Musings

I love the laciness of Queen Anne’s lace. Perfect name.

I loved spending a half-hour this afternoon floating and bobbing in the lake. It’s warm. Shallow lakes do that….

I really love that our good friends from NE (as in, New England) arrived today. Soooo great to see them.

Our travelers opted to short-cut through Canada instead of looping down around Lake Erie, and with whatever (bombing? Ebola? Friday-ness? Latin American immigration problems?) they waited one hour to do the border thing and cross into Canada, and TWO hours of waiting in line to cross back into the USofA. And all of a minute for them face-to-face with the customs/immigration folks in both cases (if I have it right). Sheesh.

Posted at 8:48 PM | Comments Off on Complexity: floral, bureaucratic

The apples blossomed late this spring, and we thought the blossom density was moderate at best. I see, though, that the trees are loaded with fruit—still very tart-fleshed.

I guess this means the doe/fawns we saw yesterday (and others of their species) probably will have tasty nibbles before the snow gets deep.

Posted at 4:39 PM | Comments Off on Orchard update

I pretty sure these are black raspberries, and not blackberries. Ripening next to the peonies.

I clipped the grass around them by hand when we last were here, not knowing if they would bear fruit (or whether we’d be around to know…). It’s all back. Time for more grass-removal.

Posted at 5:57 PM | Comments Off on Plants’ world

I think of this as a harebell, but I have scrutinized the flower ID book, and it may be the gone-wild cousin, the common garden bellflower, with lanceolate leaves.

This and that chores this morning—like whacking back the grass and weeds around the “garden-let.” Probably more on that another day.

Mid-afternoon, we began hearing thunder. Over quite some time the sky went from bright to quiet raindrops, and then overcast.

It was drippy-droppy rain, the kind the Botanist would have said was a “light, soaking rain.” It lasted the best part of an hour, and cooled things off.

After another hour or so, the sun is back out, the temps have risen, and only a few droplets remain here and there. Well, plus the garden soil is damp (aka sticky)…meaning tomorrow would be a good day for a bout of weeding and plant-submission activities.

Posted at 5:51 PM | Comments Off on Wait five minutes

Of all things, it looks like caladiums are native to northern South America and up into Central America…. Backlit here…’cause that’s how we roll….

Porch time, ya-know—that’s how we mark time…. Good times on the porch, lots of laughs and some real learning amongst the stories and bestest of the bestests.

Posted at 9:56 PM | Comments Off on Rose-colored…leaves (somewhat)

The Guru and I put on our gardening gear (meaning gloves for me, mostly) and wrangled bags of mulch onto the flowerbed weed-bed, after weeding of course. The front garden now looks MUCH better…and the quince is doing just great!

Meanwhile, in the back garden, the azalea is beginning to bloom again….

Posted at 2:39 PM | 2 Comments »

I know this plant as the surprise lily, and this one really was a surprise—never noticed one in that part of the yard (garden) before—or out there at all!

Posted at 10:03 PM | Comments Off on Punked?

Pretty sure this is a Chamaecyparis; know the moisture is from a sprinkler system.

“Met” a stranger today via an online communication. Turns out that we know people in common, and, if that’s not enough, he grew up in the same metro area as the Guru.

Posted at 7:14 PM | Comments Off on Small world

Worried that this dogwood might fall, a neighbor put a sign on it warning “parkers” to beware. He had the city arborist take a look, thinking the (very slowly increasing) lean was dangerous. But, no, we heard, the arborist thought the tree was static.

I don’t know how the bureaucratic issues went from there, but yesterday tree-people showed up and took it away.

There’s very little sawdust, as the interior, at least a foot across, was empty. A void. I looked at the narrow remaining encircling collar, perhaps at most two inches thick, and couldn’t decide if the (surviving) rings were compressed, simply narrow, or exactly what.

Posted at 7:42 PM | Comments Off on Still a stump?

Photo is of oregano (in front garden), although nice-spice for dinner was coriander seed. Didn’t even use oregano in the salad.

Why do I use coriander when it’s seed and cilantro when it’s a leaf? Same plant….

Posted at 10:03 PM | 2 Comments »