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. 

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!

Rain, Rain

Well, the weather man said that our glorious stretch of perfect weather was not going to last, and he was right.  By the time I was up and around this morning, rain had moved in.  On the plus side, it's providing some welcome water to all the trees and plants, and we'll be missing the rain when the hot, dry days of true summer settle in.  Of course, it was still a soggy experience running Saturday morning errands, which I got through as quickly as possible.  Fortunately, I didn't have too many stops I had to make. 

Alas, no outside-play for the cats today, since the back yard currently looks like this:

Glub, glub

With the weather as it is, what I really feel like doing is curling up with some tea, wrapping myself in my cozy sweatshirt, even though it's not really cold, opening up my book and snuggling in with the kitties.  In fact, other than having some laundry to run, things are in pretty good shape, so I might just go and do precisely that.

I hope everyone is dry and warm wherever you are.  'Till later.

They're Everywhere!

After a round of rain--which we sorely needed--we have been enjoying several days worth of nearly perfect weather.  There have been balmy temperatures, low humidity, and plenty of gorgeous sunshine.  Of course, that round of rain turned our office space into a dark, dripping cave again (yes, we still have no roof) but right now that seems to be a small price to pay for our current lovely conditions.

We've been going full-tilt at work, but between the lovely weather outside and the fact that I seem to have hit a nice peak with my workouts where I am gaining energy rather than being worn out by my workouts, I am feeling really good right now.  It has also been really nice to get to spend some time in the back yard and enjoy the green, growing things.  The cats, of course, naturally insisted on enjoying the lovely outdoors, too:

Elegant kitty is elegant.

The planter basket is doing extremely well.  Everything I planted is still green and generally blooming up a storm:

Some very happy flowers.....

Also, the cardinal vine seeds I planted have sprouted...along with about fifty "volunteers" that sprang up after last year's vines (evidently) self-seeded.  Alas, in the interest of not having the little surprise sprouts take over and strangle everything, I had to pull most of the volunteer vine-lets, but the ones where I am wanting them have of course been left in and are doing well.  They're the ferny, feathery-looking plants, and they're growing fast:

Cardinal vines making their debut.

I don't think it will take long before these find the trellis and totally take off.  The baby fig is also doing well, budding out a couple of new little leaves on its growth tips.  It also appears to me that it has a miniature hitchhiker that arrived with it in its pot: 

Can you see the eeeeensy violet?

It's hard to see, but if you look next to the trunk on the side opposite the fig leaves, there is a mystery sprout with suspiciously heart-shaped tiny leaves.  I have a feeling that this is yet another violet.  Of course, this seems to be a tradition given the very healthy violet that came with my bigger redbud tree:

Not the best picture, I am afraid, with the lighting throwing it off, but it's a very good-sized plant with deep-green, heart-shaped leaves.  This, readers may recall, is the one which has begun to colonize my yard and has an offspring currently doing pretty well in my flower bed.  Could it be that the famous Bible verse was actually meant to read "the violets shall inherit the Earth"?    Inquiring minds want to know!

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.

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?