Hackberry Trees, etc, #6

Glad you got out, glad about Mike's Dell, and glad it's cooler.
Yayyy for you, Christi.

Stormy here still...yet again.

Thanks for the calmness, Sharon - we need that!

You seem pretty busy, Christi. Thanks for the film recommendation, Carol and I were thinking Julia and Julie would be a good movie. Your meal out sounds substantial. Used a computer (main frame) a long time ago for stats in the university. Much, much later, learned that home computers are much more fun. Wish I was more computer literate. Glad it has cooled down a bit.

Hope your stormy weather at least brings you needed rain, Sharon. I find watering our small garden to be quite time consuming. Tim is very good at it: he loves any kind of gadget, like sprinklers, and seems to have a knack of placing the right kind of sprinkler, in the right location. Me - I'm concerned that every inch of surface won't be covered and Carol - is concerned that some water will get on the potted geraniums. What a pair!

Opposites attract, don'tcha know, Charlie.

Storm has passed, I hope, for the moment anyway.

I have decided I need to make some changes, was feeling pretty lousy over the end of last week and the weekend, lots of self imposed pressures and deadlines. Ran to the doctor on Friday for just a checkup, and he did a couple tests, some blood work. Seems to think now I have an ulcer brewing. Again. Had one a couple of years ago, and another many years ago. So......meds start tomorrow, and I have to really slow down, watch the veggies, and get some rest.

I do this to myself every single time. Been stressing and living on fresh vegetables, need a bit of cheese, maybe some more protein...lotsa yogurt, I think. And fewer raw veggies, no tomatoes....dang it. I love tomatoes.
And need to work on my weight.
No, nothing normal for me. I am to try to gain maybe about 5 pounds in the next 3 months.
I don't even care much about eating. How can I gain 5 pounds?

And sleep. I have to rest.
I have been up since 5 this morning, so I really am going to try to go to bed in the next hour. I stuck to a better regimen when I had a family, so yes, I do this to myself.

Anyway, that's it with the moaning and whining. I am going to do better. There now. I said it right out loud, so you both better make me stick to it.

Sleep well, see you tomorrow, and Charlie, relax! I'd hate to have to send you this blasted aciphex that I guess I'll be on for ever. Enjoy your company!!

Sharon,
Talk to you tomorrow.
Sorry to hear about possible ulcer.
Like cheese and yogurt a lot myself. Think cheese omelette is my very favorite food. We do like tomatoes. Very sorry to hear you have to avoid them. We do eat chicken and fish. We make sure the salmon is wild and not farmed.
Kind of reasonable that we all need enough sleep. Used to have to play vocabulary games in my head to get myself to go to sleep, but am able to get to sleep without them now.
Would say, Sharon, you're a very enthusiastic, energetic, interactive and dynamic individual, which makes you a very attractive person. But for goodness sake, look after yourself. We'll still love you, even if you don't keep up a frenetic pace!

Oh gosh, sharon. I can't imagine in my entire life being told to gain weight. In my darkest hour I gained. Burning the candle at both ends takes the candle down in size real fast. Sounds like it is time you took some time off. What remedy would Aunt Bett have for this malady?

Love you a lot. Please take care of yourself.

Christi

Charlie, I love your garden. Temps have dropped under 100 here and the Angel Trumpets are blooming. Have a plumeria that I have owned for 5 years and it is blooming! YAY!

Aunt Bett was not quite the spinning top that I am. I see a day in front of me and for the life of me, I don't want to waste a minute of it. I find myself outside in the middle of the night with my camera, taking pictures of a leaf with light, without light, low light, high light, back light.....and why in the middle of the night? Well, because all neighbors are asleep, and there are no lights on out there to mess up the photos. All this when I should be resting in bed. And this morning....I was up before the sun, and outside on the deck, camera in hand. But, things have to change, so I am working on it.

No more moans coming from this direction. You both have a lovely day.

Christi, advice very well put.

Sharon, tame that creative spirit.
Am a very undisciplined person myself and this makes me a big hypocrite: but
we need more self-discipline! Wonderful that you're 'working at it'.

