another garden report

Too wet to do anything outside on Friday, and then it rained again that evening, though I did spread some fertilizer around in various pots and under the tomatoes and around the green beans, poked 10 more green bean seeds into the ground, and dug up some of the byzantium gladiolus and took them down to my neighbor. He sent me back with two handfuls of green beans, three carrots, and a zucchini from his garden.

Here's a picture of my little spring food garden. Four tomato plants across the back, a row of green beans, and one little bell pepper plant that I acquired Thursday. In front of all that in the empty space is where I poked the new beans into the ground.

My potatoes are in a tub farther away and one of them is already making flower buds and not even either of the two biggest plants. Too soon for that. I still have about 6 or 7 inches of dirt to add.

I have another big tub which I plan to put velvet okra in since the same neighbor is going to give me a couple of his small plants.

The three spots where I put the cone flower ginger roots that Ms Moon sent me did finally sprout and so did the purple orchid tree. However, none of my big red or pink amaryllis have bloomed though plenty of foliage, none of the bearded iris I got last spring at the garden club plant sale have bloomed, and none of the red crinum lilies have bloomed but it may still be too early for them.

The daylilies are sending up lots of bloom scapes though with a few flowers already opening.

This little trailing petunia that I planted at least three years ago is covered with flowers.

More little tomatoes.

The german verbena.

I did have one multi-petaled frilly poppy volunteer.

One blue love-in-a-mist.

An anole with an intact tail, a rarity in the yard this spring with Cat around.

The first easter lily opened. I'm not getting many flowers this year because of the arctic freeze, same as last year and the year before when I didn't get any.

This flower on the pink angel trumpet opened white! It did turn pink later in the day.

Today is cool and clear with low humidity but very windy. Mostly I'm just moving bricks around, either moving the scattered piles around the yard into the barn or lining them up along the sandstone slabs I laid down along the west side of the house. I have plans to start up the gas trimmer after lunch and tackle the yard since the riding mower is currently non-functional. I have a little electric push mower but stuff is too high for it right now.

Oh, and btw, tomorrow is my birthday. 73. I could barely comprehend being 50 when I was in high school.

birds and rain and more weird food

I saw a rose breasted grosbeak! It was sitting facing me in the photinia on the other side of the little backyard across from my window when I happened to look up. It was so striking with that white breast and the brilliant red collar with a black head and wings though I couldn't really see the body, facing me as it was. But I'm sure that's what it was being the right size and after doing a google picture search, it is the only bird that fits what I saw. I looked it up and sure enough, they migrate through here in April. I was hoping it would come to the bird feeder so I could get a better look but it didn't, just flew off. So that was my excitement for Wednesday morning.

image via https://www.animalspot.net/

I finally got mulch spread under the tomatoes Wednesday afternoon. Took me about 30 or 40 minutes. Wasn't particularly hot, upper 70s, partly cloudy sky so the the sun wasn't beating down relentlessly but it was so humid that by the time I finished sweat was dripping off my face. You'd have thought I had been standing out in the rain.

Wednesday night had a different excitement. A big storm with lightning and thunder, a couple of which flash and boom happened almost simultaneously, and bouts of hard rain came through about 3 AM and lasted til 7 AM just when I had to get up to have my coffee and breakfast and get to SHARE. Consequently I did not get any sleep between those hours because the neurotic little dog was in constant motion trembling and panting. This side, that side, on the bed, off the bed, up by my head, down by my feet, under the covers, not under the covers and mostly trying to lay on my pillow above my head which pulled my hair, panting in my face. I was not a happy camper. Tremble and pant, just be fucking STILL. Threw her off the bed several times, tossed her out of the room and closed the door for less than 3 minutes while she scratched at the other side in a panic. I'm sorry to say I yelled at her a lot. Poor little dog. I know she can't help it. Why do these storms always come through at night!

When I went out to check the rain gauge this morning which showed we had gotten 2 inches, I heard a strange chirping/whistling, looked up in the pecan tree and there were four whistling ducks.

Spent my morning at SHARE, very slow today, only 14 or so clients for food so a lot of standing around. One of the other volunteers bags up instant oatmeal packets and granola/snack bars three to a bag and she brought them around to me as that's one of the things I deal with. So here's another item from the Department of Ridiculous Food.

What, pray tell, is 'seasonal flavor'?

And because I just really like this view of the queen anne's lace with the clasping leaved coneflowers and the big old native pecan tree, here's another picture of it.

