garden — Page 150

Potpourri on Friday

August 19, 2016 at 10:05 am by Claudia

• Late start today, as I slept in a little and had a nice long phone conversation with my sister. My nephew is going away to his new college today. It’s a big day and a big transition. I’m very proud of him.

• Yesterday, I weeded for about 2 hours, cleaning up all the garden beds. Usually, at this time of year, I’ve given up on the weeding. But, though it was tiring, I’m so glad I did it. Everything looks much better and more defined – and my rambling, country garden needs some definition.

• Around the property:

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The limelight hydrangea blossoms are the bigger than ever this summer. Very impressive!

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Another zinnia is opening.

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And the wild Queen Anne’s Lace is blooming down by the mailbox.

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It always evokes memories of my childhood, when there was still an open field across the street from our house, and I’d see Queen Anne’s Lace everywhere.

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• Look! There’s a baby springing up from the soil! This is the mother-in-law’s tongue that my parents nurtured for over 40 years. I was so happy to see this little baby that I had to send a picture via text message to my sister. Mom and Dad would be pleased.

• This morning I woke up missing my dad’s voice and our phone calls. The other day, I lost it and sobbed about Scout – about all my dogs. I explained to Don that I missed talking and singing to Scout. I talked to her all the time, explaining what I was doing, explaining what I wanted her to do, telling her about my adventures, telling her how beautiful she was and how much I loved her. And I sang to her all the time; little songs I would make up on the spot.

I miss that.

I know that some of you will say, “You can still talk to her.” I do, at times. But, let’s be real: it’s not the same. I did it all the time. And there’s a quiet now, an emptiness of sound, that sometimes knocks me down and brings me to tears.

• Our dear friends of many years lost their home to a fire a couple of days ago. They live in Los Angeles: it wasn’t due to a wildfire but most likely an electrical fire. I think that has yet to be determined. Thank goodness, all are safe, including their two dogs. I can’t even begin to imagine how devastating this is for them. They will rebuild. They are in our prayers. Everything can change in a moment.

• For all of you who missed Don on Mr. Robot: You can see it On Demand, if you have that option with your cable package. Or you can do what I’ve done in the past and will do again. You can watch episodes on the USA network’s web page. Here’s the link to his episode. He did some fine work in this one.

Happy Friday.

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A Monarch & Mr. Robot

August 18, 2016 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Patience is a virtue that I don’t always have. But I do seem to have it when trying to capture flora and fauna on my camera. I’ve noticed that butterflies tend to come to the butterfly bush in the late afternoon/early evening. Around 6 pm I ventured out to the porch and peeked around the corner at the butterfly bush. Aha! A monarch! (And a hummingbird moth, I might add.)

I ran into the house grabbed my camera and then proceeded to contort myself into a position that entailed leaning out over the porch railing and then torquing my body to the right with camera in hand. For a long time.

Here’s what I got:

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And, in flight:

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There’s more, but I picked the ones I thought were the most interesting. I like to think this one emerged from our very own milkweed plants.

This butterfly bush has been a joy. I planted it a few years back and now it grows very tall each year, with blooms emerging in August. I love its graceful lines. It draws small, beautiful moths, all sorts of butterflies, hummingbird moths – and hummingbirds. If you don’t have one, consider planting one next year. The bloom time isn’t all that long, but boy, is it worth it!

The morning glories and moonflowers are lush with green leaves and are climbing all over the place. Still waiting on some flower buds….

We mowed yesterday and it was exhausting. Since the grass was so long and wet because of the humidity, the mower kept clogging and we’d have to repeatedly stop and scoop up all the cut grass from underneath the mower.

Just under two weeks until the newest Louise Penny is published on August 30th. I will be at the bookstore that day, that I can promise.

Don was on Mr. Robot last night and we kept flipping back and forth between the Olympics and Mr. Robot to try to catch his scene. We were successful! He was wonderful in a scene with his daughter; heartbreaking, sad, bewildered, angry – very real, which, on film, is much more difficult than you might imagine. I’m very proud of him. We haven’t actually watched any episodes in the second season as of yet. We will. So we didn’t try to understand what the heck was going on with the rest of the show; we just caught his scene.

By the way, we didn’t find out that his episode was airing last night until mid-afternoon. I edited this post to include that information and mentioned it on FB and IG. Sorry if you missed it!

Happy Thursday.

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First and Last

August 15, 2016 at 9:52 am by Claudia

The first zinnia:

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They’ve been a long time coming. Next year, I am amending the soil in the chicken wire fence garden. It clearly needs some nutrients.

The last of the daylilies:

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I had two surprise blooms this week. That nicely extended the day lily season, but I’m pretty sure this is it.

It’s a soggy, humid mess out there. The hollyhock looks like it was struck down by some disease, it hasn’t been, but it is definitely done. The rain has been hard on all the flowers in the garden. There are weeds everywhere. It was cloudy yesterday morning, and it seemed cooler outside, so I grabbed the weed chomper and worked on the area surrounding the Funky Patio. At the end of five minutes or so, which also included some quick stabs at weeding, I was dripping.

Maybe this is nature’s way to slowly bring me around to the fact that September is a couple of weeks away. The garden looks bedraggled. I only have some much energy/desire to tackle it at this point in the summer. The humidity is stifling.

I’m not kidding. I think Mother Nature has a way of bringing us around to the realization that it’s almost over until next year. She breaks the news gently, but the facts stare us in the face and we have to admit defeat.

Though I’m still waiting on my morning glories and moonflowers and the rest of my zinnias.

Yesterday, I tackled the Helmer drawer unit from IKEA.

Can I just say that it was a pain in the tush? In the interest of total honesty, it was a pain in the tush because I had the drawer glides installed incorrectly and I didn’t realize it until I had cursed for over an hour as I tried to get the damn thing together. I finally realized my mistake and took the whole thing apart.

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It’s fine now. It’s very inexpensive and, therefore, the quality is fairly flimsy, but it will do until I can afford something else. Or even want something else. By the way, the screws that attach the casters to the base won’t go into the base correctly. They, my friends, were also a pain in the tush.

Little Z’s dollhouse should be a breeze compared to this.

We’re going to try to mow a bit this morning before it gets real hot. The grass is so long – everywhere – and there is still rain in the forecast for this week, so we have to grab any non-rainy time we can get.

Don’s getting a new iPhone today and he’s very excited. He’s been using an older model, much smaller than the one I have, and he needs something bigger and faster. He’s a big guy and he’s got big hands. Since he was eligible for an upgrade, his shiny new phone will be delivered to our door today.

Happy Monday.

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Potpourri on Friday

A Monarch & Mr. Robot

First and Last

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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