Life and Death in the Garden

We got back from Florida late this afternoon. I was so glad to get home that I was just about to bust. Maw's sister is doing better and is back at home resting. She has lupus and they think that her latest problems are related to it. As soon as we got home and got the car unloaded I had to go out and see what was going on in the garden. There didn't seem to be much of anything different going on, so I was going to walk back in the house. I noticed a moth on my caryopteris plant, and that it seemed to be eating in an odd position. I didn't think much of it and started to go back into the house. For some reason I looked a little closer and noticed the white spider that was under the leaf that had captured it.

Tampa

We are getting ready to come home from Tampa tomorrow. It's been an enjoyable trip so far. We have been able to visit with Maw's sister quite a bit, but have been trying to take into consideration that she is tired and not feeling too well. We went out to eat seafood restaurants a couple of times, which underwhelmed me because I'm not a big seafood fan. I had jerk chicken yesterday and the fish and chips today. We drove down by Tampa Bay on the way home tomorrow and enjoyed some scenery before a downpour from Hurricane Gustave started in. We're leaving very early tomorrow and should be gone before most of the worst hits. I'm definately looking forward to getting home.

Dianthus

When It Rains, It Pours

First, this cloud looks like a camel to me.

Second, this has been a not-so-good month for us. Maw has had a Series of Unfortunate Events that just seems to keep rolling on. Now his sister is sick and in the hospital. We are going to be heading down to Florida to see her this weekend. I'm not crazy about traveling on the Labor Day weekend, but we do what we must. It'll be the longest car trip that we have taken Quickbeam on, so that will be a challenge in itself. When you're saying your prayers to the diety of your choosing, please add in one for Maw's sister, it would be appreciated.

Many Faces

It is raining a lot today, not really suitable weather for walking around outside adn taking pictures. So I'm digging through the archives (okay, from this weekend) and have this lovely picture of my Gingersnap rose. I am fascinated by this rose. It starts out a vibrant, rich orange and fades to palest peach. Here it is in a in-between stage. This is one of my most photogenic roses, along with Elle. This is its first year, I can't wait to see what it does next year.

Green Thumb Sunday 9/24/2008

We finally got some rain today, mostly due to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Here-Again-Gone-Again Fay. We were supposed to get rain yesterday but it went around us. We finally got a good soak early this morning. We are also supposed to get some Monday and Tuesday. It's been a lazy weekend where we didn't get a whole lot done. We had a few things that we were supposed to do that have been put off. We didn't feel like driving around in the rain. I did decide to order a few plants from High Country Gardens. My tradition is to get a plant or two for my birthday. On my last few trips to the nursery I haven't really found anything that caught my eye. So since my mind has been on rain gardens again lately I ordered an aster, dwarf goldenrod and ironweed. I'm planning on expanding my nature garden this fall and these plants are all good butterfly plants.

Evicted

I was looking around in the back garden last night, and was awestruck by the Mum that Ate Alabama. It is getting ready to bloom just about any day now, so I was checking to see if there were any buds opening yet. I have noticed it gradually encroaching on its neighbors, but I figured they'd rebound after it bloomed. And then a thought occured to me that I hadn't seen my Peppermint clematis lately. I peered behind TMTAA and there was my poor clematis, laying prostrate and looking mighty peaked. So that was the final straw. I don't want to lose my clematis after finally coming around to appreciate it. So I got a shovel and evicted my overly boisterous mum. I had an empty pot that I had unsuccessfully tried to grow shade plants in, and planted it in that. It is currently sitting in the front flower bed, well contained, and maybe it will still bloom. The only thing I'm going to have to do is to find a home for it before winter. :)

Working for a Living

Every now and then there is a fringe benefit for getting up and going to work. This is the sight that greeted me when I stepped out the door this morning. I had to drop my bags and come in and get the camera. If I wasn't working I would never voluntarily see a sunrise after all. :)

Out for a Walk

I took Quickbeam out for a walk today when I got home from work. We've been really enjoying the temperate August weather. It's actually been rare for it to be so hot that I can't stand being outside. It's pleasantly cool in the morning and evening, though it still gets pretty hot during the afternoon. Probably has to do with the fact that it hasn't rained in a bit and it's not too humid. I expect that we'll get some weather from Fay when it comes back around, but hopefully it won't be too bad. Until then, I'm enjoying spending time in my garden during the evening.

Spiders

As I was walking by the bushes in front of the house, this spider web caught my eye. I'm not sure how well it will translate in the picture, but it is half of an orb, with anchor points around it. It was such an interesting architectural design I had to take a picture of it. If you look carefully at it, you can see the spider sitting in the middle of it.
I am not typically one that has a fear of spiders, but the sight of this behemoth on our screen (outside) about gave me a heart attack. The leg span on this thing was about as as big around as an apple (lousy comparison but about the best I could come up with). The thought of having this sneaking under the door and running around the house about has me breaking out in hives.

