never to make a pinkie promise lightly.  If I make one, you can take it to the bank.  My pinkie promise is gold.

I pinkie promise there is nothing nasty in this post.

After the last one, I felt I owed y'all something nice to look at.

So here's my front porch with my planters all filled up with flowers:

 That's a lot of planters.  Eleven, all together.  I'm hoping all those flowers will distract from what an unholy mess the front of my house is.  (The paint out there is peeling pretty bad.)  I know you can't really tell what the flowers look like, so I took some close-ups.

This one is my favorite.  Non-stop begonias in a coral pink, surrounded by Euphorbia 'Hip Hop'.  I wanted it to look like a bouquet.  I love begonias because they look like roses, and Hip Hop is my favorite filler ever.  It's so frilly and fuzzy-looking and it goes with everything.

 New Guinea Impatiens with Alyssum as a filler.

Above them, hanging on the wall, Calibrachoa.  It's also called Million Bells or sometimes Super Bells.  This stuff blooms and blooms and blooms and it comes in lots of pretty colors.  It was hard to decide which color to pick.  I decided to go with pinks, lavenders and purples this year for all my flowers.  If my Gramma were here, she'd say it's kinda "loud", but I think she'd like it.  Lavender was her favorite color.

And on the steps, from the bottom up...

I planted petunias in the smallest pots.  Petunias are one of my favorite summer flowers.  Even I can keep them alive (well, most of the time) and, like Million Bells, they come in so many pretty colors.  I picked this hot pink because it's really bright and cheery.

In the medium-sized pots, more Hip Hop and more Million Bells.   

The big pots took me awhile to put together.  Like 45 minutes at Hilltop Farm and Greenhouse putting together different combinations of flowers until I hit on this.  In the middle is a geranium that blooms kinda pinky-lavender (it's barely blooming here); around that are three purple verbena; and tucked in between the verbena are three Million Bells that bloom white with purple centers.  (You can see them a little bit at the bottom of the photo.)  I think this will look better when it starts to fill out.

So far, I've remembered to water them every day...but it's only been like 4 or 5 days.

I'll also have to remember to bring them inside Thursday night since it's going to get down in the 30s that night.  I'll probably just leave them inside until Saturday because--and this makes me fall into despair--because the weatherman says we may have snow on Friday.  Can't let them get frozen.

I've made a pinkie promise to myself that this will be 

the year that my porch plants live all summer.