Thanks again Debra,
#4 - still laughing with joy
Here's an overly ambitious bat for ya. We still have a few watermelons we hope will make it before it gets to cold. Those ambitious fruit bats better stay away from my watermelon, they have plenty of grapes.
Photo: Overly Ambitious Fruit bat
That is the best image of the dark horsehead nebula I have ever seen. I bookmarked that site. They have a new image every day. Stargazing with my Dad was our way of bonding. He let me stay up to see unusual astronomical events even on school nights. I can remember his waking me up at 4 a.m. to see a meteor shower. I learned as much out in the middle of that peanut field with him and his telescopes as I ever did in class.
Amargia has a disproportionate number of science fiction readers and those who subscribe to magazines like Scientific American and Discover. People here have tried to get theoretical physics through my head, but too often the peculiar jargon scientist use sends my imagination veering off in weird directions. Like, I was doing okay following MKs line of reason about the microsphere until she started talking about the “different FLAVORS of quarks.” (Those different sub-atomic particles you mentioned above.) Suddenly, in my too highly visual mind, I saw the character named Quark (Star Trek/Deep Space Nine) serving quark soup to an alien business prospect. Saying something like, “I hope I didn’t put to many down quarks in for your taste.” What would an up quark or a strange quark taste like anyway? lol. What possessed the scientific minded to start using (misusing) a word like “flavor” to talk about the differences in subatomic particles. I’ll just have to wait until they come out with a book on the subject in the Dummies series. Theoretical Physics for Dummies. lol. My poor brain rebels when faced with too much abstraction. Maybe I will just content myself with looking at the night sky and just enjoying the grand art of it all. ~Nadine~
Nadine, if anyone in the house reads David Weber's Honor Harrington series, then they can tell you about the empathic connection between the main character and her 'treecat.' How emotions mentally "taste" different. Interesting concept. You could think of a down quark as something dark and spicy like mole. And an up quark as something bright and fizzy like 7-Up. :-)
Debra
Sunday, I worked in the yard for about three hours. Much less sore the next two days than the LAST time I worked three hours in the yard! LOL I was absolutely delighted to see dozens of bees on this Caryopteris Sunshine Blue. And I saw an azure butterfly flutterbying. AND saw many many more earthworms than in previous Fall clean up/plantings. Guess not using any herbicides and putting up with more weeds and nasty grassy weeds than I like is paying off. Yea!!!
Maybe, I should think beets for down quarks since I’ve never eaten mole. Fenny-dog likes them, but she never shares. (BTW, I don’t like the flavor of down quarks). I like charmed quarks best because I’ve decided to make them taste like the cereal Lucky Charms. :-) I wonder if the scientifically minded have a subtle, natural form of synesthesia. That would explain the way they use language.
That is an awesome shade of blue. I will check out caryopteris.. I think we need more blue flowered plants here to cool down the hot colors we tend to use most. The only blues in our gardens I can think of are bluejackets (Tradescantia ohiensis), blue salvia and the blue and lavender flowers most herbs tend to have. There must be lots more than that. ~Nadine~
Hey, Nadine. :-)
Don't know which would be workable for your area (or are invasive), but there's:
Plumbago
Centaurea
Catananche
Blueberries (yep-yep-yep, git me some o' those)
Hydrangea involucrata Blue Bunny (doesn't change color with soil PH)
Campanula
Delphinium
Allium
Clematis
Aquilegia
Agapanthus
Baptisia
Gentian
Hardy Geraniums
Lupines
Agastache
Evolvulus glomeratus
Phlox subulata
Scabiosa
Squill
Hyacinth
Anemone Coronaria
Ajuga
Anchusa
Buddleia
Scilla
Crocus
Dutch Iris
Muscari
Eupatorium
Lobelia
Nepeta
Stokesia
Veronica
Maybe you could find a few you like and talk MK and PJ into letting you "cool it down" a bit. LOL
Debra
I don't foresee Lobelia - the annual kind - working too well. Maybe one of the perennial ones.
Vickie, I loved your description of Hawkings! Did I already mention him saying it took a long time to get himself ready for bed after he put his daughter in her crib so he had plenty of time to think about black holes!!! My hero, even if I only got halfway through his book. My new meds are making my thinking VERY muddy -- I couldn't follow past the different flavored quarks. I like the beets vs 7up - but we're assuming they must be human food flavors! False assumption, in my opinion, but that's because taste and smell are so closely correlated. I can't even write a sentence any more.
Anyway, so far this fall I have killed a plant for which I cannot remember the name. I knew it half an hour ago; I am staring at it now I cannot remember the name of it. CALADIUM! That is it's name! Wow, I thought I would never remember it.
Phiew.