Across the Pond

So here's the latest picture of my pond...just kidding folks! Today Quickbeam and I made it over to one of my favorite places on Earth, Across the Pond. Since one of my favorite things to do when I travel is visit gardening centers, I'm going to share some of my local favorites. Across the Pond is a gardening center where you can buy pond things of course, and they have demonstration ponds. The Victoria water lily above is a new addition. I briefly considered trying to grow it once in my previous pond, but after seeing this one I realize that I totally underestimated their size. They also have stone that you can buy in bulk, as well as some pond liners, water plants and fish. The goldfish that I have in my pond came from there. They sell fish from truly immense koi that cost as much as one of my house payments to small goldfish. Here are a few of their larger specimens.
They also sell pots of all sizes and garden statuary. I am truly in love with some of their garden statues and NEED this one in particular since it goes along with my blog name. Unfortunately it's going to have to wait until my bank account rebounds from our move.

I also like their sense of humor. :)

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Six Random Things

I got tagged by Serdic for this and was trying to still my mind and let some random thoughts bubble up to talk about.

1. Gratitude. This morning Maw was going to go get a haircut and I was going to take Quickbeam to the nursery. It was drizzling a little so I decided to do the nursery later. A few minutes after Maw left the house I got a phone call from him. He'd been in an accident, but he was okay. He'd hit a wet spot in the road and hydroplaned into the ditch. I am so grateful that he wasn't hurt, it could have been so much worse. There was no one else involved, we don't know the extent of the damage to our truck yet. Thank you to the big man upstairs that he was watching over Maw today.

2. Motherhood. There is one thing in my life that everything else pales in comparison to, and that is being my daughter's mother. My whole life has changed because of this little person, and I wouldn't have it any other way. One of the most endearing things to me is when we take her for a walk in her stroller. When I look down at my baby girl, I see three things. Her crop of hair, her ears and her little bitty neck holding it all up. I have tried many times unsuccessfuly to get a good picture of it but have been unable to because she has ESPN that tells her I have a camera and she tries to turn around to see what I'm doing. Watching her trying to take in everything that she sees tugs at my heartstrings.

3. Guitar. I have been playing my guitar more for the last few nights and really enjoying it. Except that Quickbeam is fascinated with the guitar and tries to play it along with me. I seem to be getting a lot of my interests back that I haven't had time for lately.

4. Fall. It isn't going to be too much longer before fall gets here. While I am not a fan of cold weather, I always love when fall comes around. And now that we have the fire pit I would like to have some bonfires outside and possibly marshmallows will be involved.

5. Sweet Tea. I have been obsessively drinking sweet tea lately. Being a daughter of the South I have always been fond of it, but lately it's gotten excessive. I really need to explore the benefits of drinking water more. ;)

6. Sports. I haven't ever been that big of a sports fan, but lately it's been catching on with me. Most likely because Q has the TV on ESPN when I get home from work, and I end up watching it for a while. Football is probably my favorite of all, but I've been keeping up with the gossip from all of them. Oh, and watching Michael Phelps and the Olympics has been just AWESOME!

Okay, I don't really know that many blogging people, so the only ones I can think of to tag are : One hope, one heart and Kat. Take it away gals. ;)

New Resident

It was my birthday a few days ago and this was my present from

my very good friend One Heart, One Hope. She is now a resident in my shade garden that is under construction (the fairy that is, not my friend!). I plan on picking up a couple of new shade plants while I am at the nursery this weekend. Maw is going to get a haircut and shave and Quickbeam and I are going to go to the nursery for some unsupervised shopping. Here's to hoping that my bank account survives the shock. :)

Elle

My Elle rose is still blooming its heart out. This is in spite of the fact that it has been pretty much neglected this year. It does get pruned pretty often when I bring in flowers to take to work.

Home Day

Today was an unexpected home day. Maw had an allergic reaction to something and had to go to the doctor. So I stayed home this morning with Quickbeam. We took advantage of the time to go for a walk, and to see what was blooming outside. The weather was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain. I have been trying to get a good bee picture all year, and was finally able to. I have a particular fondness for bees after reading Sue Hubbell's books. At one time when we planned on moving to the country and starting a homestead, I planned on getting some hives of my own. Those hives are in the same dream wastebasket as the homestead is, but I still get to see and enjoy bees from time to time.

Gingersnap

Gingersnap is the rose that I planted when my baby girl was born. I am growing much fonder of orange flowers, and there was something that seemed fitting to honor her with. These start out a very vibrant orange color and fade to a pale peach color. It is planted in front of our bedroom window and I like to tie back the curtains and see it while I'm in there in the mornings.