 

dragging the bastards out into the light

I guess all that physical activity of the past several weeks out in the yard have finally caught up with me. I'm sleeping late, never really feel energetic during the day, sleepy and ready for a nap in the afternoons, something I very rarely do. Walking the dog is my big effort for the day. I'm not just physically unmotivated but mentally as well. It's a good thing I've got just about everything done out there what with the rainy or overcast days and ennui. Still have some fertilizing and mulch spreading to do.

Since I have nothing witty or even mildly interesting to share, here's the list of some of the current republican attempts to subvert our constitution, our democracy, our rights, our protections, our public schools intent on controlling what we can read, learn, what medical care we can access, in their goal to turn this country into a far right authoritarian white male dominated christian theocracy that I've been compiling as I come across the stories...

The Republican senate in North Dakota voted down a bill to provide free school lunches to low income children and then turned around and passed a bill that increased their own lunch meal reimbursement to $45 per meal with one legislator remarking that hunger wasn't the state's problem. Apparently funding his extravagant lunches is.

A Texas far right republican anti-abortion judge appointed by Trump has revoked the FDA's approval of the widely used abortion medication mifepristone that has been used safely for two decades making it illegal to prescribe and provide giving the government one week to respond. The same day a federal judge in Spokane ruled protecting the availability of mifepristone so this will be headed to the Supreme Court. Fortunately continuing lawsuits have made the drug still available for now but with some restrictions.

It has been revealed that Republican Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginnie Thomas, who helped underwrite and support the attack on the Capitol, has been accepting expensive vacations and gifts from GOP billionaire Harlan Crow for decades without reporting it. His lame excuse is that 'they' told him he didn't have to. Meanwhile, Thomas has ruled in favor of every case before the Court related to Harlan Crow.

And now it has come to light that the head of a law firm purchased a home/property that had been on the market for 2 years from Justice Gorsuch shortly after Gorsuch was appointed to the SC and has had 22 cases before the Court from which Gorsuch did not recuse himself. Are there any republican justices that aren't ethically compromised?

Texas republican governor Greg Abbott intends to pardon a man just convicted of premeditated murder when he killed a BLM protester during a demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice, a man that a jury of his peers heard all the evidence, watched the video, and rejected his plea of self defense based on the 'stand your ground' law in Texas and convicted him. Apparently Abbott thinks that his conviction was an unfair use of our judicial system.

Conservative Llano county in Texas is considering shutting down it's libraries after a federal judge ordered it to return banned books to the library shelves. Meanwhile, the republican dominated Texas Senate voted to defund libraries that host drag queen story hour.

After screaming about drag queens being groomers of young children for months, once again it's a republican that gets caught. 2022 Republican candidate Joel M. Koskan of South Dakota has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of felony incest for raping a 13 year old family member.

Missouri House republicans have voted to defund the state's public libraries due to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU after Senate Bill 775 passed that resulted in over 300 books getting banned from school libraries, many of which include LGBTQ characters or racial justice themes.

The Texas House has voted to have the 10 commandments posted in every classroom and next on the agenda is replacing school counselors with 'chaplains'. I fail to see how a chaplain can advise a student on educational directions to support that student's interests and guide them into a profession or trade. That's what the counselors were for when I was in school, not psychological and/or emotional counseling. Even if that was their purpose, and it may be in this age of school mass murders, I'd much rather students have access to a professional therapist than someone whose purpose is to promote their religion and faith.

In the continuing corruption in the Texas legislature, the Texas House passed a bill to put armed officers in every school (as if having armed guards present has ever deterred or prevented a mass shooting at a school). Republican representative Tenderholt, who happens to be a senior partner at a private security company, inserted an amendment to allow contracts with private security companies.

Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, after two years of bitching and moaning about Biden's 'open border' and the millions of illegals flooding the country (neither of which is true) has now demanded a reduction in funding for Border Patrol as a prerequisite for raising the debt ceiling. He also wants to cut funding for veterans, the people he claims to respect and support.

Republicans in several states including Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Georgia, and South Dakota have either passed laws or are introducing bills to weaken child labor laws allowing children as young as 14 to work to ease labor shortages in industries like meat packing though research shows those industries could attract adult workers if they raised pay and benefits. Instead they want to fill those positions with children and then pay them less than minimum wage.

Montana republicans refused to let state representative Zooey Zephyr, who happens to be transgender, speak on the House Floor for the third day in a row and then had the police arrest seven civil rights protesters who were demanding that she be allowed to represent her constituents.

...and your reminder not to get complacent and VOTE these fuckers out.

