Sigh....

While I was out weeding in the garden today I noticed the neat reflections of the papyrus and palm umbrella in the pond. It's a glorious fall day today, complete with clear blue sky, bright sun and a slightly cool breeze blowing. Notice though what isn't in the picture of my pond. That's right, FISH. I have a 30 gallon pond and four pretty good sized goldfish in it. I almost never see them...maybe a flash of white every now and then. It frustrates me, because in my pond I had before the fish would swarm up at feeding time and I loved to see them, as shown below.

Now I don't know if it's because I don't spend a lot of time sitting outside by the pond or I just had the back luck to get very shy fish. Maybe now that I have a bit more time to spend with gardening and such now that Quickbeam is getting bigger and starting to play, I might get to see them more.

End-of-Year Sales

We passed by Home Depot today to get some replacement air filters for our furnace. Of course I had to look at the plants on clearance for the end of year sale. I ended up picking out this Yarrow plant. I thought that the color on it was absolutely beautiful and can't wait to see it bloom for reals next year. We also passed through Across the Pond to get some fish food. For some reason Home Depot seems to have about everything else that you would need for a pond EXCEPT fish food. Since my boys were out we had to make a special trip.

Poke Salad

One of the most easily recognized weeds that I know of is Poke Salad. It grows across the Southeast, although I don't know the rest of its range. I had Quickbeam out for a walk yesterday as it was starting to get dark. The road that leads into our subdivision deadends into a weedy birm leading in to the cotton field. I noticed that I could actually tell what quite a few of them were and took this picture which only shows the outline. We used to eat fried poke stalks and poke greens when I was growing up. Birds would eat their dark purple berries and then leave very vivid evidence all over cars and clothes on the line. I don't think I've had any poke since I left home as a teenager, but it brought back a lot of memories to see the plant.

Green Thumb Sunday 10/12/08

Today was another beautiful autumn day. The sky is bright blue and there are puffy white clouds everywhere. The seedhead for my Joe Pye Weed is featured above. A shot of the treeline in the backyard is featured below.

There are still a bunch of flowers blooming, but most of them are the regulars that I have been featuring for a while. So I figured I'd try to find some things a little different to post about. I got some pond maintenance done finally today which is a good thing. The water lily had taken it over and the poor fish barely had any water surface left.
So today I pulled out the lily and gave it a very big haircut. I also got rid of the bamboo spout because it hasn't worked very well and keeps getting plugged up. So I took the hose and tucked it under the rocks so it can spit directly into the water. The whole pond thing is going to have to get retooled next year so I'm not going to try for anything more elaborate right now. I do love the look of the alyssum spilling over the side.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

The Cotton Field

The field behind my house is a great place to get pictures of sunsets. Last night we went out for our evening walk and the sun was starting to set. The clouds were dark grey but had tinges of rose color on them and it was beautiful. As I was going through the opening in the fence I remembered that I am in the South and looked down for snakes. As if to reward my diligence there was a very small snake that slithered off into the weeds on the side of the path. We're hoping against hope that it stays undeveloped. They had cotton planted for the last two years but left it fallow this year. They might be just letting it rest, but I've heard rumors that it was sold and if so they are probably going to develop it. So I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.

Green Thumb Sunday 10/5/08

I took my daughter out for a stroll this afternoon and brought along the camera as usual. As soon as we stepped out on the front doorstep I heard the heavy buzzing of bees. They were all over the bushes in the front of the house. I caught this one frequenting my Elle rose and this one with my mum.

Toad Lily

I have been faithfully checking the toad lily every time I walk out the front door. Finally today it has opened up and the reward is well worth the wait. I have been looking around trying to find the plant tag or receipt from when I planted it so that I would know the variety, but alas it has been lost in the clutter of both my house and my e-mail in-box. But as they say, a rose by any other name...

