Turkeys in the 'Hood

Last night's storms (I'm told a second wave of them crashed through around 4:00 a.m., but I slept soundly through those) weren't of the variety that alleviate a summer heat wave.

These, in fact, seems to usher in a real tropical feeling to the day, as temps climbed quickly into the high 80s, with a 76% humidity level. In fact, today saw the formation of Tropical Storm Christobal off the southeast coast. Something to keep an eye on these next few days.

Wee...

It wasn't as misty as the above photograph suggests, though. That happened as I climbed into the car and unrolled the windows. As I did that I spotted the angle on the garden I liked, but the wave of heat rushing out of the car temporary fogged over my camera lens to, I think, great effect.

I didn't really mention anything much about the garden yesterday, as the nicotine thing took center stage for me.

Although I've been planning to leap from the back of this horse for a while, I only decided it was going to be Friday on Thursday night.

As it turned out, I didn't use any kind of nicotine-substitution support for the first day. I sort of wanted to use my anger at not wanting to suffer the addiction for another minute to launch me...which was sort of empowering, but also pretty tiring.

I did have one small nicotine patch left over from the last attempt a while back and I was happy to put that on this morning to get through the workday. I picked up a new supply of them tonight; there's no reason not to use something so helpful...but I'm kind of glad I just took sword in hand against the beast (the doodle really did help me to visualize it nicely; thanks, Claire!) to get things going.

Yesterday saw the harvesting of the first cherry tomato, which was... frankly ...not quite as sweet and tasty as I might've hoped. I wish I had made note of the variety I grew last year for comparison.

But I suppose one attaches an extra bit of hype to something when it's The First. It's also entirely possible my mouth was a little peeved it wasn't a cigarette.

The second tomato, which I had this morning, was lovely.


The first of the multi-colored bachelor's buttons bloomed today. Fittingly, it was a great purple hue. There's a few other shots of the morning I'll let speak for themselves.




It was hot as day turned to evening and I wandered out into the garden after a cool shower to catch a breeze and see what was going on. I almost didn't notice them at first. I think I saw them reflected behind me in the lens of my glasses, as I turned and looked up, knowing it was a flock of birds, but not seeing them in the air.

And then I brought my eyes down level with the street and there they were, the Turkeys of Not Wisteria Lane whom I'd heard of from some of the neighbors.

There was a momma turkey and six children. They were each too big to be called babies anymore, but they were still a family group of awkward youngins, taking direction and guidance from their mom.

She quickly herded them across the street as I tried to snap a few photos of them. But I didn't capture the whole family all at once until I followed them down the street, where they regrouped in our next door neighbors yard, before vanishing into the hedge in their back yard and the neighborhood beyond.




Now that I've seen them, I'll be paying more attention for the sound of them, which others had reported hearing recently.

With all this in mind, I suppose "Turkey in the Straw" is not a particularly inappropriate tune for the ice cream truck to be playing (though I'm sorry to say she didn't turn up this hot evening, but I'd feel a little silly giving her a ring just for a pair of Strawberry Shortcake bars, right...?).

By the way, thanks to Butch for sending along the original lyrics to the tune, which I'm not sure I'd heard before...or at least not recently.

The version that most often sticks in my head, though not well enough yet to perform myself, is this:





Another one of these tropical looking snapdragons has come into beautiful bloom along the fence. Look at the way that curly grass is beginning to do it's thing!

My sincere thanks to all of you who've offered your words of support and encouragement as regards the Not Smoking Thing. It's true that this is the kind of thing that you have to do on your own terms, but it sure feels a shade easier when you hear a cheer go up from the sidelines.

I love you all!

The moon is just past full but still rich with the color of the day's heat as it rises this evening.

It's kind of the same color as the coneflower rudbeckias on the fence, isn't it?