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ROFL! Yep, I’d say there are a few more blues I wasn’t up on. We probably already have blues among the irises, if SOMEONE would leave them in one place long enough to flower so that we know what colors we have. I think I will go on an iris rescue mission and place them under protective custody.
Hum-m-m, one of the few really fragrant irises is ‘Pacific Mist’ which is a pale blue. I’ll convince Kay she needs lots of those for the scented garden lol. I’m off to find more scented blue flowers and to find out if there is such a thing as a blue daylily.I could probably convince Papa Jim he needs it if it exist.. That wouldn’t be hard. Daylilies seem to be addictive. ~Nadine~
Photo: They’ve been calling me a hobbit because I want to build a subterranean house. My feet may be furry, but I’m too tall to be a hobbit. I’ve decided to be a dirt fairy. The Sultana of Soil. Her Highness of Humus. Something along those lines. For those who don’t know what a dirt fairy looks like……..
Scrapps sends a "Hi" to all of us. She is without online access now. Many things are challenging for her just now. Lets please all keep her and her familly in our prayers.
Sheri
If open for voting, I like Her Highness of Humus. Blue Fire Iris and Cycles Iris each have at least some fragrance, too. I just ordered my first "blue" iris, Best Bet. No fragrance, but it is supposed to be a rebloomer. Gotten to where I don't want Iris or Daylily or Clematis unless they have a second bloom to 'em. Am I getting spoiled?
Never noticed before today how geometric a Lantana is before the blooms fully open. And this one is multi-DayGlo. Weird.
Oh that's pretty, Debra!
Nadine, I keep seeing "N N N" in your skies. The first thing that popped into my head when I looked at the picture was "Mistress of Manure," but I like both "Sultana of Soil" and "Her Highness of Humus" VERY much. I think you should choose for yourself.
Nadine, there are NO blue daylilies or roses. Sorry, kid, you can get green or purple but not blue.
Sheri, come visit more often! And send my love and a hug to Steph if you talk to her, please, we miss her!
Nadine, did you ever take Carnations and put them in dyed water? (We used to do that at school for Mother's Day and Valentine's Day.) Just read you can do the same thing with cut white roses. So you could make your own blue ones temporarily until the plant geneticists can give us some to grow in the ground. Wonder if you planted a white one, then kept pouring blue-dyed water around it, would the shrubbery turn blue? Would the flowers? That would be fun to try out...
Daylilies do seem to be addictive. I've certainly been bitten by that bug this year. Still have two or three more to get planted before mid-November. We don't usually get too much below freezing in Winter, but we generally start getting our first 32 degree lows right before Thanksgiving and I want them in the ground beforehand.
Among all the other stuff today, dug up what was left of a Nutmeg Thyme to replace with
a Franziska Maria Clematis, using an old tomato cage as the frame/trellis. I am soooo excited about next Spring. So much new stuff going in. The thyme went in a pot. Think I will bring it inside and try to nurse it back to health. It did NOTNOTNOT like the heat and dry this year.
Debra
LOL!LOL! All particle physicists are a little on the fun nutty side.Seems to be a requirement.Quarks are also on the fun nutty side.
How many quarks can sit on the head of a pin?.....None. A quark can't sit still long enough to be counted but it can wave.I picture them as little angels that flit here and there appearing and disappearing going about their business. They are the tools God uses to make the univese.His words. They are us and we are them.He uses 3 types of glue, weak force,strong force and gravity.each works in is own little world. The smallest uses weak force glue, the next uses strong force glue and the rest uses gravity force glue.
Sheri, It goes without saying everyone here is in my prayers and specially Scraps.How are you doing by the way?
Nadine, I like her highness of humas. Someone come up with an idea for making money online. That of course is totally new There was a pet rock for awhile. What other inanimate item would make a good pet. Since i've been gathering firewood i can think of a pet stick like Cedric Ceder, Penny Pine.
Carrie, How cold is it at your house. We're due a cool down sometime ths week. Are you going to do a christmas music thing this year?
I need a mission to find the worlds only blue rose and daylily. I'm still on a mission to find a mint basil.
goodnight all,
Vickie
Sheri, give Scraps our love and prayers, in case I forget AGAIN to mail her card. I have her address, but no phone number. I’m the world’s worse about buying a card to send someone and forgetting to mail it.
Carrie, I’ll buy a truckload of organic fertilizer next month. We’ll see how Nadine likes being Mistress of Manure when it arrives. :-)
It sounds like your house will be stunning come next spring and summer, Debra. Looking forward to having Nadine describe your pics to me. Jim’s descriptions are more accurate, but Nadine’s are always so interesting. I’m still trying to imagine the dog in the picture with the tree (I think) that she described as your “fuzzy marshmallow dog.” lol
I think lantana should get extra beauty points for the berries giving them winter interest. The berries have a nice symmetry too.