Double Take

I was out poking around my flower beds tonight and found this Gingersnap rose bloom. It appears to have a double bud on one flower. Looks pretty neat. :)

Red Flowers

I love my Veteran's Honor rose, it is a beautiful deep red color with velvety petals. Unfortunately I have a hard time getting a good picture of it that shows off its true color. Most of the time it will look dark pink instead of really and truly red, as shown below.


I have the same trouble taking pictures of my red crepe myrtles. I guess it has to do with the light reflecting off of them and the conditions have to be just right for me to get a good shot with my point-and-shoot.

Green Thumb Sunday - 9/28/2008

One of my favorite things about fall and winter is how the seedheads and skeletal remains of plants become the focus of interest instead of the flowers themselves. I was looking around today to see what was blooming and noticed the seedheads on my blanket flowers.
Joseph's Coat still had a few rogue blooms left on it. It has taken a break for the last couple of months and been putting on new growth. I finally had enough to tie it up to the trellis.

The water lily is still going gangbusters in the pond. The lilypads have pretty much taken it over. I'm going to have to pull it out soon and trim it back for the winter.

The sweet alyssum is still plugging along in the scree garden. It has spread quite a bit from when I planted it earlier this spring.

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

Providence

Today Quickbeam and I went along with my husband when he went out for a haircut. The place that he goes to is in the Providence shopping area here in town. While we were waiting for him we went for a walk to see what was going on in the area. We walked by a restaurant that had a fountain in the front and had some lantana planted by it. As we walked by there was a cloud of butterflies that took off from it. I went back to the car to get my camera so I could see if I could get some pictures.

Providence is in an area that is a bit more expensive than most of the places that we frequent, but Maw has been looking since we got here for a good place to get his hair cut. There is a barber shop there called Roosters, and it is a spot for men to go and get well...pampered isn't the word that I'm looking for but it's something like that. The place is really nice, it is set up to be like an old barber shop. The guys can get a haircut and a shave, as well as massages and manicures etc. After you get your hair cut the lady barbers will give a neck massage. Needless to say he is sold on it and goes there whenever he needs a hair cut. Makes me want to get MY hair cut there. :)

Finally the Weekend

The weather has been so pleasant in the evenings that we have been sitting on the back porch more. We watch the sun setting and the bats start to come out and flit through the sky. There is a big field behind our house and it makes us feel almost like we're living further out in the country than we are. I feel so much at peace lately, and so blessed in my life. There is something gut-wrenching about moving, picking up and leaving all that is familiar to you and starting over again. We got a new house and a new job and some new friends, but it still takes a long time before it really feels *right*. It's been odd lately...I haven't been wanting to buy things because I have everything that I need. I haven't even been buying that many books anymore, because I don't have much spare time to read and have a full bookcase, most of which I haven't read. I haven't even been wanting to buy more plants or start more garden beds and would rather maintain the ones that I have and let them grow in.

My mom has spent most of her life being unsatisfied with what she has in life. She doesn't take care of the things that she has but promises that she would take care of the new things she wants. I try to explain that if we don't take care of the things that we have then we won't take care of anything else that we get. I also sometimes think that God tests us, and that if we don't take care of the gifts that He has given to us then we won't be given more. So I am trying to revel in the blessings that I have been given and to be content and see what comes my way. :)

P.S. I almost forgot to mention the flower in my picture. :) I was poking around in the garden last night and saw that there are a few rogue blooms and buds on my Butterscotch Jessamine vine. I love the color and light fragrance that it has.

Mums

This morning when I walked out the door to go to work I was surprised at how cool it was. It was about 55 degrees, and the sky was clear. The stars and the crescent moon were bright and I realized that I haven't seen them in a long time. It is getting to be darker earlier, and the weather is nice enough that we can sit on the back porch for a while. I think we might have a bonfire in the fire pit this weekend and maybe cook up a pot of chili. There's an Apple Festival in Moulton this weekend and that sounds like it would be fun to go to. We are bad about making plans to do things and ending up staying around the house instead. We'll see what happens. :)

Autumn Garden

I have some plants that are still gamely blooming away, but you can tell that they are running out of steam. It has been a very long growing season here and it has started getting cooler at night so fall can't be too far away. My roses are still going crazy:

