Pink and The Tracks to Nowhere In Particular

Well, I'm running consistantly a little behind lately, what with deciding it might not be a totally horrible idea to get myself some extra sleep now that summer's drawing to a close.

So, these are actually yesterday's photos, but still an enjoyable bunch, I think.

The pale pink morning glories are coming on strong now, which is fun, as they are a nice addition to the color range of the species. Actually, as you'll see, Pink seems to be something a theme today.

Of course the hot pink and blue vines from earlier in the season are still going on like crazy and now leaving the fencepost (yes, there really IS one in there somewhere...a garden lantern, too) to twine and vine their way around some sky-bound sunflower stalks.

The weather's a little cooler now. Yesterday morning I almost wore a flannel shirt (albeit with shorts) for the first time since spring. But after I got dressed, it felt like a warmer-than-necessary choice and I changed to something lighter. I shouldn't have second-guessed, though, as clouds moved in to make it a pretty cool afternoon, with temps in the 50s; the flannel would've been just right.

The cooler temps are encouraging the dianthus to another round of flowering for September. This will be convenient, as I was pricing plastic flowerboxes today with a thought toward transplanting these guys to the balcony at my next location. That they are flowering again will make them easier to find in the current chaos of the fence garden.

I'm also considering one of those clay strawberry pots with assorted planting windows (they are on sale at the local nursery) as a new home for my sedums and hens and chicks, but I don't know how well this sort of planter might winter and what I'd have to do to encourage that sort of survival.

I'm thinking maybe some sand inside, below the dirt, would be more "flexible" during winter freezes and thaws, but I'm not entirely sure.

Here's a variety of sunflower I've shown previously, but didn't include in yesterday's full array of the sunflowers. This one's located down at the very far end of the fence garden.

Behind it you can see that large planting of boneset I featured recently when it was just starting to bud.

The later part of the morning had me venturing up-Cape, on newly-vacated local roads, as I headed for the Registry of Motor Vehicle, as t'was time to renew my auto registration.

On the way, I found this lovely and massive planting of impatiens. It's one of my favorite flowers, but I had no shade for a change this year, so we didn't get to play together as we have in past years.

I'm happy to say it was not the Waiting Room To Hell that the RMV can often be (actually, they are pretty efficient there and I've rarely had complaints, of course, part of that comes of being properly prepared with something enjoyable to read, in this case, one of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels, Cat and Mouse.).

On the way to work from there, I made a stop by a favorite spot of mine, along the abandoned tracks of the Cape Cod Railroad.

Almost all of the rails on the Outer Cape (my standard stomping grounds) were long ago removed and turned into bike trails...which is lovely and fun, but a little sad if you're a rail fan, as I am.

This spot is accessible from an old rest stop parking area from Route 6, and the old railroad bridge that crosses the Bass River is a popular fishing spot, although no one was around when I visited.

There is still some freight service in the Yarmouth area, but the tracks to this remainder of the line have recently been cut...and as you can see, are pretty seriously overgrown.

I've been trying to identify just what these little wildflowers are growing along the trackbed, but to no avail. They are also growing pretty wildly on Not Wisteria Lane, so I had hoped to figure out what they were...but have not been able to narrow things down much further than this family, which frankly, I could have guessed without benefit of a detailed Google search.

As I mentioned, the weather caught me a little off-guard yesterday, as the forecast had a great big orange sun icon all across it. However, there's a storm out in the ocean that's swirling around and occasionally backs some cloud cover in overhead, which helped to keep our temps on the cool side. There's no rain in forecast to benefit us, but the occasional cloud thing is continuing again today.

I was wandering the garden at work later in the afternoon and noticed that the kousa dogwood's berries were coloring up nicely. Like the other dogwoods, this one is a beauty when it blooms in late spring, but I think I like it best for these "dogwood crunch berries", of which the local crows seem quite fond.

I noticed, too, that the cooler temperatures of this end of the summer seem to be encouraging some of the roses out there to another flush of blooming.

As always, I wish I could share with you the fragrance. It was a small pleasure that helped perk up a low moment in my afternoon and I know you'd have enjoyed it, too.

Fireworks of the Floral Variety

Sorry to say that after the parade on Friday, the weather began to take a bit of a turn for the remainder of the holiday weekend. By late Friday night, it was raining and Saturday morning's early hours wore a foggy misty cloak of gray.

After having stayed up so late to put together the slideshow, I was happy to have the excuse not to water the garden and I didn't even take any new photos before dashing off to work.

However, I do have a few I took after the parade on Friday, which I still haven't shown you yet. One of them is terrific substitute for that great ball of fire in the sky. Is there any doubt why they're called sunflowers?


I still don't know exactly what these little purple flowers are. I've not yet found them in any guides, though have suspected they are some unhybridized version of something more familiar...perhaps another kind of veronica or something.

Anyway, nice fireworks substitute there.




Again defying reports of its death (ah, if it had been so for its namesake), the tea rose Mister Lincoln has produced a most beautiful and perfect looking rosebud. I really thought he was dead for real this time, so this just goes to show you how much I know.

