flowers — Page 16

Saturday

September 23, 2023 at 8:45 am by Claudia

Scenes from the porch.

We’re due for quite a bit of rain today and tomorrow and then, hopefully, it will be dry for several days.

Happy first day of fall! I am so ready for it. To state the obvious, summer was quite disappointing this year. Now the temperatures are more moderate, downright cool in the morning, and I feel like I’ve come out of a stupor (the word Don used when we were talking about it the other day.)

Two more books were picked up from the library yesterday; Mick Herron’s newest – The Secret Hours, and Lisa Jewell’s newest – None of This is True. The latter is in the large print edition, which I ordered by mistake. When I saw I would be number 157 in the queue for the regular print edition, I stuck with the large print. And I’m currently well into The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons by Karin Smirnoff, who is taking over the series that was originally written by the late Stieg Larsson. It’s very well written – I’m still sorting out the characters.

Don made a sweet potato pie the other day and it was a definite hit! I really love it. Sugar-free, of course. As is the case with our apple pie, it gets even better after it’s been refrigerated.

The Boston fern is doing very well this year. I have had this fern since Don was out in La Jolla doing the first production of Margaritaville, so that would be six years. It goes outside in the summer and then overwinters upstairs in our office. There have been times during the winter months where I thought it might be a goner, but it has always come back. I’m sure it loved the rain and humidity that was this summer.

Anyway, it’s looking good,

Okay. I’ve run out of things to say and I need another cup of coffee.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

The Beginning of the Change of Seasons

September 16, 2023 at 9:08 am by Claudia

The view as we drove home from getting vaccinated. Just around that curve and down the road a bit is the nursery where I get all my plants.

We did have mild reactions, by the way. Nothing terrible, just feeling a bit achy, and not-quite-right. But, we got both vaccines at the same time, something we normally don’t do. I was a bit off all day long, Anyway, I’m feeling better today, as is Don. That’s good, as he has a gig this afternoon.

I may mow. We’ll see.

It’s turned much cooler – yesterday felt positively fall-like. I’m happy about that as the summer was far from ideal and I’m ready to move on.

I still see one or two of the groundhogs, but not very often. The babies are no longer babies and have found their own homes. I’m relieved not to have to monitor the garden constantly, but I do miss their playful presence. I ran across the photos I took of them when they first emerged with their mom and I got sad. Ah, well. I rarely see any of the rabbits either.

The groundhogs will start to hibernate next month. Although I’m ready for fall, there’s always a bit of melancholy attached to the seasonal change into fall and then winter. Don and I were sitting on the glider during a break from mowing and I looked out at all the trees and the green leaves and reminded him that we had waited all winter and into the early spring to finally see some green out there. And soon that will be gone.

But for now, my brown-eyed susans are still in bloom, lots of wildflowers are blooming, but the coneflowers are fading. The giant zinnias are still hanging in there and so are the Rose of Sharon bushes, both of which have plenty of buds yet to open. (I never know which plant names to capitalize!)

Even this fading zinnia is beautiful, almost sculptural. Time to take a walk around the property and take some pictures.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Garden Surprises

September 13, 2023 at 7:58 am by Claudia

Garden surprises:

I thought this endless summer hydrangea was not going to bloom at all this year, There was absolutely nothing but leaves all summer long. But a week or so ago, I noticed two blooms developing. And here we are.

Never give up, I guess!

And yesterday, as I was walking by the memorial garden, I thought I spotted something. I quickly went back and way up in the garden behind another plant was a tiny rose. I had a little bush up there that had died. In fact, I removed most of it – all of it, I thought. But there, in its place, was a tiny plant with some leaves and this:

An unexpected delight!

It’s been such a strange summer for the gardens and the trees. As I write this, it’s raining again. We had to snatch the opportunity to mow yesterday because a dry day is rare around here. Once again, the grass had grown way too long because it rains every day so we can’t mow. Mowing was exhausting, as we had to constantly stop to remove the grass that was clogging the chute. We might resort to cutting that section of the front lawn more frequently so we don’t have deal with so much tall grass. Of course, you can only do that if it doesn’t rain.

The good news: after today, we have over a week of dry weather in the forecast.

Woke up at 4:30 am this morning. So did Don. The a/c had shut off because I forgot to put it on the correct setting, It was too warm for me. Don says it wasn’t too warm for him, he just happened to wake up too early. Needless to say, we’re tired and a wee bit cranky this morning.

The enormity of the losses in Morocco and Libya is heartbreaking, I can’t stop thinking about these horrific tragedies within days of each other. Those poor people. We are seeing the evidence of climate change in hurricanes, fires, floods, drought, excessive temperatures (I’m sure I’m leaving something out of this list.) What kind of world are we leaving behind? And what are we doing about it? Not enough, and whatever we do now may be too late.

I’m in such a dark mood this morning that I could go on and on about the state of the world and our country. But I’ll stop there. Older and, hopefully, wiser.

Sometimes.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Saturday

The Beginning of the Change of Seasons

Garden Surprises

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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