Guests about to arrive and just finished getting garden ready by cutting 2 1/2 branches off neighbor's hackberry tree. Lots and lots of berries now in composting bags. Gardening can really give you a sense of achievement!
Back tomorrow.
Charlie

Forgot to ask about Carol's wrist.
Enjoy your company and relax, Charlie.

Not arrived yet.
Seems OK Sharon. Nothing in X-rays. Hasn't bothered her much for two days and she actually went to yoga today. Was very careful with wrist there. I'm thinking it would still be a good idea to get a bone scan to look for a hairline fracture. Know the particular little wrist bone she hit very well from my anthropology. Apparently a hair line fracture in it can leave part cut off from it's blood supply and the part dies.
Know we must not talk politics on Dave's, but been following the health care debate in the U.S. quite closely. Very interesting!

agonizing subject that we can't talk about.

Best wishes to Carol, and again, relax and enjoy.
Stormy weather here....barrels rolling across the heavens......crazy light show.....
See you later.♬

Hi Sharon & Christi,
Guests gone and back to catch-up gardening.
Was actually several tornados not that far from here yesterday. In one, unfortunately, an 11-year old was killed by flying debris as he went to take cover. Tornados are unusual here.
A week or so ago, a lightning strike on a metal fence went through the ground and injured two children on a sports field.
Has been very unsettled weather this summer.
Sounds like we're all having strange and extreme weather for our areas.

Heard about your tornadoes last night, Charlie, worried about you.
So sorry to hear about the little boy and the other two.
Weather is no longer a laughable subject, is it? Scary. It has been a year since the craziness started for me, and it seems unending. Since last September in my tiny area, we have lost 11 trees, and have many more that are very nearly scalped. Not to mention the damage to homes. But fortunately no deaths, except for one electrical worker some miles from me.

I had 4 days without electricity last September, hot hot hot, following the sweep of Hurricane Ike through the mid west. Then in January we had the Ice Storm of the Century, with no power for 10 days, no heat, cold cold cold. Then in May, a sudden wind storm/tornadoes close by, lost more trees and limbs (I only lost limbs)...so yes, it is strange and extreme seemingly everywhere.

Hope you enjoyed your company, nice to have your house back, though, no doubt.

Did enjoy the company, thanks.
And surprise, surprise, Buddy did too!
In fact, he made a little friend.

Carol's nephew has one child, a daughter, who has an elderly and apparently rather unpredictable cat called Dante.

Buddy and the little girl really hit it off. Photo shows close to the beginning. At first Emmy was rather alarmed by the vigor with which Buddy, still lying in his basket, swung at the toy on the elastic band on a handle. But as his energy level waned, the thoughtful Emmy slowed down herself. I think they paced each other rather well. Eventually, Buddy ended up flaked out on the couch, while his friend played with Tim's lego. Periodical Emmy came over to talk to him or give him a pet.

I think a bond developped. Buddy had that benign and tolerant look on his face, the one he has around Tim, who he really likes. And Emmy's eyes filled with tears when she heard she would be leaving Buddy to go to the cottage.

Living several thousand miles apart, it possible that Buddy and Emmy will never meet again. Whatever the case, I hope Dante is as nice as Buddy!

Oh how sweet, I love that picture. Gorgeous cat, beautiful little girl.
Thank you, Charlie.

Jazz says Good Night...

Hi All,
And a special Hi to Jazz who looks quite the country sophisticate.

A few current pictures of our back garden; maybe some repeates: includes chaotic mixtures of phlox, purple cone flowers, heleniums and others.

continues:

more:

I planted the pillar clematis too close to the front, before I realized how tall it grew. Mrs Robert Brydon.

close-up:

Helenium: Rubinzwerg (a dwarf).

Helenium: Chelsey (salvaged from an abandoned garden).

Echinacea: Double Decker.

Echinacea: Vintage Wine.

Wow, wow, wow, and wow! I have not seen flowers like that since June. Glorious, Charlie.

We had wonderful weather today, sunny and 70-ish. I kept my windows open all day long. Now that was glorious.

But very little is blooming aside from the usual MG's and other vines, phlox and althaea. Purple and pink, and a few black eyed susans.

