Here today, Funchal tomorrow (maybe)

Well, I don’t know when I am going to have time to go through the vacation pictures and make them bloggable.   Now that I am over my cold, I am starting to go through the gardens sort of systematically.

The new rock garden part of the stroll garden has proved to be a wonderful nursery for about sixteen dozen kinds of weeds.   The gravel mulch is extremely popular.   We were out there weeding, and Jim proposed that since we have some extra money, perhaps I ought to run out to the nursery and buy the blue carpet juniper we were going to plant to flow over the “mountain range”.   I came in to investigate that idea and realized I don’t have time to do that since I have a massage client arriving in about half an hour.  

So I made up the massage table and sat down to see about a quick post.  I ought to be hanging my laundry up, but it looks like it is going to rain some more and that seems like an exercise in futility.  I will probably just run it through the dryer.

About the extra money:   When we got ready to pay for the balance of our cruise tickets, the cruise line had added a fuel surcharge.   We didn’t feel that that was unreasonable, and the charge was a very small percentage of the total.   Apparently the federal government did not agree with us and required the cruise line to refund that charge, so an unexpected check arrived in the mail yesterday.   The funny thing was, I woke up thinking that we were going to get money in the mail that day and dismissed that thought as ridiculous since all expected monies had already arrived this month.   Chalk one up for intuition.

Anyway, I woke this morning with a strange feeling that it was going to be a wet morning.   No real mystery in that since it was thundering and lightninging (why do we say the phrase in that order almost invariably even though the lightning always comes first?) and hail was thumping on the awnings.   It proceeded to pour for about a half an hour, dumping rather a lot of rain on us.   Fortunately the hail was small and there wasn’t much of it, so none of my flowers were shattered. 

Smokey spent all morning going in and out the door.   His attitude was “I have told you about this stuff before.   What is with this rain stuff anyway?”  Then once it stopped raining, he was adamant that we should get rid of all the damned puddles.   Silly cat.

Since it was going to be too wet to mow, Jim went out to buy a new lawn mower.   Don’t ask me about that logic, I don’t know.   We have a new push lawn mower now so we can do tandem mowing and stop using the big riding monster.

I was admiring the front yard yesterday.  My species tulips are up and blooming, and the redbuds are  in full swing right now.   I say it myself, but the front flower bed is absolutely gorgeous right now.

If you look center of the picture under the arch of the redbud branch, you will see a flash of red orange over there.    That is a group of little tulips I planted three years ago that has now finally expanded into quite an attraction.   This is how it looks from right up close and personal.

Now, if you follow the bed on back to its far southwest corner, you come to an area where years ago I planted oriental poppies.   They make a spectacular flash of red in between daffodils and irises, and I really like them.   The trouble is, they expand and grow by rhizomes, and are fairly invasive.    Also, the rhizomes compete with other plants and after the flowers die, the fuzzy ferny leaves die too, and you are left with a bed that is barren and rather unattractive.    A few years ago, some lambs ears volunteered in there, and by a stroke of luck, they seem to cohabit very happily with the oriental poppies.    The two of those thug plants protect the bulbs underneath from the depredations of the squirrels, and the daffodils I have planted in there repel all the ground burrowing creatures that might want to eat them.   So I planted species tulips in there too, and this is what they look like now.    The poppies are starting to send of flower stalks, and I am very pleased with what this bed has become.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I mentioned that I got the apple trees pruned the other day.   They are loving the weather, and if we are lucky we might even get some fruit this year.

You will be happy to know that I still have bees.   They are busy too.

So, that is about it around here.   I got my broccoli plants set out yesterday.  Today if I have have time after I get the junipers and get them planted, I will move some lettuces into the lettuce bed from where they have volunteered so I can get that area ready for the beans, and start turning the back bed where I intend to put the onions.   If anyone has any ideas where I can plant a new bed of raspberries, I’m open to suggestions.   My original raspberry bed has been invaded by a virus and I need to buy new plants and put them somewhere else.   I have room at the ends of the grape rows in the vineyard where the tea roses have died.  Maybe I’ll put them there.   That’s actually a pretty good idea, since we already have drip irrigation established out there.   Hmm.

Well, Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work I go.   Good thing I’m over that cold!