I decided a few days ago that I just wasn't going to put in a winter garden. I still haven't cleaned out the big bed and the two smaller ones already have nut grass and johnson grass coming back up because all around them is one big weedy mess and what with my back issues and all and the heat and the rain it just seemed like too much and the handle of my shovel is now broken instead of just cracked. Well, my back is good but I don't have the energy or interest to tackle all the surrounding area or the big bed. However, I'm going on an outing with the garden club Thursday and one of the destinations is a nursery so who knows what I'll come home with.
I
have two confederate rose bushes, both volunteers, one of which I
transplanted to where it is and it is blooming beautifully.
The second one I tried to dig up and pot but waited too late so let it grow. It is just as covered in buds as the other but none are opening and they're all deformed.
The second one I tried to dig up and pot but waited too late so let it grow. It is just as covered in buds as the other but none are opening and they're all deformed.
This
is what they are supposed to look like...
I
have no idea or explanation for this but since it's not in a best
place anyway, I'm going to cut it down and dig up the root. We're
supposed to have four dry days in a row in the low 80s this week.
Perfect for yard work and mold making.
Saturday,
I finally filled the big drowned feather mold left over from last
year and it's in the kiln cooling down. It took me all day and three
or four trips over to the shop to fetch things I needed though it
didn't take that long to actually fill the mold. Still have the other
two wax models waiting for molds but I've sort of lost interest. I wasn't thrilled with the first one, didn't care for how the rocks
came out and too much sand. I don't think I ever posted a picture of it. I may cut off part of it. 10" x 10" x 1/2"
And
here's the finished wax model of the sunflower.
Now
that Rocky has finished all the remodeling that needed to be done I'm
casting my eye around these properties after a year of neglect. The
flood brought so many unwelcome seeds. There are wild grape vines
everywhere there wasn't and the dewberry brambles too and the horrid
cowpea. It's just overwhelming. Not using poisons was so easy in the
city on a small city lot. Out here I find myself contemplating it. Also
now that Rocky has finished painting the house I'm slowly getting the
screens back up on the windows, hosing down the screens and washing
the outside face of the windows first. I've done five! Seventeen to go.
Sunday
I didn't feel well, the cumulative effect of all the focus on the
latest Republican debacle. I'm swearing off social media for a while.
No more twitter, very limited FB scrolling quickly past anything
that even remotely smacks of politics or the cruelty of Trump and his following.
Like Steve Reed wrote “I've
got to find beauty and peace in what's going on around me”.
Wallowing in the outrage accomplishes nothing. The only power I have
is my vote.
I cannot listen any more, or participate. I just say "Vote". And, I am so thankful for everyone, young and old, with energy to hold a sign and picket. Except, did you see this morning, Susan Collins! Presumption of innocence, my aunt's fanny. I'll go weave another towel now.
ReplyDeleteno didn't see it but Susan Collins is a republican through and through. she makes like she is concerned about certain things but it's just for show. she always votes the way they tell her to.
DeleteNothing like a good hurricane to distract me from politics.
ReplyDeleteThat sunflower is going to be amazing. And I really love the feather and the sand and the rocks.
Don't you sort of wish you could rent some goats that you could contain in certain very weedy areas? I swear, that would be the perfect non-toxic solution to unwanted plants.
goats! believe me I've thought about it and around here it probably wouldn't be too hard to find some for rent. it's the limiting them to a certain area. maybe a long rope on a stake? anyway, the husband is not in favor. don't know why he cares.
DeleteFrom that angle the translucence would be nice in that sunflower. Need to get the last garden stuff in, frost maybe in a few daze.
ReplyDeletewinter comes so early to you!
DeleteLast week was dark, dark, dark. It really affected my outlook on everything. Yes, I've cut back my hours on all things political. Can't even whine about it at home since my partner is my polar opposite politically.