This is one I really wish you could push your nose into--its scent is heavenly!

The Chrysler tea rose is being rather prolific this year, now offering its second and third yellow blossoms, with still a few more on the way after that!




Here are some lovely oriental lilies I was enjoying at work today, such a sweet fragrance!

They were featured in the wedding arrange ments of Leia and Frank, who were joined in marriage at our location and then celebrated throughout the afternoon.

It's been a pleasure working with them these last few weeks and I offer them my heartiest congratulations, along with best wishes for Much Happiness and Love Always.

(And hey, look in the background, you can see those three yucca plants blooming along the driveway!)

Some late afternoon showers were pretty heavy and managed to dampen my spirits for trying to do some fireworks photography near Rock Harbor this evening. By the time the skies cleared again, just before the display was to begin, I was already comfortably relaxing at home and didn't feature getting back into the car again.

Earth Day

Twenty -two days after the first seeds were planted, and check out the Sunflower Class of 2008!

I am missing our old greenhouse/garden shed from our last home, as it would be nice to have that glassed-in space to put these larger seedlings, while I work on getting some new ones planted.

Our forecasts continue to look favorable for setting young plants out in the garden, but I'm gonna hold off a while longer, since we have "enjoyed" frosts up to a month later than now. I think I could probably count on global warming, but really, all that's done is give us unpredictable weather...so I'll wait.

Meanwhile, here's my three star pupils.


I've not yet been able to identify this little yellow flower, which is appearing both in the vinca in the front of the house (this photo) and in a few patchy places on the side of Mount Dump-It, in the back yard.

Whatever it's name, it's certainly pretty and a nice splash of color on the greening landscape.

The birds are finding the birdbath, naturally, and we've had plenty of visitors, including this northern flicker, who sits atop the power pole in front of our place every night, singing the sun down into the west. He sounds something like this.

Add to that the cooing of the doves, the cawing and cackling of the crows and their red-winged cousins, the twittering and cheeping of song sparrows and the fancy tune of the cardinal and it's not a bad soundtrack for an evening's garden examination.

It looks like the jalapeno spray I made may be doing the trick, as we have some tulips coming on which look like they may actually get to flower! Fingers crossed.

The tiny sprouts of cut-leaf coreopsis(es) are poking up all over the place throughout the garden...I'm kind of pleased with the way I spread them around. There's also a promising clump of foxglove greening up. Hopefully that'll give me seed stock to encourage a nice stand of them. I've also spotted the tiny rounds leaves of oregano (yes, it's the Oregano That Ate Eastham, come to a new town...bwa ha ha).

As I've mentioned before, I'm keeping my eyes out for the lilies...and also curious to see if the milkweed seeds I scattered around while planting last fall will take. I'd love to get a nice little colony of them thriving here, since the monarchs love them so.

I'm afraid this is not our most glorious Earth Day in the 39 years since the celebration began. Polar bears are threatened by the melting of their habitats. Other bears, I read recently, are being threatened here and abroad by poachers who want only their gall bladders. Bison and wolf populations in the west are being hunted with helicopters (yah, that's fair.). Wild populations everywhere are being forced into ever-smaller patches of protected land.

Kids spend so much time playing video games and racing from one afterschool activity to another, that they don't have time to play outside with a stick and some mud, or to look under the bushes for birds or worms or cool insects. How in the world will our next generations know to cherish and protect the natural world around them?

Of course, the way things seem to be headed, perhaps we won't need to worry about that. Gas prices have reached all new highs. This week food prices seem to have taken a substantial jump, keeping unfortunate pace with the unemployment rate.

And what do you hear on the street, or on TV, or across the blogosphere? "It's the Bushies' fault", or you can substitute in "oil cartel", "gun lobby", "super-delegates", "crazy Christians", "gays" or "Al Qaeda." (Mad Libs, anyone?)

I guess if we have someone to blame, we don't have to take responsibility for anything ourselves and we can sit back and take another one of whatever pill it is we're supposed to need. Apparently the ostrich populations are doing just fine.

I'm not saying the current administration doesn't have tons to answer for. So many endangered species have become more so on their watch and that's sort of the least of their footprint. But we need to remember that in pointing a finger at them, we point the rest of them back at ourselves. What have any of us done to protect the world we live in? And just what do we have to do to get people like that to listen to anyone other than themselves?

Am I saber-rattling for a revolution? I don't know...I'm not very good at being war-like (tho this quitting smoking thing may help...); sometimes it seems like there's so much change that needs to happen, I'm not sure I'd know where to start. And just which castle are we supposed to storm with our pitchforks and torches? No answers...only questions.

Thank goodness it's Spring, which helps me escape from the news and the internet and is available right out the door, without my having to drive anywhere or spend non-existant money. For now, anyway.

This past week, the forsythia have come into bright yellow and golden bloom all over the place, echoing the yellow drifts of daffodils.

Down at the end of Not Wisteria Lane (which is actually a loop of road, with three different street names attached), there's a lovely pond, mostly surrounded by private homes and not easily accessible to the general public. But I did find a narrow bit of right of way, through a stand of beautiful trees which are home to the blackbirds and crows and echoes with their songs.