Green Thumb Sunday 8/10/08

I didn't have a lot of hope left for my Angel Face rose at the beginning of this season. It had been hit hard by black spot and didn't even have a leaf left on it. I gave it some intense spraying therapy for a couple of weeks and then forgot about it until now. There are a couple of Japanese Beetles chewing on it, but otherwise it is doing so much better. Since I featured so many front yard plants last week, this post is for my back yard plants. This is my Joseph's Coat rose still blooming away. It is starting to get long enough to train up the trellis, which I am going to have to start doing soon.
This is the latest addition to my garden, 'Southern Charm' verbascum. I remember seeing it a long time ago, when I first started getting seed/gardening catalogs. I loved it but never did get any of it. When I was at Bennett's on my last visit I found some and finally fulfilled that wish. It is currently planted by the "Mum that Ate Alabama" so I'm hoping that it doesn't get eaten, like is about to happen to my garden gnome.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

At Work

There are holly bushes in front of the building that I work in. Some mornings when I come into work and there is a heavy dew, I notice that there are spiderwebs all over them, as seen below. In the middle of each web there is a tunnel, and in each tunnel is one of the spiders that are seen above. I've always been fascinated by them, and finally got the work digital camera out and got a picture of one. And then spent the rest of the morning scratching all over at imaginary spiders. ;)

Rain Lilies

This picture of my Rain Lily is especially appropriate for today. We had a thunderstorm roll through around lunchtime and it poured. Since it was raining I parked next to the building that I worked in which has crepe myrtles around it. By the time I left to go home the truck looked like a parade float from all of the flowers that had fallen on it. I got this plant from Bennett's Nursery last year. It didn't bloom last year but has several times this year. The blooms are very short-lived so I was lucky to get a shot of it.

Joe Pye Weed

A few years ago I was reading a magazine article about rain gardens. I was interested in the idea because our yard in North Carolina became a lake everytime a hurricane went through. I read up on the different sorts of plants, and one of them that caught my eye was the Joe Pye Weed. I don't have a drainage problem here, but I did want some for their tall, architectural presence. I planted it in the front flower beds last year, and the blooms were underwhelming. This year I have moved it to the beginnings of my nature garden. It has obviously done better here, as witnessed in the picture above. As I was moving in to take a picture of it, there was an explosion of little butterflies that came off of it. Looks like it's a hit. :)

Black Stemmed Elephant Ear

I have had elephant ears in most of the places that I have lived. There is something very appealing to me about them. They have the architectural structure of the leaves and stems, and they look very tropical. I saw these in Lowe's and was intrigued by their black stems, so I decided to get them. I planted them out last year and they grew. Around this time last year I noticed an odd looking leaf coming out, and on further investigation I saw a flower on them. Now in all of my years of elephant ear keeping I never got a single flower out of them. I didn't expect much out of them this year because I forgot and left the bulb in the ground over the winter and I thought it died. They came back slowly this year, and now again I have a flower on it. It's definately a very odd flower, but it's another one for my gardening record books. :)

Green Thumb Sunday

Venturing Into the Backyard

Yesterday, after carefully peering through all of the windows that face the back yard, I went outside. I made sure to check everywhere before I started to see what was blooming and to make sure that there were no more skunks out there. Thankfully it seems to be an isolated incident. We are still going to have to figure out what we're going to do to keep them from getting back in again. But in the meantime, here are some more of my babies that are blooming. Up above is my 'Arabian Nights' dahlia.

This is my Black-Eyed Susan.



This is my Coneflower plant.

And finally, my water lily is still putting out blooms.

Front Yard Happenings 8/2/08

Why just the front yard you might ask? Yesterday Maw was looking out the back window and he said "What the heck is that"? That was a.....skunk. Somehow it must have squeezed under the back fence where it crosses the run-off ditch. So I find myself not that curious about what's going on in the back yard, although I did go and check to make sure that it was clear this morning. You never can tell what might be lurking around the corner after all. Actually I went out front to get some pictures and intended to see what was going on in the back, but Quickbeam had enough of her mama wandering around outside and made it clear that she was tired of waiting. So I figured the back yard would be for tomorrow.


These are some of my Gingersnap roses. They are very vibrant orange when they first bloom, but as they start aging they fade into beautiful peach and cream colors.



This is the Rozanne Cranesbill geranium blooming out in my "shade" garden area.

This is a bloom getting ready to come out on my black-stemmed elephant ears. I was very surprised to see it bloom last year, and moreso this year. I thought they hadn't survived the winter, but they came back from runners. I didn't think that it would bloom again this year because of the challenging start, but apparently it got over it. :)

And finally, although it isn't blooming, here is my Japanese Painted Fern, dappled in sunlight. It seems to be much happier now that I transplanted it from the container.