Fun In The Sun

Since the friend I usually carpool to church with had some personal business to attend to this weekend, I decided to opt for a lazy stay-at-home Sunday today.

Well, not totally lazy.  I started by hitting some cardio at the gym, doing half an hour on the recumbent bike.  That went well, though it always works up quite a sweat.  After that, it was back home, with the day already growing hot.  Still, I went out to run some water to the trees, and thus the door was opened for some outside-time for the kitties.

As we can see, Khan wisely sought out some nice shade:

Ahh, nice and cool here under the baby redbud.

Then, as I beat a hasty retreat back towards the coolness of my air-conditioned house, I spotted something that made me double-take:

This random weed at the edge of my porch is unmistakably a snapdragon.  In theory, I know where it came from--I had snapdragons in the planter box last year, so one must have self-seeded.  But how they managed to seed--and have one land right there and sprout--that just boggles me. 

I guess it's just one of life's random, happy little surprises. 

Where has the Time Gone?

It has certainly been a busy couple of weeks!  The spell of hot-and-dry gave way to some serious rain.  Fortunately, this week has seen the arrival of roof repairmen to fix the tornado damage that our building at work suffered...oh, two months ago or so by now.

I also took a couple of days off work and drove up to my parents' house for a visit.  We celebrated Mom's birthday, and even though some things did not quite go according to plan, we all really enjoyed being together and I know I had a great time.  Mom liked her presents, and I got to meet their new kitty (shy but very sweet--I'm sure she'll have more to say about him on her blog). 

Mom's fig tree (parent of my baby fig) is doing extremely well and promising to put forth a record crop.  I made sure to take a picture to help inspire my little guy:

and to give some perspective, here is Mom posing with her prize pupil:

Don't get too close or it might just eat YOU!

As you can see, it has really grown to an impressive size.  I have high expectations for my offspring-fig. 

Not a lot of change in my own garden, except to say that the cardinal vines have bloomed, and I saw a hummingbird the other day who was quite interested in my petunias.  Lucky for him, the cats did not seem to notice his presence, as Khan-khan is known to think that hummingbirds look deliciously bite-sized.  Not that he's ever gotten to sample one, of course....  

So, all is well here, and it's good to be back.  I hope this finds all of you well, too.

Blooming Hot

We officially topped 90 degrees today, so summer temperatures are here--just in time for Memorial Day!  Since we've at least had some rain, the garden is doing okay for now.

The planter is more colorful than ever.  The geraniums have really gained momentum, and the petunias are spreading like crazy.  The poor marigolds, alas, are sort of getting swamped under.  But, the little cardinal vines have discovered the trellis and almost instantaneously shot up to the top.

A riot of flowers!

Taking the trellis by storm....

Last weekend, I actually found some portulacas.  They only had pink, but the flowers were sweet anyway.

All sorts of pink!

I actually found one lone sprout that self-seeded from last year's batch.  I was a bit surprised to see it, since finches and other birds had a bonanza eating the seeds last summer.  Evidently, one managed to hide and find itself in the right sort of place to sprout. 

The trees are all doing well, but by this next weekend I'll probably be needing to water them again.

Anyhow, that's about all the news from the Great Outdoors.  Now back to relaxing in the Air-Conditioning!

Bats From The Past

I just glanced out my porch door/window, and I saw something that is still almost as fascinating as the first time I noticed it: bats in flight.

It turns out a small (as far as I can tell) colony of them live somewhere in the immediate vicinity of my house.  I do not know where exactly they live, but when the seasons grow warmer, and I am lucky, I can sometimes catch sight of them.  The first time, I just happened to look outside right at sunset, and it took a moment to realize what I was seeing when a silhouette when flashing past my field of view.  While our neighborhood is home to a very healthy community of swallows, who sometimes fill the air, their peak time is about an hour before sunset.  They were long abed, and their swooping flight is quite distinct from the flight of my sunset visitors.  It was a sort of flittering motion, combined with instant, on-a-wingtip changes of direction, and that was my big clue: anything flying like that had to be an insectivore, and there's only one creature that comes right to mind when one is thinking about insectivores that come out as night falls.  So I was seeing a bat!  That was a real first for me.

I could hardly believe it, but once seen, they are kind of unmistakeable.  I have never seen them well enough to tell their exact species, given how they are zipping about in near darkness, but they are small and I assume that if there are some near my house they must be from a species that is pretty common.

My only other encounter with a bat, besides the occasional glimpse of my neighborhood colony, was one at my mom and dad's house.  They have a lovely porch, with all the usual patio furnishings, including the table with an umbrella for providing shade.  Well, one day while I was there on a visit, a little black bat had apparently decided that the table umbrella (folded down at the time) was a perfect, cozy spot to sleep away the daylight hours.  Alas for the bat, we elected to go out to the porch to relax, and when dad opened the umbrella out, there was the poor little bat hanging there--and probably wondering what had happened to its great napping-spot.  Dad quickly called us all out so we could see it, and we were privileged to get a really close look at it. 

It wasn't long before it flew crossly off to a nearby tree, but I managed to snap this picture:

Just look at those adorable ears and nose!

That definitely ranks as my closest-ever encounter with these fascinating creatures.

And We're Back!

Well, it has been a busy few days.  My parents came down from Arkansas so we could celebrate my Dad's birthday, and so they could attend the orchestra concert I took part in.  Both parts of the visit were a smashing success, and we had a great time all around. 