Too late to say much tonight, and I am in a reading mood tonight anyway. Deep in the middle of To Kill a Mockingbird. Again. Must have read that book a dozen times.

So good night, have a great tomorrow.

Hi Sharon,

Carol also loves To kill a Mockingbird and has taught it many times. Last week, read it's being taken off a high school curriculum, in a school district near here, as containing a racist epithet! Not read it myself, but seen the Gregory Peck film. It's amazing how ignorant many of our supposed leaders (in education and other areas) truly are.

Ignorance is quite often bliss, Charlie.
Good Morning.

Currently our best front bed:
Must reduce amount of Goldsturm.
That daylily (Mint Condition) is still going strong.

left side (towards street), best side of that bed:
Very typical flowers in bloom now:
Echinacea, helenium, Lobelia siphilitica, balloon flower, coreopsis and phlox.

(Lots of deadheading and cutting things back: waste bags)
(overflow heritage iris cut down)

Garden #3 is a very good helenium garden:
Find helenium a relatively high maintenance perennial, but love it.
With all the rain, this is a great year for helenium.
(Rote Töne)
The false sunflower is getting close to needing deadheading (for appearances).

The only perennials in this garden when I took it over were creeping phlox, yuccas and two japonese anenomes. I would never have used japonese anenomes myself because they are so invasive. I periodically chop them back (not always sucessfully).
Have just staked this one, because the flowers flop.
Quite showy and blooms for quite a long time.

Annual area of that garden:
Wet summer, small dahlias doing well, ageratum growing spectacularly and geraniums doing poorly (just deadheaded them). Elsewhere, small tuberous begonias doing very well.

I love the JA's in front of the blue spruce (I think)....serenity there with the color combo.

Amazing Charlie, at the difference in there and here. Your gardens look like mine in early June. So beautiful.

And whether you planned it or not, your color combinations are perfect. It just surprised me the feeling the spruce and anemones evoked.

Gorgeous.
Can you come down here and do mine??

Must admit, Sharon, that the color combinations are usually fortuitous.

Maybe what comes up, when, sometimes indoctrinates gardeners. The pastel spring plant colors seem to fit together and the hot plant colors of high summer (yellow, orange and red) also seem to go togther.

Do like as much blue or blue related color as possible, but now that's mainly only balloon flower, frikart's aster and monkshood, with fall monkshood and some New York type asters to come. Also like pink: there's lots of pink all the time.

I know David doesn't match colors, but it sometimes seems that the more different colored plants you have flowering in a bed, the less any particular color doesn't fit in.

Suspect it also takes the eye of an artist to see the the JA - blue spruce combination.

If you lived around here, my friend, I'd love to contribute to your garden.

Well, dang, Charlie, I'm not likely to live around there, but your photos inspire me. Maybe I'll copy them and have them in hand when I plant next spring, or even maybe this fall. I don't have a blue spruce, though and that is really striking.

I do have red cedars, and I took a chance on planting crocosmia beside it. Looks stunning, but red and deep green are always eyecatchers.

I just fell in love with the pink and smoky blue.

Sharon, like the sound of your color combinations.

One thing that bothers me about photographing gardens is that you only get to see what the person taking the photograph wants you to see. I've heard David making basically this point in relation to gardening magazines. In the case of gardening magazines, the intent may be to mislead prospective customers into paying the money and then expecting guaranteed effortless success in their garden.

When I take the time to think, I really think that getting all of a perennial garden to look equally good all through the growing season is like chasing an impossible dream. And the smaller the garden, the more impossible the dream.

I worked last for an apparel designer. Often involved in "photo shoots" for one publication or another. You wouldn't believe the tricks they play. Learned then to never believe what I thought I saw in a photo. The tighter the lense pulls into the subject, the less you see of surroundings that do not enhance the subject. (If the camera is tilted from a position looking up at the subject, it appears taller)

Night. night.

Christi

We can't make changes in the changes that Mother Nature throws our way, Charlie, and getting a perennial garden to look good all through the season is not something we can do very much about, you know.

Nice to be able to dream, though....even imossible ones. We might as well hitch our wagons to a star anyway. Otherwise why bother to plant.

Hey Christi....
Nite!