Friday Morning

Eighty-eight days after the first seeds were planted, this first sunflower has turned its face toward the sun and begun to bloom. Over the course of those 88 days, I've also planted a variety of sunflower seeds in waves, and so I hope we'll have this kind of show all summer long.

The portulaca continues to bring a great variety of flower colors, like this hot red one, matching our early morning temperature in the mid-70s.

Along the fence in the back yard, our first two daylilies have started blooming today, as well. You can kind of feel the momentum of bloom now that we're in the first days of summer.


Until now, it lurked at the feet of the daylily above, but this morning, this purple foxglove revealed itself as it came into bloom. Here its stalk is still concealed by the long stem of the daylily towering above.

And out along the fence, the shasta daisies have fuzzy tops, as they begin to unfurl in the summer sunshine.




"I know a little garden close, set thick with lily and red rose, where I would wander if I might, from dewy morn to dewy night." - William Morris.

Summer's First Saturday

The scent of the honeysuckle drifting in the window last evening and scenting the driveway in the warm sun of morning is absolutely intoxicating. It makes me feel silly and nostalgic and fresh all at the same time. But t'would be an exercise in frustration to attempt further description, so let me just share another image of the flowers, glowing in the early morning sun.

There was little time to tarry in the garden this morning, with an afternoon's wedding and reception to prepare for at work. I went staggering out into the light with first coffee in hand to hook up the soaker hose and then let those first real waking moments find me as I let my eyes wandered around the garden.

The foxglove are hitting their stride. Indeed, a few of the lower flowers on the stem of this first one have already let go and twirled down to the floor of the garden.

The beans are showing nicely at the feet of the corn seedings in the Three Sisters Garden - I'll be sowing squash seeds there, too, in a few days. It looks like the first snapdragon will be a pink one. Several of the lilies are beginning to show buds. Recently deadheaded marigolds are rebounding quickly with a ratio close to two new blossoms for every faded one I snipped. Wee...

And once everyone had a reasonably good drink (and I'd managed a second cup of coffee), it was off to the showers to prepare for the day and all its details.

My congratulations and best wishes for long happiness go out to Carrie and Jon, who exchanged teary vows and then celebrated through the rest of this longest day of the year.


I've shown you several of these little red roses over the past couple of days, but haven't really mentioned them.

This is the rose plant I rescued from beneath the remains of a fallen tree, when I was playing in the orchard garden in Eastham. It had been growing there on the rustic trellace that looked a little like a DNA strand. Their fragrance matches that of those white roses, making the air just a little richer with flavor.

That trellace, I'm sorry to say, had reached the end of its useful life and didn't make the move with us. I must gather up some new branches to make a new one sometime soon. That's always a fun project, as you never quite know what shape it will take until you see what the branches themselves suggest.

One of the Supersweet 100 cherry tomato plants in the border has already flowered and is now showing its first tiny green tomatoes.

The earlier columbine flowers have all turned to seedpods now, though it will be a little while before they have dried enough to release the seeds. Meanwhile, a second flush of flowers (about half the size of the original blooms) has now begun a little lower on the flower stalks.

Yet another variety of dianthus has joined the vast chorus of its cousins now. I've had this red one for four or five years now...possibly a little longer, actually. I admit I've lost track. It was a container plant most recently in Eastham, but I was happy to put it back in the ground here...and apparently, it's happy, as well.

One of the long day's true highlights was getting word that two of my very favorite people, Sara and Danny, were in town from Manhattan for the briefest of stays this weekend and extending a dinner invitation.

After I'd gotten home from work, wandered the garden a little and had a nice walk around the block with Em, I got back into the car and went off to see them at the beach house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.


My timing could hardly have been better, too, since I arrived to find Danny in the outdoor shower, following an afternoon spent doing battle with the installation of a new storm door.

I think he thought I was kidding when I said I needed pictures for the internets...but you can't invite a photo blogger to dinner without some possible consequences, now, can you?

The ever-lovely Sara already had dinner prepa rations well under way and we got caught up on a variety of topics, including plans for the upcoming December nuptials in New York, while Dan finished up in the shower.