When not at concerts or celebrating birthdays, we played some cards (I did rather well, if I do say so myself) and did some antiquing downtown.  Dad found some records, and Mom found a few small items.  There was nothing in the way of what I was looking for, but we did stumble across something Mom and I thought was kind of neat:

This USDA pamphlet describes what was the cutting edge of hive design, suggests how to get bees to move to the "new digs"  and as a bonus recommended the best choice of toxic chemical for the removal of bee colonies in inconvenient locations (in the walls of one's house, for instance). 

Mom also brought me a rooted cutting from her really wonderful fig tree.  I'm really excited about my little guy.  He grew a bit wonky, but I picked up a plant stake, cut a strip of soft cloth,
and along with its cozy tree ring for mulch, it is all tucked in safe and sound. 

My baby fig!

Even though it is due to rain at some point in the latter half of the week, I went ahead and ran it some water from the hose since the poor fellow was only just transplanted over the weekend. 

While picking up the plant stake, I checked to see if Home Depot had any Snapdragons or Portulaca in--still no joy, much to my disgust.  I am going to have to do some serious scouting around town this coming weekend.  But, all is not completely lost: among the many sneaky, unwelcome weeds to "volunteer" to come up in my flower beds was one surprise guest who will be allowed to stay. 

Surprise!

Those heart-shaped leaves are the hallmark of a common Violet, and I have a pretty good guess as to this one's parentage.  It so happens that teh bigger redbud tree came with an extra stowaway, in the form of a violet from Mom and Dad's yard.  Now, Violets are shade-loving and extremely tough, so this one survived a couple of bad brushes with a negligent lawn-guy and has, in fact, managed to thrive.  It has also seeded one whole patch of the backyard with its offspring.  (Violets are also extremely prolific.  One very small pot with maybe two violet plants managed to cover my whole side-yard where I last lived.)  Clearly, yet another of the Stowaway's offspring has appeared, and managed to find itself in some prime real-estate.  This might be called a new approach to weed management:  if you can't beat them, choose them. 

Naturally, my Loyal Furry Assistants were on the scene during today's gardening efforts.  Leo made sure the new baby was safe, and Khan-khan arranged to look very decorative:

My parents also brought another redbud sapling when they made their trip, which was a gift for Super Sociable Guy and his family, who have really been very good friends and very sweet to me.  I delivered it to them yesterday, and they have already picked it a spot and got it securely planted.  I chatted with my friend about it today, and he is quite pleased, and I recommended that he pick up a tree ring to help it along.  It was fun to chat, as always, and I mentioned the new fig.  Sociable Guy smoothly suggested that, you know, if I ever needed any help picking figs down the road when my tree is established that he and his family would be happy to help out.  Just sayin'....

I'm looking forward to it.

May Flowers...Just a Tiny Bit Early

Today's post will be picture-heavy and a little light on the written word, because much of my time this evening has been devoted to a garden project.  I have a very nice planter box on my back porch, so I picked up a few annuals and went to town, so to speak.  There were a lot of other people at the store as well, so we all apparently had the same idea on this absolutely gorgeous day.

So, here the poor planter box sits "before," all alone and empty:

After topping up the soil, it was time to get planting.  Lucky for me, I had some expert help:

My elder kitty, Sher-khan investigates.

As does my younger one, Leo



As we can see, an avid gardener!



 With such excellent assistance, the whole job naturally went very quickly.  Now we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor:

After!

The flowers are all among my favorites: geraniums for the centerpiece, some spreading petunias near the edges, and a passel of bright marigolds to fill in the gaps.  The store did not yet have any snapdragons or portulaca in stock, both of which I also love, so I may have to make another trip in a week or two and pick up some of those to go around/between the irises in my flower beds.

I hope you, dear readers, also had a wonderful day to enjoy.

Yard and Garden

Since it is spring, and since the weather has calmed considerably just lately (koff koff) it's a good time to spend a while in my back yard and enjoy my flower beds.  Among other things already in the beds when I moved into my current house are some very nice yellow-orange day-lilies.  There is one in particular in the back flower bed which is as happy as a clam, with a bazillion buds: 



Next to that, are some recently planted irises.  These arrived courtesy of my mom, who had them in a planter bed.  This bunch wound up homeless (long story, there) though mom still has some others in her yard.  I was mostly just hoping that mine would all take this first year and hang in there, as they had been having a rough life before they were replanted, but not only have some of them really settled in, a fair number started to bud out:

Now they have joined the lily in a riot of blumes, creating a bright, cheerful purple-and-yellow canvas:

And last, but not least from the back yard, are two young redbud trees.  These were offspring of a giant redbud mom and dad have in their backyard which produces about sixty-gazillion babies each spring.  So they had a couple of extras. 

The near one was planted not long after I moved in, and it really took off last year (that's MR Redbud to you, thanks) and the other one (harder to see) was planted early last year and is small yet.  Once they reach full size, they should provide some nice shade for the porch and swing. 

My two cats (more on them soon) absolutely love playing in the back yard, which is fenced in, so they can't wander the whole neighborhood and go looking for trouble.  This compromise seems to satisfy all parties, though the cats have been known to turn Marco Polo if for any reason a gate is accidentally left open.  And when the gate is just standing open like that, is it their fault if they can't resist the call to go exploring?