 

rain, gardening, and other miscellanea

We got a little over an inch of rain Thursday night which we needed so I didn't have to water. Of course the little dog was all freaky during the storm preventing me from sleeping and I finally just turned on the light and read until the storm passed and she settled down. Too wet to work outside Friday which was just as well because I was tired from no sleep and weeks of physical activity.

I spent yesterday morning catching up on blogs. I can either read, write, or hurry outside to take advantage of this still beautiful weather. After breakfast we went to the Saturday Farmer's Market which is mostly anything but produce this early in the growing season. Squash and banana peppers were the only thing I saw. Lots of baked goods, our local potter was set up and some other crafts I didn't pay much attention to. I went for honey from a local beekeeper and microgreens from one of the women in the Mennonite community here. And then I hurried out to the yard.

I got the last of the weeding done under the big pink rose bush in the west flower bed. I had to prune some of the bottom branches off so I could get under there and dig up the ground cover and dewberry vines that had taken up residence. Then after a late lunch I separated and replanted a big clump of surprise lilies that I dug up when I weeded the little garden by the fence. It surprised me (ha ha, see what I did there?) because I only get one or two flowers if that every fall and it turned out to be 22 bulbs tightly packed together. I moved them to three different spots where I hope they will bloom better. Then I cut off the lowest leaves on all four tomato plants with the intention of putting mulch underneath today but it's currently dark and lightly rainy out. Not supposed to last all day so maybe this afternoon I can do that.

And speaking of tomatoes...

My second scattering of zinnia seeds that I threw out where I usually have poppies this time of year are starting to sprout but I'm only seeing a very few of what I think are marigolds from those seeds and nothing yet from the nasturtiums.

Other miscellanea...

The pink angel trumpet is blooming. Yesterday it had 13 open flowers, this morning 15 in various stages of just open and declining.

From the Ridiculous Food Department: strawberry, cherry, and raspberry flavored cranberries. I don't get it. Just eat strawberries, cherries, and raspberries if that's the flavor you want.

I finally accumulated enough screws of the right length (what? go buy them?) and mounted the rest of my glass doorknob collection on the railing of the deck (the row on the left).

Found this little bird nest in the middle of the hanging basket of petunias that Autumn wanted replanted in the ground in front of the little hedgehog grave. It was so well hidden I didn't see it until after I had already pulled out half the petunias and didn't see the three little eggs spilled on the ground until I had planted all the petunias. So I put the eggs back in the nest, filled the hanging basket with leaves and nestled the nest in there and hung it back on the shepherd's crook it had been hanging on. I doubt the mother bird will return though as it's no longer well hidden. Best guess is cardinal eggs. Too big for wren eggs.

The love-in-a-mist are finally blooming

and the day lilies are starting up.

Well, the rain which was only supposed to last for an hour is showing no signs of retreating, still dark and windy and sprinkley drizzley hours later. Time for me to retreat to the couch and book.

 

digging and planting and weeding and being outside during this glorious week

The weather this last week has been glorious including today...in the 50s in the morning warming to the 70s, low humidity so of course I've spent as much of it as I could outside. In no particular order I got my green beans in the ground, moved the five plumerias to their summer spots sinking two pots in the ground and planting another straight into the ground after I broke its pot last fall moving it into the garage, sprouted heavenly blue morning glory seeds to plant over at the shop, did a lot of weeding in the flower beds, added dirt to my potato plants (I'll eventually fill the big pot all the way to the top as they grow), sowed marigold and nasturtium seeds, planted moss rose, a trailing petunia, and two pentas either in pots or the ground, spread fertilizer in pots and the ground, used the trimmer to tidy up around all the flower beds and around the bluebonnets in front that are going to seed, moved the small clump of elephant garlic allium, moved some of the yellow and white butterfly ginger to the front along side of the deck, planted the firespike I rooted over the winter in the front, moved a small volunteer beautyberry, dug up the dewberry vines that had invaded the west flower bed, tossed out more zinnia seeds, planted the morning glory bush cuttings I rooted, used the chainsaw to cut out and cut up some dead branches in the photinia in the little backyard. And that's probably not even everything.

Some pics of what's blooming...

rain lilies

third round of blooms on the walking iris

clasping leaved coneflowers

queen anne's lace

byzantium gladiolas

I have a new plan for the old turtle pond. I have two smaller ponds that I grow water plants in, some of which I grew to feed Big Mama, and they are all going in the big pond now and I'll get rid of the two small ones; one round and one kidney shaped. I already had lizard tail in there because she wouldn't eat that and the other two are parrot feather and sword leaf which she did eat. The small round tub with the miniature water lily I'll keep.