The wedding should be great fun, especially since it also turns out to the weekend of my birthday. Celebrating in the Big Apple sounds like a great plan to me. Fingers crossed that all my personal logistics fall into place for getting there.

Dinner was wonderful: Baked flounder, spicy sweet potato fries, grilled steak and corn, a few beers, excellent company, many laughs...and a perfect summer sunset for dessert!


After sunset, the bugs settled down and we hung out on the deck and wandered along the beach, the sand in our toes, as we chatted about all manner of things and generally enjoyed one another's company.

As the day drew to a close, we retired inside away from the no-see-ums and creeping fog for a showing of that classic feel-good movie, The Big Chill.

Bits of Monday

Well, I have teased you for far too long with long distance shots of the newly-blooming sweet William, so I thought I'd lead off with a good shot today. There were so many varieties at the old place, I wasn't sure beforehand which one I had selected to make the move. Now it's clear I choose the two-tone version. Some of the flowers are white with purple detailing, while the others are this hot magenta color.

And that rose bush around which I built the rest of the garden has now begun to bloom out front. Their scent is a nice deep rosey tone to match their color. What a bogus description, huh? Scents are so difficult to translate to words. I'll try a little harder as more of them blossom.

I'd like to offer my thanks to all of you who've been so kind to keep my Granny in your thoughts and prayers. While we are still sorting out the details of exactly what happened, it seems she is doing relatively well.

She's got a few broken bones, but all reports suggest she's of pretty sound mind after the ordeal, which is good, though of course she's a bit shaken up. Hopefully she'll recover from this nicely and have learned a lesson about not trying to play Frogger across a busy highway.

I haven't had the chance to speak to her yet--she was doing physical therapy the first time I rang, and the second and third times the line was busy, which in itself I take as a pretty good sign. I hear she got the message that I called and I'm sure we'll chat sometime tomorrow.

In the borders on the edges of the property, the white spirea has now faded, but has been replaced by those little white roses as the companion/ complimentary color to the red weigela, which continues to bloom nicely.

Here's one of those weeds that's sort of hard to hate: bindweed. It must be related to the morning glory, as they are similar in a number of ways. However, bindweed, as its name suggests, is rather more aggressive.

Visually, you can see the flower is sort of squared off into a pentagonal shape, instead of round at the edges like the morning glory, and the leaves aren't as curvy either, looking a bit more shovel/spade shaped than heart-shaped.

But still, there's much to love about the flowers. While I'm glad it's not actually in the garden beds, per se, I kind of enjoy that there is some around...and trust me, there's plenty.

In the garden beds, lots of little seedlings are appearing all over the place. I think these are Everlastings.

I'll need to thin them out a little once they've grown just a little more--apparently I was dropping seed two by two. With luck, I'll be able to transplant those removed to other locations.

And look, the verbena bonariensis has begun to put out its delightful tiny purple flowers, friend to butterflies everywhere.


There are several stalks of foxglove rising from this particular plant and the flowers are "inflating" nicely as the stalks rise. I just love those polka dot interiors.

Tonight there is a small tragedy to report, in the washing of the remainder of my packet of Pole Beans.



Hopefully, those recently planted will sprout well, as I'd have to buy a fresh pack if any need replacing.

You'd think after suffering this nearly every spring, I would learn to be more cautious about checking my pockets before doing laundry.

You'd be wrong, obviously.

At work, this red rose bush is the latest to join the glorious floral chorus that is June, and since there's the possibility of a thunderstorm coming our way shortly, that's what I'll leave you with for the evening.

Clouds Across the Moon

Last night we hosted a barbecue. Not a huge affair, nothing to trouble the neighbors with, just a chance to spend some time with some friends outside the workplace, celebrate the arrival of the warmer months and have some laughs.

There was good food, good drink, good company, good tunes, hammock swinging, bird poo and hot tubbing. Pretty much everything a proper party requires.


There was even a garden tour or two, with guest appear ances by the nibblers, who were in stealth mode with all the parked cars for cover.