We had another lovely day yesterday, though temperatures have still not topped the 60 degree mark around here. As it got suddenly chilly at day's end, the mist and fog rose up out of the pond and off the marshes and wrapped around our springtime world, muting the sun's fading glow.

Coast Guard Beach

On the way to work, it occurred to me that I'd not seen the Atlantic in a few weeks, so I made a side-trip to Coast Guard Beach in Eastham. The clouds were building more by then and a gray pallor seemed to fall over our day.

Around the Coast Guard station, lots of these little blue chicory blossoms were holding forth in the lawn. I just love these guys.

Seaside goldenrod lives up to its name.

This humid day got it's start with clouds piling in on us, as tropical weather came our way from the south, with a promise of rain late in the day. It was a bright start to the day, but it didn't last for long.

Above, a purple thistle blossom decries the end of the season, while below yet another of the African marigold blossoms begins, with some black-eyed susan in the background.


The yellow hawkweed flower acts as a nice counterpoint to another cloud of asters, while nearby, some Virginia creeper makes it's way up the side of a pine tree, offering our first real taste of autumn foliage color.

In the front garden bed, some of those Nantucket red petunias bring a cheery reminder of the fading season.

A somewhat bittersweet visit to the garden today, coming as it does with the news that we may be moving from this lovely spot soon.

Destinations and plans are things of the immediate future and not yet known. At least the news comes before any real plans for fall bulb planting were formed.

Or before the planned soil amendment project for the southern beds. Or the eradication of the poison ivy (tho just for spite for the memory of the suffering I may still make some attempt at that.)

Instead, attention will turn to an inventory of available nursery pots, with a thought toward the transplantation of some of my plant friends. Some will remain behind, of course, as some always do. It's hard to stop a garden once you've gotten it going, after all.

As always, it will be interesting to explore and discover a new site, to lay out beds where none exist, or perk up those discovered with new additions.

I will miss this garden, though. It's been a delightful escape from the world, set so far off from the sounds of traffic, of television, of phones and 60 cycle hum. Such a pleasure to get lost (and lost in my thoughts) in this paradise of birds and beasts and blossoms.

And I know I'll always think of it fondly, and so will treat it kindly when I go. And I imagine I'll often wonder what its doing after I've left.

No doubt nature will take a hand in things and the field will grow up as it did before we arrived. But the imprint of our time here, of bulbs planted and plants divided and spread around. Some of that will be here to mark that I was, even if no one remembers the Who or the When.

I guess that's enough to make me smile.

Roadside Wildflowers

And so I was on the road once more. Of course, being a long trip, I do like to break things up by stopping to stretch my legs and attend to other things now and again.

This time of year, during these most glorious golden days, there are flowers in bloom everywhere...and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to stop and enjoy them all, as my celebration of the Summer Solstice continues!

If I'm to follow my own advice about enjoying the flowers along my path, you know I'm going to have to break up the trip by stopping to enjoy some of these fantastic ornaments that adorn the earth in June.

So here are some of my favorite wildflowers, like this feverfew, only just coming into bloom.

I'm not certain, as it's been a number of years since I've grown any, but this may be catchfly.

I'll have plenty of rudbeckia blooming in my gardens back home soon enough, but meanwhile, here's some more.

But I don't have any of this lovely crown vetch, which was growing in great spreading patches here.


Progress was made, however, and the next time I stopped was in the Berkshires, at a truck rest area I'm fond of because of its close proximity to the railroad tracks.

I found this viney beauty (is it morning glory, moonflower, or just bindweed?) twining its way through some tall reeds alongside the tracks.

And these brilliant yellow fellows, I assume, are some wild form of snapdragon. I've not had the chance to consult my wildflower book, but the flower heads are so similar, there must be a relation of some sort.

Do you remember what I said the other day about daisies? The world just can't have too many.


Of course, the Midnight Gardener has a reason for stopping at trackside, as I always like to collect a few of the old, discarded railroad spikes, which crews seem to leave lying in the ballast after replacing the old with new.

If you've got a hydrangea which you'd like to see bluer flowers on, or have some rhododendrons which seem to be languishing for their placement close to your home's foundation (concrete leaches minerals away from soil over time), a few railroad spikes driven into the soil around them will add a long-term source of iron to your soil, encouraging bluer blossoms on one, and general good health for the other. Just a little tip to share.

Of course, I don't technically condone trespassing on railroad right-of-ways, since it isn't especially legal. And I do absolutely urge you to exercise good caution (Stop. Look. Listen) when you're anywhere near the tracks.

And sometimes, if you follow all the rules, in addition to lovely trackside flowers, you might just see a train, as I did when this CSX freight train came rumbling by.




I believe that some of the problems railroads face in our 21st Century society are matters of image. If only they would bring the caboose back, it would be a good step in the right direction. I miss them, and the rear end of freight trains just look naked without them.

Later on, as I made my final approach to the Cape, I reached my camera hand out the window, pointed behind me, and captured the fading light of another summer sunset.