Check Out My Nearest Neighbor's Garden!

This garden belongs to my neighbor to the south. Isn't this a lovely hybiscus?

Look at a portion of their deck.

And, how about their Black-eyed Susans?
Beautiful daylily... notice the long, strap-like petals.

Here's a vibrant red daylily.



And, what about these Balloon Flowers?


They have a lot of shade, too. Note these lovely hostas.


And this great, green hydrangea.
I know it's hard to take, but it's pretty "green" (and colorful) over there!

Last Night's Adventure

We bought a new tent. And we tried it out last night at our local County Conservation Park.

Not long after we arrived, we made a fire in anticipation of grilling the food we'd prepared at home. The menu included mini-pizzas made with pie irons and sliced apples/sugar/cinnamon with a touch of butter in aluminum foil packets. Yum! Crustless pie. ;-)



Recipes using pie irons can be as varied as anything conjured within your imagination. We always use spray oil to coat the irons first. Next we butter one side of each (2) slice of bread. Placing the buttered side against the iron, we put the ingredients onto the first slice of bread, covering the area of the pie iron. Place the second slice over the mixture and top with second slice. Cover with the second iron and hook the latch to keep it closed. Cut off excess bread, including crust. In this case, we used pizza sauce, mushrooms, meat, olives, and shredded cheese. Lay over the grill and turn fairly often. It doesn't take much time at all. When baked, open the iron and let your pie cool on a plate (they're Very Hot!). It doesn't matter if they're a tad brown, but you don't want to burn them!


At other times, you might make dessert pies with pie filling inside. In the case of dessert, sprinkle exterior of baked pie with sugar (it's good!). Enjoy after it's cooled a bit.

Here's the interior of our tent. What a nice surprise to find skylights!


This morning's guest, between the mesh top of the tent and the weather cover, was Daddy Long Legs. He was not unwelcome, especially given the fact that he occupied no room in the tent at all. I'm going to see who comes to visit the next time we go camping!

Hopefully for a bit longer stretch of time. Always like camping in the shade of some nice tall trees! And I always enjoy long walks on trails in and out of the shade!

Rain!

Entry updated 7/23/07
Rain! We received 1.8" of rain late afternoon/early evening yesterday. Yippee - except that it POURED and from uphill neighbors and the upslope of the front of our own yard, run-off happened! Ran a river... right through the SW part of the yard! And it happened again this past week... 2" through the night and early morning.

We received another .7" this morning. And it looks like there will be rain again tonight! (And it happened again... 2" through the night and early morning.) Both nights' downpours were preceeded by high winds, and hail the first night (not always a good sign).

I have a goal of eventually creating a "dry bed" on the south side of our house... which would facilitate the run-off, and look very nice at other times. At least everything looks wonderful out there. And I've been able to discontinue watering for a few days.

Here's a photo of my "Madonna" day lily being nibbled by a kinda-cute little green insect. I was just told that it's a katydid nymph. He's down in the center. Click on the photo if you want to get closer. A tribe of these fellows, all of different sizes, made themselves at home on another bloom, practically denuding the petals of their color. (See the tiny spot where this fellow has been working?)
This is a Blackberry Lily. I first noticed it blooming yesterday. Out back, in the shade . . . hmmm, where's my lemonaide?

A cute new hosta

(An aside... we received .3" of rain last night. I'm so glad I took time to water yesterday!)

Here's a cute miniature hosta that was given me by my Aunt MEA! It's called Baby Tears.

Here's the other Golden Tiara (Aunt MEA) in bloom.

Speaking of blooms, do most of your hosta blooms appear on the sides of the scape? Notice the examples below:

However, check out the blooms on Praying Hands! They're "whorled."


Speaking of things in a flower garden! Look at what I found in my front yard Sunday afternoon! Wonder if anyone else spotted them??

I must admit that they're my husband's decoys. Sorry.

I guess I have a few random birds in the beds, too... ;-)

It's been a little dry

It's been dry for the past few weeks. So, I watered again. I'm hoping it might rain a bit tonight. I'm operating on the theory that if you wash your car, it'll rain. So perhaps if I water everything in sight, it'll rain. We'll see.

I'm planning to stick pretty close to home for awhile. I miss being more relaxed about working outdoors (i.e., when it needs it, when I want to, etc.) I must paint the shed in the backyard. It needs it. I'm going to add some "funky" trim colors. You'll see it when I'm finished.

I was with my parents last week for a few days. We had a fun visit. We walked through a park that my dad worked in often when he was an active member of the Men's Garden Club. This photo shows where my mom, my aunt, my dad and I crossed a creek, instead of returning by way of the trail we'd just traveled. That added a bit of excitement to the day!After the near-impasse, we continued on the trail. Looking down, Aunt MEA noticed a shoe. We don't know the story behind this lost shoe, but I'm sure I could come up with one!

(This is not my photo.) I purchased a "Strawberry Candy" daylily and planted it right after I got home! I was so excited to find one at a local nursery near my parents' home! I'd tried growing a bare-root baby from a gardening catalog 3 Springs ago. It didn't grow. They replaced it the next Spring, but that one didn't grow, either. I gave up.


However, both bare-root "Custard Candy"plants grew. And they're blooming like crazy this year. They're even extra-sturdy plants. You can sure tell I'm not in control! (Again, this is not my photo.)

Strawberry Candy now resides in the raised bed garden (which is "coming together." Just a few more plans, plants and renovations; then it'll be time to work a bit more in the rest of the yard... back in the shade.

A Visit to the Prairie

We revisited the prairie tonight. Here's an update on the changes in scenery:
The gray headed coneflower is blooming profusely, as is the purple coneflower.


There's a little monarda (bee balm) here and there...As well as a great collection of "this and that!" You'll again see black-eyed daisies, and some blackberries! Something for everyone.



And this was the sight we beheld as we were readying to leave...

This was definitely worth staying for! Even if I did end up finding a total of 9 wood ticks climbing outside (and inside!) my clothing. Nothing shady about ticks... just very sneaky.

We're Back Home Again!

I spent 4 hours in the yard today... watering, weeding, pampering and preening. It felt good to be home again.

We had a Very Nice Time with our Michigan family! We enjoyed walks, picnic-ing, and accompanying them as our 3 1/2 yr old and 1 3/4 yr old granddaughters took a little ride "on the range." "Grandpa" held the baby (6 weeks) while I took this mini video. (I had a much better video (longer!) but after waiting an hour with it still not being uploaded, I used this tiny one instead.)
Their Dad & Mom walked alongside the girls.



And, here's our new "little fellow!"Don't let anyone fool you. It's quite the special privilege to be grandparents. We look forward to our next visit!

And, now that we're home again... I'll take a little advice from the grandson and hang out in the shade!