Last Tuesday was the last cardio drumming class and I'm going to miss it but at least it will make it easier to get dinner done and I won't have to get all my prep done before I go to class.

The T-rex that guards the entrance to our neighborhood has acquired some new companions, a pair of velociraptors.

I went to the annual training meeting at SHARE this morning which basically consists of treating the people who come for help with dignity (for the interviewers) and not giving them out of date food or any package that has been damaged (for those of us who fill the food requests) which means checking the sell by date on everything that is donated. Sometimes people just clean out their pantries. We've gotten stuff that is years out of date, not often but it does happen. After the meeting there was a potluck lunch that I did not stay for...you're not staying? No not this time, I have things I need to do today. What I didn't tell them was that the 'things' were outside on this glorious day, way too nice to be spending it indoors and I got the last major weeding done in a flower bed by the fence that was neglected last year. I still have a couple of small areas but I need to use the trowel to get around the things I don't want to dig up.

this area was filled with weeds and stuff I did not want

aging, grackles, and fire ants

 

The pecan trees are blooming. I've told all three of my trees to stop fooling around and I expect some pecans this year.

We had a small burial Saturday evening. Grandgirl Autumn's hedgehog Penelope, Autumn's companion for the last three or four years, reached the end of her life span and died last week. Autumn asked if she could bury her here and so we did, next to where my Emma kitty is buried.

I had my hair pulled back in a ponytail because it has gotten so long it's always in my face and I hate having hair in my face obscuring my vision and getting in the way and just being a general nuisance when Autumn remarked on how white it was at my temple. When did that happen, she asked. It's been happening for a while, just not very noticeable with my hair down. At nearly 73, my hair is still predominantly brown but the gray has been steadily creeping in, especially this last year. I may be in for a shock myself when I get my summer cut.

This morning I've got the back door open listening to the birds chirp and twitter and the woodpecker out there who has found a nice sounding board as he tries to attract a mate. The wind chimes are singing in the slight breeze. I can see the bird bath from where I sit and right now there's a male cardinal getting a drink. Cat is crouched under the yellow ginger thinking she's going to get a squirrel if one comes for the peanuts I threw out.

And what is up with the grackles this year? Usually they swoop in in a big flock, forage for a couple of days, and then swoop off to annoy another neighborhood two or three times a year. Not so this year. There are two or three scouts that are plaguing me and my sister over our bird feeders. I'm having to chase them off constantly as they are big and loud and greedy and bully the other birds and eat all the seed and if I don't chase them off, next thing you know they've sent out the word and there's a dozen or more. I am not feeding grackles.

Sunday I spent the day killing fire ants. I forget how many times I filled the 5 gallon bucket, at least four, maybe five, probably five. I treated 22 fire ant mounds, an unusually high number, from a few small start ups to mostly humongous incubators and still missed at least three. After breakfast I mixed up two more 5 gallon buckets going back over the mounds at the edges of my flower beds and retreating the survivors trying to salvage eggs and regroup. Didn't get the mounds I missed because I used all the orange oil before I got to them. The stuff is expensive, about $30 for a quart, but it usually goes a little further than this year. I've probably got about 50 fire ant bites on my feet for my trouble.

As generally happens, I wrote the above yesterday and then ran out of time to post before it was time to walk the dog and go to yoga. I led the class last night and probably will Wednesday because Abby texted me a picture of the shingles she broke out with in and around her black eye that her son accidentally gave her with his elbow last week.

Some pics around the yard...

Isn't this the prettiest little viola?

The byzantium gladiolas are starting to bloom

as are the clasping leaved coneflowers.

A volunteer squash in the compost pile which I think is probably an acorn squash.

rain, religion, and Nope

Next Tuesday is the last cardio drumming class and Kayla will be heading back to her university to complete her study program. It's been a lot of fun and I'll miss the weekly class. I suppose the other women in the class will also, maybe especially two women who generally sit behind their ball and bucket drumming instead of standing and doing the footwork...the marching, the knee lifts, etc...as well as the arm movements and apparently I've been providing them with some side entertainment having fun watching me from behind. They aren't being mean or snarky just getting a kick out of watching me as I sort of dance a little in place, having fun getting into the music while I follow along with the drumming patterns. I guess I'm that kid in line at the ballet recital doing my own thing while the other little girls do the plies.

