I am resolved to stop with beginning blog posts with “It’s been a busy couple of weeks…” Considering we have three kids, multiple house projects, two full time jobs, and holidays and visitors moving through the calendar and house that is obviously a “no shit, it’ll be like that till ya die” statement. So like, here is a recap of some of the recent goings-on.
Continue reading “A Day in the Lonesome October”
So we’ve had a bit of business around here, most good, some less than great- and as I always do when it’s been a while- I wind up in my own head that the first post back has to be awesome and then give myself writer’s block. The only surefire way around this is, of course, a verging on nonsensical picture heavy post.
Continue reading “This and That”
We all learn and remember things best in different ways- a fascinating concept, really.
Continue reading “French Cottage Garden Style”
The garden in August is a lesson in survival and non-survival. Miss a day’s watering and your three year old spirea is toast. (Not a hypothetical example). It’s cut to the ground and is starting to leaf back out- that was touch and go though, it was in no way a given that it would survive. But, here’s what is going on out there right now…
You can’t see all the bees in this picture… there were at least 4. Pickings are slim for pollinators these days so we’re all happy to have the flowers we do.
Tithonia (the Mexican Sunflower) is over 4′ tall now
Orange, Red, and Purple… I may pass on recreating that in an ice dyed scarf…
Mexican Olive Tree- gotta be close to 6′ tall now. The Mexican Redbud is doing great too. If I had Mexican Oregano I’m sure it’d be thriving.
So the days are past that we sit over here for the aesthetic.
The tomatoes are really struggling. Turns out the curled leaves I was concerned about on the Bobcat and HM 1823 is just the tomato response to extreme heat, so NOT a disease as I originally thought. The cherry tomatoes are still producing- though Sweet 100 is doing better on the volume of crop we’re collecting in the middle of this summer, but the Sungold has set lots of new fruit after a couple of week’s lull.
I’m already needing a stepladder to harvest- gotta be 12′ these days, but it’s starting to curve back down.
My buddies- the caterpillars for black swallowtail butterflies. We have 7 right now- how I love them!
Lord it’s so hot. We’re all just hanging in there for fall… which usually hits right around late November ’round these parts…
My husband and I were sitting in the backyard last weekend and noticed a black swallowtail butterfly flit around the potted plants. I told my husband it had been doing it for hours and when I went over and checked the parsley I called him over to see- a newly laid butterfly egg! And look- there is another, and another!
Did he reply with wonderment at the beauty of nature? Or with wonderment at me and my insanely good eyesight and perceptivity? Yes, that last one… kinda. What he said was something to the effect of: Picking nits from the past few lice incidents has really paid off! Well. Yes. I guess it has, my love. I guess it has.
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I remember helping my cousin Jennifer collect bugs once for a school project. And now that I think of it- she was homeschooled so how the hell did that work? Anyway. I caught a huge red wasp in a tupperware container- and it beat against the lid like a drum. And there were a few beetles, maybe a June bug? All I remember is the wasp really (for obvious, scare the hell out of you reasons) and that I was SO good at catching bugs she put me in charge of the jar. (Gee… thanks? Is white-washing the fence fun too?) But anytime she would point out a butterfly I’d only pretend to try to catch it and shoo it away instead. At the end of the day we had enough bugs for her collection and not a single one was a butterfly. I was 10.
And today not only do I grow plants in my garden to attract and feed the adult butterflies I love so well, I grow host plants for their caterpillars to eat too. And while some of the caterpillars are cool, some really display the depth of my devotion because they… well they’re not cute. I have a key lime tree which is the host to my favorite butterfly, the Giant Swallowtail. Who’s caterpillar is basically bird poop. Think I’m kidding?
Boom. Evolution is wonderfully specific at times.
And then that thing turns into this…
My Precious!
And I really don’t know why the story was about an ugly duckling turning into a swan… because bird poop turning into a butterfly wins that competition ALL day long.
the something garden 