Vickie, I do get much attached to my walking sticks and they are named for the people who gave them to me. Some are carved. Others just have interesting natural shapes. I sometimes make what I call chaos baskets from whatever is around. I started to toss a large old one in the fire for kindling. It wasn’t pretty in the usual sense of the word and with its very open weave, not that practical. My sister grabbed it swearing she could get a good price for it in Houston. I know only the bare basics of basket weaving and this basket was something I threw together while playing with grape vine prunings I was planning to burn. She called it “primitive art.” lol. “Ug, me artist.” Most of the walking sticks I have were purchased from roadside stores on well-used routes through the Appalachians. Is there a simple local craft your mountains are known for? Travelers seem compelled to buy a walking stick when they go through the Appellations. I’ve even intentionally made plain wreaths from my over abundance of vines and sold them to crafters to decorate. I have a book on simple, natural material craft projects to give you ideas, if you want. (Yeah, still pushing those books off on the unsuspecting. lol.) How are your eyes now anyway? Does reading print give you any trouble? Kay*
Nadine, Carrie is right. I found this Lobelia. Don't know if Amargia has the water, but it looks pretty. And if you go to the link and read the name's origin, it's innnnnteresting, too. :-)
http://www.northcreeknurseries.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/plants.plantDetail/plant_id/193/index.htm
Kay, fuzzy marshmallow dog is an excellent description of ZuZu. LOL I've always thought she looked a little bit like the Luck Dragon from The Neverending Story. Russell is my blonde Wookie. And Willie...well, he's...um, a scruffy spider monkey-looking pup. All three dogs have different tactile impressions that, I think, match up to their visual appearances. Would be fun for me to show them to you. As much as I love Texas, sometimes wish I lived close to Amargia... :-)
I hope to be taking lots of pictures in Spring. The boss got an iPhone 4 for me to use and it takes incredibly sharp photographs. I am constantly in awe of the available technology, feel lucky to have experienced the transition. Even looking just one thing like the change from rotary phones to something like the iPhone. Two-way video, for Heaven's sake!! Star Trek comes to town.
Carrie, how this for a cheery red? Going to try rooting cuttings to overwinter. Never been successful with Coleus, but there is always a first time, eh? :-)
Debra
That's a gorgeous red, Debra, although not quite orange enough for my personal reddiction!
Kay, I would (do) have a REALLY hard time discarding anything I made, no matter how crude or ineffective. I even eat the bead I make with expired yeast that doesn't rise!
Giggle for the day. (Posted it on the Wildlife forum, too.) This 'un was unconcernedly munching down on a bag of bird seed in a very busy Walmart Garden Center last Saturday. About 2:00 in the afternoon and raining. Fueling up before swimming upstream? LOL
Debra
Looking through Swan Island Dahlias found this one is called Nadine Jessie (we'll ignore the second part). It is a beautiful color and would go nicely with strawberry blonde hair, too. :-D
It's PURPLE!!! (My favorite color.) That one WILL be here next summer!
Is that an opossum shopping at WalMart? Or, some other kind of critter?
~Nadine~
'tis, indeed, a 'possum. calm, clever one, too.
Nadine,
Bought some blue flowering plants at Lowes this morning. The Lobelia is an annual, but that COLOR!
The Scabiosa is pastel, but is supposed to be a 'water wise' perennial.
Debra
Shade closeup
Never been too sure Scabiosa would do okay in my yard, but for $2.49 it's worth the experiment. Putting it by the roses.
Windy today, so picture is blurry. Still shows closeup of the blossom form.
Talk about a beautiful dahlia!!! My grandmother loved dahlias. She probably would've sold her soul for that one. She passed in the 50,s.
I guess it's about that time to start ordering plant catalogs to keep us sane during the winter months.
Debra, I'm so deprived!!!!! My Lowes have no plants now but they do have that electric fireplace i'm getting the third. Am looking forward to someone having Christmas cactus. I want a white one this year.I seem to have good luck growing them.
I'm surprised Walmart did'nt cage the possum and sell it.
Carrie, I have a hard time discarding anything too.But i love to give away things i make.
Cricket and Miss Kitty are in my lap sound asleep. Miss KITTY SNORES BIG TIME.LOL
I just realized that possum was just outside of Dallas.He's a big city possum. No wonder he shops at Walmarts.
Oh, Debra, they have whole THREADS on how to keep that kind of annual lobelia alive in the crispier parts of the summer. I'll try to cue you in on some next summer. (If I remember. Ours are all dead, now.) But there are kinds of perennial blue lobelia I believe. (Lobelia sylphatica?)
Possums aren’t nearly so spooky looking in the daylight. At night, all you really see are their glowing, red eyes.