We finally got some good rain with the latest cold front dropping us down in the 50s again, about 4” total over three days. No rain predicted today though it's still overcast but it is starting to warm up. I finally ordered some orange oil on line which I need for my fire ant eradication program, dish soap and orange oil kills the shit out of them, better than the poison pellets I tried, and it arrived Thursday. Just in time since the rain has driven all the ants to the surface and huge mounds have appeared at the edges of my flower beds and in the yard. Too wet out there today to do anything about it but tomorrow they're all in for a big surprise. Now if I could just get rid of the grackles that have found my bird feeder just as easily.

Yesterday was Good Friday which is just another day to me having shrugged off christianity in my early 20s, and really have eschewed all religion since. As far as I'm concerned that whole Jesus died for my sins so I'm saved no matter what I do so I might as well be my worst self because, hey, I'm saved is nothing more than a 'get out of jail free' card. What the actual fuck? Be bad and suffer no consequences, except for that whole hell and tossed in the lake of fire thing which my evangelical cousin has reminded me will happen if I don't see the light. As for the suffering he was required to endure, if any of it is real which I doubt considering the religion was invented in Rome in the 4^th century, incorporating ancient myths (virgin birth and the dead and risen god is one of the most ancient god myths) and picking and choosing from wandering prophets eliminating all women's voices, was it worse than being hanged til you're almost dead, disemboweled, then being drawn and quartered or some poor soul captured by a sadistic bastard and tortured for days on end or having your body parts blown off by an IED? Humans are great at cruelty so if we are made in the image of god then that god is cruel (and don't get me started on having faith in god's plan). But hey, if it all gives you some kind of peace, then by all means go ahead on. I imagine my own personal understanding of the nature of life and the universe sounds just as wacky; just please, don't try to force others to adhere to your beliefs by legislating them.

We watched two more episodes of season 3 of The Mandalorian yesterday and I'm sorry to say, this season is not nearly as good as the two previous. Episode 6, the most recent one out, with Jack Black and Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd, was just plain ridiculous. We did watch an obscure (to me) 'neo-western sci-fi horror' film, Nope a while back. Kind of a kooky little film about a brother and sister trying to make a go of their father's horse ranch out in the wilds of California, a cloud that is not a cloud, and their suspicion and attempt to get the 'money shot' of the aliens they are convinced are there.

Being basically housebound for the last three days I have no current pictures except one I just took of my potatoes growing.

no shows and no decency

Front flower bed with Cat, can you see her in there?

I just noticed that half my coral butterfly ginger did not come back. There's a big space where they should be. The cone flower ginger that Mary Moon sent me two years ago has also not come back. The bougainvillea has not sent up any new growth yet but I still have hopes for it but the gardenia is covered in new growth after I pruned it back hard. More than half of my poor struggling camellia that has been plagued with white fly died and the new growth is sparse. The main branch of the white orchid tree in a pot that I did not bring in but put in a protected corner and covered it more or less died but has new growth on the lower small branches and I already mentioned the althea that died. The old fashioned yesterday-today-and-tomorrow has finally sent up some new growth from its roots. Next winter I'll have to remember to cover it. And I've already mentioned that I'm not getting any larkspur or poppies either. On the wild side, I'm finally getting some dandelions in the yard but the lots on either side of me are covered in blooms. I've mentioned no woodland violets either when last year they bloomed profusely but also no chickweed, which is kind of astounding really, and no henbit.

One more picture of the 12 acre field behind me covered in indian paintbrush. As good as the iPhone 13 camera is, it just cannot capture the true depth of field (or it could be the photographer). The flowers look like a narrow strip when in fact they cover a good 8 or 9 acres (hard to judge) solid with color.

We are finally getting some rain! A gentle to medium rain started falling straight down yesterday that cooled things down considerably (of course it did, I put all my long sleeve shirts away the day before) and it continued off and on the rest of the day and has continued today and supposed to tomorrow. Can't do any work outside so I'm working on clearing my big work table that has accumulated way too much stuff. Or being lazy. I'm doing a lot of that too.

