Monthly Archives: June 2016

Jun30

Lilies!!!

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Okay, so only two pictures. But its’s early days yet, so not many out!


I call this my black lily – of course it isn’t black at all. I have oodles of these, all in pots. They are so tall! 


Second year for these guys. Also very tall, but foliage-wise they are skinnier and less leafy than the ‘black’ ones. 


And a bit raggedy-looking this year. Something’s been at them.

More to come, I see lots of lilies with closed blooms are changing from green to red or pink or yellow or just darker over all – I have a lot of lilies and forget what colours they all are until they open. Surprises for me, every year! 

Jun29

Educational Garlic Post

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Remember this thing I posted (mixed in with loads of flowers, I know, it got ignored).


Well! It turns out this a called a garlic scape. They are only found on hard-neck garlic. 

I never buy garlic to plant: I shove whatever I bought in the shop into the ground when it gets all growy-green, dried up and inedible, therefor I have never had a clue what type of garlic I was growing. Turns out that over the years I’ve been doing this (except for this beastie), we have only purchased the soft-neck variety for cooking.

It turns out you can eat the scape, too! Google ‘eating garlic scapes.’ How cool is that? 

I won’t eat this one as it would be a paltry meal. I’ll take the other path that says when the scape is less like a snake and more like a stake and standing upright, it is time to harvest. I might split the bulb and make more for next year as I love garlic and some of the recipes out there sound delicious. 

Thank you to Quickcrop.ie for the education in garlic scapes. 

Jun24

Cat Post

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The boys earlier this evening. Panned out in the sun, Spot on my leg-pillow and Lokii simply having to be close to his ‘brother’.


Whoops, I woke Spot up. It wasn’t for long.


My favourite recent picture of Spottie – yawning in the sunshine!

I think this needs a meme. Anyone?

Jun23

Miss America…

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…is something I rarely do. But today I saw something so awesome I’d like to hop a plane to California just to try it.


Burger King’s Mac n’ Cheetos. It is mac and cheese, deep fried in a Cheetos crust.

I want this bit of frankenfood in my mouth right now. I don’t care how bad it is for me. I want it in my bellah. I want deep fried Cheeto smell all over my fingers. And orange teeth. 

I haven’t had Mac and cheese in a couple of years, and I haven’t had a Cheeto in over a decade. If anyone deserves to eat this, it is me!

Here’s a taste-test video. Damn him, damn him to hell for getting a bite of comfort-food heaven (he might be going there already for saying ‘digging it’ so damn often).

I’m also annoyed that they spelled it n’ instead of ‘n. Burger King, fix that! I love you.

Jun22

Munching and Meandering in the Garden

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I finally have strawberries coming ripe in my new planters!
Slugs or something still had a nibble, dammit. Ate them anyway.


And the raspberries are ripening, too! I have a LOT of these this year, and while the wind is doing damage, the sheer weight of the fruit is bending/breaking them more. Our soil is mostly rocks, and I didn’t put in anything to tie them to, like an eejit. They are also really dense, so I’m going to have a lot of trouble finding the ripe ones every morning. I didn’t think this one was quite ‘done’ yet – but a bird did. It was gone the next morning, entirely! Argh. Need to make a scarecrow!


These glowing orange, shop bought lilies are always the first to bloom, every year. Even better, they are the first ones I ever grew or owned – iDJ bought them for me, oh geez, about 9 years ago? We didn’t have many plants then. He was just learning that I preferred growing flowers to cut ones. I can’t recall now, but seeing what time of year they bloom, they could have been a ‘moving to Ireland anniversary’ gift.


What the hell, tomatoes? Come on now, we don’t have a lot of time left!


The big hosta is in bloom. Flower stalks aren’t as tall this year, I’ve noticed. And the purple one hasn’t even tried yet. Hrumph. 


Another mutant. It is SO much larger than the other violas. No idea why. 


Rose…


Wild daisies. Dog Daisy? These are everywhere on the roadside right now – love them. So when they moved in, I let them stay!


This one is on purpose: one I grew for himself. My first shasta daisy from seed, started last year, and it did naught until now. Do you like shasta daisies? Yes? No?


Going to end as usual on my very favourite of the week, and in this case it is my favourite rose. It’s very hard to get a pic of this where the colour is accurate! 

One of Aldi’s finest bare-root roses, and I don’t know what this is called anymore but it is lavender, not pink. I’ve been struggling for years with this one, and right now there are a record four blooms/buds! One of my treasures. 

Jun14

Flowers (and Some Not-Flowers) in June

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New Gerbera Daisy. Hubby bought me…six. They were on sale, and my batch of seeds did nothing this year. I won’t complain! This one, however, is very sickly. Not sure what to do to cure it. Gave it a good overnight soak indoors, then outside now that it is cooler and raining again (sigh for me, good for plants). I think it even looks rather cranky!

That’s a lotta gerberas. I have no idea if they will overwinter here – but I think not. So now I need to find some room inside for them when it gets cold again.


More foxglove (digitalis). Still going strong, but losing blooms all over the driveway. Sad.


More pink roses.


First white rose of the year! Such big blooms (it is more a tree than a bush, this rose) and smell amazing. I might only get a few this year as I’m battling black spot and rust on this beast. 


I’ve forgotten what this is. But it’s blooming. 


First rudbeckia – I think – it overwintered and now I’m not sure what it is! Might be the other thing I grew from seed…ah well.


Clematis! These are growing up the grey willow. A good 16ft or 5m up the grey willow! Shame it is so thick you can’t see the well. 


Oh, and we finally finished the trellises! Now to get those new clematis growing up them to cover that ugly wall. That’s Neko’s ball, by the way. And sometimes I play with Neighbour Cat with it – she likes to chase it, too.


California poppy! Love this thing. It’s in several places now, and I don’t mind a bit, unlike the Duggar Flowers. 


We got the yellow one on heavy discount as it was nearly dead (waterlogged). Glad to see it is coming back.

Some not-flowers:


Any idea what this is? I didn’t plant it. Found it in with something I had grown, knew it wasn’t a weed, and moved it. Arborvitae?


This is garlic that I apparently missed when I dug them all up last autumn. It seems to want to bloom. I’m a bit baffled by the curling stem – it didn’t start out that way! Should I be letting this happen? I have enough garlic now that I don’t need more, so I thought I’d let it go and see what happens.

Best for last! 


I have pinto beans! I took these pics on Sunday (they are much bigger now), when I went outside for the daily perusal of plants, and was just thrilled to bits.

These are genuine Colorado ‘Bill Zee’ pintos, sent to me by the lovely, loving, and wonderful Linda over at Life on a Colorado Farm in the bottom of a classic bean-bag (no, not the kind we threw at each other as kids). If you don’t know her blog already, GO. Farming, rainbows, dogs, cats, cows, and the occasional happy grandchild or family get together. I’m proud to call her friend. 

I am so pleased to be able to have a connection via the soil to someone so far away. I just hope I do these accident-beans proud!