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In the borders on the edges of the property, the white spirea has now faded, but has been replaced by those little white roses as the companion/ complimentary color to the red weigela, which continues to bloom nicely.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

It's Gettin' Hot In Here

The Midsummer Revels

A hot morning in our June garden, but there's lots to see, so sit back and be ready for a long post. Today, I'll kick things off with a more fantastic shot of the moss roses.


The first lychnis flowers are coming into bloom this week. I wonder if there's a more common name for this plant I'm not familiar with.

The official name I've found is the Latin, which is lychnis coranaria...and in search of a warmer, friendlier name, I found it also referred to as Purpurklatt(Oh, great...German...).

I'm totally entranced by these red roses on the trellace, so you know I'm going to make you look at another one today.

Here's an orange calendula blossom, getting a little shaggy looking as it nears the end of its life.

But never fear, not far away is a straw-colored variation just coming on. And these guys really do bloom like crazy over the summer, as long as you dead-head regularly.

The red snapdragons are currently ruling the central garden bed.

Here's one nestled amongst the stalks of some drumstick allium, whose flower heads are growing larger each day and beginning to split out of their onion-skin pods.

The last of the peony bushes came on this morning, with only a single blossom this year. Of course, with all the others, its sort of an embarrassment of riches!


The numerous stalks of milkweed are sporting their big flower balls now. Their colors are a bit muted, but they're pretty popular with pollinators. Actually, though, I'm a little concerned on that subject.

I've been hearing a lot about the American Honeybee and Colony Collapse Syndrome, and have been keeping my eyes especially peeled for some these guys. And so far, I'm not seeing them. I hope they'll appear with the blooming of the Oregano That Ate Eastham, as they've swarmed that in years past.

Down at the far southern end of the back garden's field is a rosebush, overgrown and probably too shaded by tall pine trees.

Despite all that, every year it puts out a few of these simple and delicate flowers. I hope to find a sunnier sight for this special plant. Can't you just imagine the plant covered in these?

Doing battle against the Oregano That Ate Eastham is this fantastic sweet william, which actually looks just a little more maroon than the red the sun was bringing out here.

Over on the edge of the grape madness is this rose, which has a double blossom that always reminds me of zinnias.

After a while, I left the back garden to explore the rest of the yard and as I wandered out to the road to snap a photo of the pond, I spied a mama duck and at least four ducklings.

She seemed to be herding them into the tall pond grass at the water's edge. I wonder if their nest is in there.


Here's a great pink sweet william from the front garden I thought you'd enjoy. So much variety in this species.

Along the driveway are some leggy single pink roses.

And right outside the front door, our Chrysler tea rose is blooming for the first time in...sweet Gaea, I think it's been like nine years!


Not far away, Mr. Lincoln has put out half of a red blossom. Considering we'd declared him dead last summer, this seemed a pretty terrific effort.

Meanwhile, in the living room window, it's been fun watching the baby catbirds in their nest(Interestingly, our actual cat seems to have no interest in these goings-on).

We try to just look in on them now and again, since both parents shoot us dirty looks when they spot us checking them out. But its fun to peek in on their progress...and to watch both parents swooping in on seemingly-endless food runs.


After work, I found myself drawn back out into the garden, where I found a catbird bathing in the new birdbath.

He was really getting into it, splashing around and having a good time, but suddenly glanced up at the sky and took flight, making room for a thirsty robin.

Once she was sated and took wing, the catbird returned from his perch in the apple tree, to splash and bask a little more.

Another gazania blossom glowed in the evening light.

There's plenty of magic in the garden this time of year, from the birds to the roses.

Tonight we also had the special effect of lightning bugs taking wing, their trademark chartreuse flashes appearing randomly around me in the air.

Here's one on a milkweed plant.

And for good measure, a three-quarter moon rose in the south.