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As I'm sure everyone is aware, Trump was finally indicted last Thursday and as Jeff Tiedrich so succinctly put it, “the entire wingnut outrage-industrial complex is melting straight the fuck down“. Trump turned himself in on Tuesday and was arrested in NYC and arraigned on 34 felony counts connected to the hush money paid porn star Stormy Daniels to which he pled not guilty at his arraignment. No mugshot was taken and no bail required to be released for white collar crimes (and gosh golly darn, no massive protest from the cult materialized), he returned to Florida later in the day. Before his release, the judge admonished him against any speech that might provoke violence against the people involved but that didn't stop Don Jr. from posting a picture of the DA's daughter and Trump later referred to the judge and his wife as Trump haters and has called for defunding the DOJ and the FBI. Also in state politics the far right election denier and vote suppressor republican candidate Dan Kelly was defeated for the Wisconsin supreme court by democrat Janet Protasiewicz, who promised to stand up for abortion rights and fair voting districts, giving democrats the majority on the court. The loser was, of course, angry and bitter in his concession speech saying “I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent, but I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede” calling her beneath contempt and a serial liar. Are there any republicans running for office that aren't complete assholes?

There is so much more underhandedness going on by republicans like expelling the three democrat lawmakers in the Tennessee legislature that backed the gun control protests after the most recent mass shooting there, a bill in Texas that will require the 10 commandments be posted in every classroom (which is about as ironic as it gets considering the complete lack of moral character in today's GOP) and replacing school counselors with pastors which is blatantly unconstitutional, passing a law in Kansas that requires genital inspection of kids who want to play sports as part of their trans ban, and their attempts to curtail college student voting after having finally snapped to the fact that GenZ is woke, organized, and voting but I can only deal with so much at a time. The more elections republicans lose, the more extreme they get in their attempt to impose 'christian nationalism' ie their particular brand of fascism on the nation at large and fuck the constitution.

Edit: Tennessee republicans voted to expel the two black legislators but did not expel the white one.

more yard work, more flowers

Saturday I filled the 5^th, 6^th? bucket of walking onion stuff. I did other stuff but sitting here right now I'm not sure what. Oh, had to repot an althea, the same color as the one on the back corner of the shop that finally died, poor thing. It has been declining since the first arctic blast winter 3 years ago and this last, third one, did it in. It was old with a thick gnarly trunk so perhaps it had just lived out it's life span. Anyway, this volunteer, I have had in a pot since I knew the old one's days were numbered and fire ants had completely invaded its pot. I had to flush it out first trying to get the eggs out until I realized the entire thing was an incubator so I had to completely bare root it and even then give it some good shakes to dislodge the final ants. Apologized profusely, repotted it and so far it doesn't seem too traumatized. I, on the other hand, suffered many fire ant bites on my hands and feet.

Yesterday, Sunday, I kinda overdid it it. Walking onions dealt with so I could deal with the hay grass from the field which invaded after the flood of Harvey which had sprouted its green seed stalks. Now or never so I got out the weed eater and targeted the grass/seed stalks, tried to not cut down as many evening primrose as possible but some were sacrificed. So of course I ran out of cord and had to prevail upon a neighbor for some so I didn't have to make a green splattered run into the Evil Empire on a Sunday, Palm Sunday at that. I only know that because people talk about it, me having eschewed all religion long ago.

Anyway, we don't like to leave gas in the trimmer so when I use it I have to use it until it runs out of gas. Only I ran out of cord first and then I refilled the tank some because I still had an area to do and I should have just quit when it ran out of gas the first time. Hot and a little light headed, nothing a shower and water and sitting on the deck couldn't take care of. Before I did that though, I watered the flower bed on the east side and weeded about 75% of it. The german verbena is blooming 

but no larkspur this year (or poppies returning in the flower bed at the back either) but the love-in-a-mist is growing. It's all so screwy. I didn't get any woodland violet flowers in my yard this year though plants a plenty and no dandelions except the ones that want to grow in my flower beds though both bloomed in other yards.

Besides that stuff over the past three days I caged the tomatoes, watered the flower bed on the west side, potted some sprouted morning glory seeds I'm going to plant over at the studio, cut back more virginia creeper from in the dewberry briars which I should have done before their spring growth.

One morning early last week when I went out to open the garage and let Minnie and Cat out there were two fledged wrens in there. Just as Cat ran out I snatched her up and put her back in the house where she was housebound for the next three days which she didn't seem to mind. The wrens made a nest a decade or so ago on top of the motor housing for the other garage door that doesn't work anymore. Sometimes they beef it up and reuse it and sometimes not. Usually I know when they're using it because I see them in the garage a lot but not this year so it surprised me.

Now, blooming things... 

I know I keep showing you pictures of the evening primrose but they have just been outstanding this year.

my pink angel trumpet is starting to bloom

green beans sprouted!

I don't think I've ever seen a magnolia tree as full of flowers and buds as this one is this year

the walking iris put on another round of blooms

maroon japanese iris

amaryllis my neighbor shared with me that came from his grandmother's garden

penstemon