My morning watering routine always includes emptying the cruddy water out of the bird bath, then rinsing and refilling it so it's always fresh for the birdies. So I always take the cap off, and so I was surprised this morning to discover this elaborate network of spiderwebs inside the flower pot-base of the birdbath, where none existed yesterday.

I thought the pattern was pretty cool, especially the way it turns invisible close to the edges and seems to just hang in midair like some anti-gravity science project. I wonder what sort of bugs you catch in a dark, dank space like that.

It turned cool last evening as the party was winding down. In fact, we even caught the scent of skunk drifting on the air. Fan of classic cartoons that I am, I'd love to be able to say that the distinctive scent drifted through the gathered guests and the cry of "Le Pew!" went up, causing a cloud-raising stampede for the cars. But really, the party was just about put to bed by the time the skunk seemed to pass by.

A nice surprise this weekend. You may recall that way back on April 1st, when I planted those first sunflower seeds, I also potted up a ginger root that my Granny sent me. After two long months, it has finally burst through the surface of the potting soil in this big pointy nub.

Before long, there'll be several stalks, each one about two feet high and as the summer goes on, there'll be purple flowers. I look forward to sharing them with you.

Always one to take a cue from the Universe, I poured myself another cup of coffee after the watering was through and called Granny in Florida for a nice phone visit. She sounded great and we had a terrific chat, mostly about gardens but also about life in general. She turned 89 a few weeks ago and this spring also decided to give up driving...which she hadn't been doing for all that long.

With the price of gas being what it is, she doesn't really miss the expense of driving, but definitely some of the convenience. I counseled caution when she talked about crossing four lanes of traffic to go grocery shopping. We've encouraged her to take cabs with the money she saves not having a car, but she's always been an independent thinker and does what she likes.


This afternoon at work, I heard a lot of bird activity outside and discovered this red tailed hawk perched up on the power pole. He was taking a break from deviling a few crows' nests in the area, causing the black birds to start mobbing this bigger bird when it resumed soaring through the air.

I was able to hear that distinctive cry a few times...what a sound! You can hear it here, if you like.

The rose bush which was here on the property before I built a garden around it is now covered with buds, many of them about to unfurl. I wonder if it will be scented.


Did you know that June 14th is commemorated as Flag Day here in the U.S.? It's the anniversary of the date that the Stars and Stripes was adopted as the flag of the country in 1777.

The holiday was established nationally by Woodrow Wilson in 1916, but made official by Harry Truman through an Act of Congress in 1949.

I'm sure you know that seamstress Betsy Ross designed the first version of the stars and bars in 1776, inspired by the misadventures of Bugs Bunny and a garden rake.

Our temperatures remained on the cool side today, in the sixties and clouds are drifting across the moon this evening. In fact, the forecast suggests that the week ahead may be a rainy one. It'll be a busy week at work, so this is not bad news to me.

However, some troubling news did come this evening, in a phone call from Mom.

After our conver sation this morning, Granny was heading over to the Publix, and while crossing the afore-mentioned four lanes of traffic, was hit by a car.

She's in the hospital this evening in Gainesville, and we're all feeling a bit helpless here in the north and awaiting word on how she's doing.

If prayers are in your kitbag, I ask you to share one for her good health and speedy recovery. If not prayers, then any good thoughts you can spare in her direction would be most welcomed and appreciated.

Although I'm worried as hell, I expect she will be just fine--after all, this morning she told me she was planning to beat her elder sister's lifespan of 90, making her the longest-lived on that side of the family.

Sun Day

Despite last night's cooldown, it was hot from the get-go this morning, as we hit 81 around 9:00 a.m. I got right out to the watering before that, to make sure all my green friends were prepared for the day ahead.

This patch of dianthus is one of those flowers where it's hard to capture the flower color correctly, depending on the light conditions. It's actually, to my eye, just a little more toward the orange than the pink side of the spectrum, as reds go...but I'm having a heck of a time getting it right. Ah, well...lovely just the same.

I was happily surprised to see that this cleome seedling has developed so quickly. I think it's benefitting from its location along the route of the soaker hose, not to mention the hot golden rays of the sun.

Here's a pair of seashell cosmos seedlings at the feet of a clump of veronica (left). I'll need to transplant them so they're a little further apart, since they both look like good healthy plants.