ReplyDeletedon't see how you can stay in the same house with him. mine and I are right together to the point that his republican family has accused me (but not to my face) of corrupting him to my liberal views. as if he doesn't have a mind of his own.
DeleteI am with you on gardening and politics. I am worn out from it all. The summer gardens have to be put to bed but it is hard to tackle all at once. The way I am going, it might be done while the snow is falling. I did put in one fall garden though, but that's it. I hope to be working the polls in November and pray that all will go well. I fear that the Dems may have made a very bad miscalculation recently.
ReplyDeletemaybe that's what they want us to think.
DeleteI've given up too dear. After last week and hearing that the recent uptick in voter registration is republican, well, I would say never give up, but it is a new age.... Here is a tip for your weeds; I gave one to my husband after we found acres of goat head burrs growing. There is a device (small or large, but I suggest the small one that uses a small (quart sized) propane canister) and you simply light the end of the pole and it burns all the weeds out. I can't remember the name of it, but seed catalogs have it and Amazon probably too. Still having comment problems, so this is Donna@Gather.
ReplyDeleteI'd put a Beto sign in my yard but I'm afraid it would cause my republican neighbors to go vote where maybe they won't otherwise. depends on how much attention they pay I guess.
DeleteI'll have to check out the weed burner thing.
DeleteIt is a mini flame thrower or torch. I'll ask my husband.
DeleteAh, yes, social media where people who do not know you call you names.
ReplyDeleteSure do like visiting here to see your garden and your art work. The photo of the feather and rocks and sand is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOh the drowned feather is spectacular. Gardening has been really difficult this year, but potted plants, that's another tale. I groomed, sprayed and repotted the ones that grew like crazy this summer on Saturday and they are all tucked in for cooler temps. This week is the balloon fiesta here and of course it has been no higher than 68 this week and cloudy, rainy days. So just in time for me.
ReplyDeleteAs to the state of the mess that is the US, sigh.....I need to find beauty and peace as well. So I'm not on FB as much and I scroll real fast. Hope your back improves, xoxo Oma Linda
I am so with you on the politics. My latest outrage is the fact that Rosenstein took a trip on Air Force One. And, now, he won't get fired. That must have been some conversation!!
ReplyDeleteI bought Craig Unger's book for Kindle. Husband has been reading it all week. Oh, the stories of how Putin and his understudy, and their ill-gotten wealth. I can't cope with reading it, but husband keeps telling me how scandalous it is. Just too upsetting. Who would've thought we would lose our "homeland" without physically leaving it?
Nice finding people who share my outlook.
saw a thing yesterday that America is not even in the top 20 democracies now. We've dropped to 21 by whatever standards they use.
DeleteI rather like that deformed bud. It does make me wonder what kind of person it takes to be able to live, saturated in the political and social toxins of this administration, and not get completely fed up, turned off and ill by it. Where do these people come from? Are they like cockroaches and will be here after the maximum nuclear bomb goes off and turns the Earth to a wasteland? I obviously need a break from this shit, too. I removed my FB app from my phone for a week and it was a relief. Can't wait to vote - at least we still can.
ReplyDeleteone finally opened on that bush, white and about half the size of the pink ones. it will turn pink as the day goes by. and yeah, I truly don't get it. hateful and cruel, finding joy in other people's misery.
Deleteyes, i needed to take a social media break, too. i am burying my head in the sand for a few days, recharging. i wonder what happened to that rose? i found myself studying it for a long time.
ReplyDeletethe few snippets that have caught my attention just either further horrify me or are completely bizarro world. it's not really a rose but a hibiscus in the mallow family. a master gardener suggested maybe thrips. I'm to dissect one of the buds and look for tiny bugs.
DeleteHow did I miss this post?! Thanks for quoting me, though I am definitely not the only person thinking like that these days! (As your other commenters attest!) I wonder what's up with the deformed roses? Very peculiar. It doesn't look like any identifiable disease that I know of.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I like the drowned feather!
Delete