I still have lots of dahlias:

My new goldenrod is getting settled in:

And my gnome is getting settled into his new home:

Anticipation

When we were walking into the front door yesterday I noticed that some of the buds on the mums were starting to open up. In a week or so we are going to have a real show. :)

It was overcast and raining slightly when we got up this morning, so most of the plans that we had made for the day were cancelled. We went out and got breakfast, and then headed home. We stopped on our way back and watched the Trail of Tears motorcycle ride go through. It is a commemerative ride that helps raise money for scholarships for Native Americans and to remember the Trail of Tears forced march of the Cherokee Indians. When we got home I went out and took some pictures, and got a very small bit of gardening done. Lady Banks has been growing through the slats in the fence, and I saw the neighbors craning around while mowing to avoid it. So I went over on their side this morning and trimmed it back. There were some small planes practicing flying in formation overhead and it added to the entertainment to watch them.

Fall Gardening

I still have a few rose blooms here and there and one of them is my Angel Face rose. I was pretty amazed that it came back, since it had dropped all of its leaves from Black Spot earlier this spring. I really, really enjoy gardening in late summer/early fall. I ordered some plants from High Country Gardens and they came in Thursday. So today Quickbeam and I went out to get some planting done. I got a Dwarf Goldenrod 'Golden Fleece', Ironweed and New England Aster 'Purple Dome'. I also took the opportunity to clean up some of the other plants that needed to be trimmed back and staked. We got to get about half an hour of work done but it was getting so windy that we had to come back in. We are going to be getting some weather from Hurricane Ike today so we'll be mostly inside-bound.

We did get out for breakfast early this morning and went to Another Broken Egg, one of our favorite breakfast spots in town. A cup of coffee on the way back sealed the deal and I am ready to get some relaxing in today. Hope that everyone else has a great weekend. :)
Green Thumb Sunday

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Anemonemonemones

Yesterday was a really nice day. I took Quickbeam out when I got home from work and we did some gardening. I moved some plants around in my scree garden, and did some weeding. I started trying to do battle with the primroses in the front flower bed. We went to Bennett's on Sunday because they finally got in some Japanese Anemones. I got one last fall but it died in a late frost this year. I've been waiting impatiently for it ever since. I got the plants I ordered from High Country Gardens in today, so I'll be planting them this weekend. I need to sit down and put some more thought into the layout that I want to do first though.

Green Thumb Sunday 9/7/08

We woke up this morning to a heavy fog and a layer of dew on everything. It's been a rough couple of weeks and we're looking forward to a bit of a fresh start on things.

First Day Back

Today was the first day back at work after Labor Day and our trip last week. It also marks the end of my assignment with the IT group at work. I have been working for a couple of hours at my regular job, and then going to another building to work with our software implementation team. I have to say that I enjoyed the novelty of being able to stay in my office and actually stay focused on my work. I would rather do one job really well than to do two jobs half-assed, which is what it felt like I was doing. So I was very happy today. The picture above is from my succulent bird feeder. The plants in it are starting to get more established. Since they didn't have many roots the dirt has been washing out of it so I need to add more and respace out the plants.

Mine!

I pulled the name for my blog out of thin air when I started it. When we first got here and went to Across the Pond I saw some goblin garden statues and fell in love with them. Unfortunately we always had a more pressing financial priority and I was never able to get one. A couple of weeks ago when I took my camera along I decided that I would at least take a picture for my blog header.

Since we got back from Florida yesterday and my in-laws don't leave until tomorrow I suggested that we go to Across the Pind so that they could see the Victoria water lily. They also like to garden and see plants so they like going there. While we were there I pointed out the statue to them and told them that's where I got the picture for my blog. They surprised me and bought me the statue for my birthday. So now it is at home in my back yard, and waiting for me to decide how I'm going to reshuffle my plants around this fall. Thanks Mom and Dad, it means a lot to me. :)