I’m posting a picture I snapped yesterday in lieu of my usual cartoon. My boyfriend thinks this is as funny as anything I’ve ever drawn.
The Wiregrass area is known for some unusual monuments and large scale ART. (MK says she has already posted a pic of our famous, giant, steel pig.) The pig is just to make people grin, but don’t ask me to explain this monument. While I consider myself a homegirl, this one I’ve never understood.
This classic, sober monument is dedicated to a BUG. Specifically, the boll weevil. The critter that once ruined this part of the south economically.
I know the history of it. I just don’t get it. Cotton was King here before the boll weevil. The botanist George Washington Carver saved things when he introduced the peanut as a cash crop. Before Carver, peanuts were only eaten by livestock and “po`folks.” Now, half the peanuts grown in the U.S. are grownwithin a 100-mile radius. (In fact, the Peanut Festival Fair is going on as I write this.) I would understand if the pretty lady was holding a peanut, but why, oh why, is she holding a boll weevil.
My elders (who wish to remain anonymous) told me it was once a favorite Halloween “trick” to steal the boll weevil from the lady’s hand and put it in some other weird public place. The weevil is now well secured and will be closely watched tonight. We take our beetles seriously here. ~Nadine~
See, I'm not putting you on....this time.
OK, inquiring minds MUST know! What has the boll weevil done for the prosperity of Coffee County, AL?
OK, the boll weevil prompted the residents of Enterprise and Coffee County to diversify from cotton to peanuts, so, unlike other folks throughout the south, they avoided bankruptcy. It's the Only Monument in the US dedicated to a pest! I wonder if I could pull off a quick article about this? I've sot of been given the publish or perish speech - and I'm very close to perishing.
If you can unravel the mystery of the boll weavil monument, I would love to read about it. I wonder what in the world those folks were thinking every time I pass thru the city of Enterprise. It is in the downtown section situated on an island in a busy intersection so you can't miss it. Their logic totally eludes me.
Those are some stunning blues. (MY favorite color) I bet my hummers and flutterbies would like them too. (Jim)
That shade of blue is my favorite, too, Jim. :-)
Carrie, the Boll Weevil Monument has a wild history. The one in Nadi's photo isn't the original one. Check out:
http://www.weevilwonderland.com/
Happy Gardener's New Year, Everyone. lol. Bring on those plant catalogs!
Kay*
Yes, Kay, I've been there. You should show that site to Jim the mystified, I think.
Well, I guess it is about time he learned the real story. But, we do so love listening to some of the theories he weaves. My favorite of those has to be the one revolving around
we Southerners and our love for icy Coca-Cola coupled with the original recipe of the beverage. It was so interesting that no one had the heart to tell him they took cocaine out of the Coca-Cola recipe a decade or so before the monument was created. Truth is not always stranger than Jim's fiction. Kay*
I've heard about the original coca cola receipe forever and never really beleived it. Now i hear it's true. Who'd uh thunk!! LOL
Carrie, We do need a story about the Boll Weavel. It was really important to southern Agri.
If the Boll Weavel caused the spread of peanut growing, I think we ought to crown him King Boll Weavel, cause i do love peanuts and peanutbutter.errr I mean Goober Peas.
Also prefer wearing synthetics to cotton mostly.
I would love to see that statue. Sure wish i could share pictures with you.
Mama Kay spelled it out for Papa Jim and me. I think I finally get it. The mystery was WHY a group of people would feel compelled to erect such an odd monument. Papa Jim had a mental block because of where he came from. Mine had more to do with WHEN I came from.
You understand when you look at the nature of the city itself. Enterprise has always prided itself on being….well, enterprising. Progressive. Forward-thinking. Not easy to be in a region that is so steeped in tradition and history. The nearby community of Newton is the oldest city in Alabama. I think the boll weevil monument was a way of tweaking the noses of more stodgy deeply traditional communities. A polite, adult, socially acceptable way of saying “Nah, nah, nah-nah, nah….we were right! It makes sense in that light. It is like what Debra and MK posted about at the end of PM#7. It is the visual equivalent of “Bless your heart, Darlin’.” lol.
Did you all catch yesterday’s article on blue plants? Now, THAT is service!
Yeah, Vickie. I think there is a place in Texas that has a peanut festival too. ~Nadine~
Been raining since 11:00 this morning. I am very happy. Just received bulbs from Bluestone and the soil will be just right for digging come Sunday. Tulips Ivory Floradale, Akebono, and Burgundy (Lily flowering), and Muscari latifolium. (photo from www.veldsiergewassen.nl) The plan is to have the Iris dug up and moved, too. Definitely having help! LOL Chilly enough to have turned on the heat for the first time this year. Going to cozy up with some flannel and a soda. Watch a little sillyvision, look through some gift catalogs, and be glad for my house...and electricity. :-)