Now, in the fish pond, you may have noticed we have a potted iris. You'd probably just have noticed the sword-like leaves coming up out of the water, really, but you might have guessed iris.

Anyway...the thing hasn't bloomed for us for about five or six years, as it seemed to have gotten pot-bound...and also didn't have a good strong sun location to thrive in.

When it bloomed last, it looked something like this, so you might imagine how psyched I was to see a pair of buds on the plant last week.

I didn't mention it here, because I figured it'd be a great Purple Flower Surprise to spring on you (get it? 'spring on you'...heh) when the time came.

Except, that time came this morning, and as you can see, the result was something different than anticipated, though clearly, there was still a surprise.

I'm not entirely sure what happened here. Plants rarely just change their mind about what they're going to look like, after all. (Do they?) The results of my online searching have suggested that both are most likely Louisiana irises.

I wonder if maybe we got two different kinds of roots at the nursery and when I divided the overgrown plant a couple years back, I gave more room in the pot to a root which hadn't been blooming before. Which makes me wonder if we'll still see the blue/purple one.

Anyway, lovely, isn't it?

Here's a look what everyone else at our house was doing as I headed out for an afternoon at work.

No, it wasn't exactly my first choice for a location on a Sunday afternoon, but there were things to be done and also, air conditioning!

The clematis vines on the lamp post really are an eager bunch. I wouldn't want to try to untangle them at this point, that's for sure. And they are covered in flower buds, which should be fun to watch over the next week or so.

It being June and busting out all over and such, there are plenty of things to see getting ready to show off just about now, like this foxglove flower spire, which is climbing and beginning to reveal its flower buds. It looks like there'll be several other flower stalks rising from this same patch. Yay!

In another part of the border, the sweet William is showing its spikey little flower heads now. Have you noticed there don't seem to be many plants named after guys? I mean, there's this William guy, and of course, Narcissus...and maybe Stephanotus (am I spelling that right?) but who else? I'm not thinking of any others off the top of my head just now. The rest, I'm pretty sure, are all girls' names. Doesn't seem quite fair, does it?

In other news, look at this sunflower seedling. Remember when they were crowding my bedroom window, what seems like forever ago? This one is also very close to the underground route of the soaker hose, and clearly thriving for the regular moisture to its roots.


Not far away, it gives me great pleasure to point out that this carnation plant, which managed to avoid being nibbled by my long-eared friend, has some lovely flower buds bobbing on curling stems. The plant that did get nibbled, though, also seems to be giving it another go, since I also see some lower flower buds appearing there, too!

And here's another look at that new arrival, the verbena bonari ensis, and it's flower buds. I love these long, thin jagged leaves. And there really aren't enough plants with square stems.


Meanwhile, summer seems to have arrived on Not Wisteria Lane. You can tell because these siberian irises down the street are now suddenly blooming. But there are other signs, too.

Now that everyone's windows are open to catch the breeze, it's become clear that almost everyone on the street watches "Jeopardy", since you can hear the Ding tone that signals a correct answer in super-quadraphonic sound when you're out in the garden after 7:30 p.m.

Also, the hard-of-hearing lady two houses down and over, watched Airport '75 last night. I know because I was able to sit inside our own house and listen to all my favorite Karen Black and Helen Reddy scenes quite clearly. ; )

Oh, and the most important sign of the change of the seasons: the Ice Cream Man is COMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm always eager to have a new photo of me, but am rarely happy with my results.

Tonight I was playing around with the bug-repellent tiki torches as a light source, and I thought this didn't suck.

Hi everybody!!

I was still dripping a little from a brief visit to the hot tub, which, surprisingly, did help me cool off a little.

Great cloud formations at sunset this evening. This one caught my eye. It almost looked like there was (Great Hera!!)an Invisible Jet swooping down out of the sky.

Although I began this entry well before midnight, it's now 12:28 and the temperature is still 74 degrees, so the sea breezes seem to have abandoned us. It looks like there's a slight chance of a storm overnight, which could be kind of fun.

Meanwhile, I think I need another ice cream sandwich.