Monthly Archives: July 2016

Jul29

Lightning flashes

Posted on by
Standard

An old story that needs retelling. One of the highlights of my life.

heretherebespiders

I was reminded tonight of something that happened to me once. Something that might fill most people with immense fear. I suppose I technically could add it to the list of times that I’ve almost died, but for me (and one complete stranger), I don’t think of it that way at all – and it was one of the most incredible mornings of my life.

I lived in Florida at the time. I grew up there, but had gone away for many years. I came back, helped a bit, and screwed up a bit. I was still trying to find a place to fit back in, in the place that used to be my home, and I had found a job at a horse stable – the kind of place that keeps stalls that other people rent to keep their horses. It was rather far away from where I lived…

View original post 1,054 more words

Jul28

Feelin’ Hot

Posted on by
Standard

Some of you are, anyway. Not here! But it’s a good excuse for me to do a post on hot red or orange blooms.


Crocosimia ‘lucifer’ in three stages of blooming.


And an orange variety, maybe montbretia? Had it for years but this is the first time it honoured us with flowers. 


Rudbeckia! Comes back every year so far.


The thing that isn’t rudbeckia. Something with a G? Man I’m terrible. Grown from seed a few years ago now, it also come back.

Edit: it’s Galliardia!


A new one this year! This time I haven’t a clue due to a packaging mis-label, because this is NOT gladiolus callianthus. Oh well. 


Gazania! 


Red and black lilies, more of Aldi’s pixels mix. I should be the Aldi bulb spokesperson! 

Jul24

They’re Heeeeere!

Posted on by
Standard

It’s that time of year again – Tigridia Time! The first bloom opened yesterday and I missed it! It was closed up by the time I spotted it.  I found that quite strange as I had moved the same pot earlier in the day. Unobservant me…

But I got today’s stunner, before it shut itself away forever.

Jul22

Under the Pink?

Posted on by
Standard

I was doing so well posting for a while, then…life happened. Oh well. Here’s some catch-up pictures.

Variagated fuscia bush, a gift from the neighbors.


A pretty plant, both close up and over all (the close up bloom pic is the one alllll they way over on the left).

The pinto beans are starting to look happier, if a bit small still.


The heat we had Monday/Tuesday this week helped a lot!


Tomatoes are still struggling. These are smaller than my smallest fingernail. Dammit. 


The other hosta is blooming. Okay it’s more lavender than pink, sue me.


Astilbe is fantastic this year! I let it dry to near-death by accident last year, and all the blooms died. This was dug out of a very neglected garden, at least four years ago, from a house my Canadian friend was renting. This is the best it has ever looked. Apparently I scared the life back into it!


Another lily – I do like this one quite a lot. It makes me think of country gardens with huge bushes of pale pink roses. And cream, really fresh cream. Aldi again, planted just last year: “lollipop.” 

Jul18

Disaster

Posted on by
Standard


The heavy wind last week took down a huge branch of one of my roses. Dammit. I intend to cut it back this autumn, but I didn’t want to lose a good meter of growth in July. It was so lovely, too.

I’d try sticking it in water to see what happens (I have crazy luck with that sort of thing), but it is so infested with black spot that it isn’t worth it. Bummer.

Jul4

Top Posts? How does WP decide are yours?

Posted on by
Standard

Do you ever wonder what WordPress decides are your top posts? I do. I’ve been posting a lot lately, and that means lots of new people come along and like my most recent blogging mess. I get an email that gives little information but a name, a gravatar (seriously, what is the point of those?) and their three top posts. Usually I’ll click one of them to see what is so special, then go to the home page, scroll down a few posts looking to see if we actually DO have anything in common, then to the about (if there is one) page.

As an experiment, I tried liking my last post myself. No, I’m not a raging narcissist! I was hoping I’d get one of those emails about my own blog. No such luck!

Unless you know another method to figure out how WP decides this stuff, I propose the following: like this post, and I’ll collect the emails by a cropped screen-shot (email not included) and post all of the results in another post. Should be interesting, no?

And if anyone wants to do me the same favour, I’d be grateful – I’m so curious!

Jul2

More Lilies!

Posted on by
Standard

“Black” ones…


…yellow ones…


…orange and red ones…


…yellow and red ones…


…and one teeny tiny white and pink one. 

All the multi-coloured ones are Aldi “pixels mix,” so I had no idea what would come up. 

Now for scale!


Very different in heights! The tall one is the yellow and red spotted.


Most of this massively overgrown mess is black lilies, but there are red ones with black spots in there also – and the one wee white and pink one I only found today, hidden in the back. Including the pot, the tallest one is just about 5ft or 1.5m tall.