The Joke is On Me

These weren't sunflowers after all!

This is the bed of mixed seeds for butterflies.  I was sure these were sunflowers... but I guess if I had thought about it, I would have realized that sunflowes and butterflies aren't necessarily an obvious match.  I guess I just wanted them to be sunflowers.  These look like gerber daisies or something similar.  They are as tall as I am!  (I had to stand on the yoga platforms to get the photos.)
I have tried so many different seeds to get the sunflowers with the heads the size of dinner plates -- and so far - FAIL.  Waaah.  I don't understand.  Unless the ones along my garden suddenly transform;  I haven't totally given up yet.

Morning Harvest

I hadn't walked the garden in a few days, and this morning I found these to harvest:

The trellis for the cucumbers worked just beautifully!  Re: the one yellow crook-necked squash -- I had yanked out all my zucchini out of frustration -- knee high, beautiful bountiful blossoms and no fruit -- and left this plant remaining.  Maybe it sensed it's days were numbered... LOL  I have another squash plant left -- I can't recall what type -- and it's doing the same thing -- no fruit -- and the melon vine would really like it's box space, so... well... I think you get the picture.  Produce.  Or else.  You've been warned.  And I finally got a tomato before whatever rodent has been enjoying nocturnal dining got it.  Victory!  (I put netting over the plants this morning, hopefully to enjoy more tomatoes!)

And my Sugar Baby Watermelon vine is just covered in blossoms and these little tiny grape-sized melons:

I hope I get a zillion of them.

Ahhh -- so nice!

We had an intense round of  thunderstorms overnight!  The thunder woke me up around 3, and I mostly tossed and turned after that, listening to the blissful sounds of rain.  I nearly got up to go sit on my porch, but ultimately was too lazy -- snuggled down in the bed.  Doggy never even lifted her head -- she is unphased by storms.

My rain barrels are replenished -- well, except for the one on my back steps that I have out of place while in the process of applying wood preservative.  It almost killed me to not let that one fill up... but considering it weighs over 400 pounds full, I made myself leave it alone.  I noted this morning that where I have already applied preservative the water beaded up on the wood.  Sweet.

My tomatoes were tipped over from the winds, but don't appear to have sustained any real damage.  I uprighted them and they seem fine.  I did, however, notice that another tomato has been munched on by something -- and this time a green one!  I think I'm going to put the bird netting over them that I bought for my raspberries (and put on, then removed, because I hadn't given it a proper structure.)  And I also have a gizmo that you hook up to the hose and it's motion sensitive -- when it senses motion it sprays water!  I'd been needing a good reason to take it out of the box -- and this is it.  It's been suggested to me that it isn't squirrels eating them... and frankly I'm not sure I want to know what else it might be...

I am so pleased with the good soaking all my plants got -- the morning seemed all fresh and new.  We had such a pleasant dog walk this morning -- and everyone I passed was in almost a holiday mood with the change in weather.  I'll enjoy it while I can.

And a shout-out to my parents, who celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary on Sunday, and to my sister in Minnesota, who just had her birthday -- I promise, my gift should have arrived by now!! 

My Bug Catcher

As big as she is, she still sometimes half disappears in my front lawn... lol

Yoga Under the Steps

This was my space for yoga yesterday afternoon:

Check out the date stamp in the corner of the footing!  Happy.

I did the "plank" pose many times --



and I did this locust pose quite a few times --



My personal variation was that, when my arms were outstretched like that I had a drill in my hands.

Are you on to me yet?  The yoga was a side benefit to affixing the final pieces of lumber for the steps to the steel frame.  I am the original multi-tasker.  I could also say I was doing hot yoga, because the temp was 100 yesterday.  At least I was mostly in the shade.

My tools?  Two rugs that my parents made.  My nifty new miniature rechargeable drill.  My indoor hand mirror.  My cap light that affixes to the brim of a ball cap.  A Sharpie marker, and a box of screws.  Off we go.

Immediately I regretted not marking the planks as to which one when where.  What was I (not) thinking??  Stupid.  Two of the boards had a little square mark from where the clamps had been, so I had a 50/50 chance of getting those two in the right place.  I recalled that one plank had a split in the end, and I thought I recalled where that one had been... so that left me 3 to jockey between 2 steps and rotate end to end until I figured out what position made the 8 holes line up.  It seemed like about 30 times that I alternated from squatting in front of the stairs where normal people access steps, and laying on my belly under the stairs, down there where the spiders live.  Oh, and let's not forget snakes (see previous post...)  I had just been under there a few days prior, and surely I had unintentionally cleared out all the spider webs.  And yet... lots of dangly sticky things.

The project took me a good two hours -- I put in 40 screws.  I didn't count how many times I scooted under the steps on my belly, got something in place, and then scooted out and went around to the front of the stairs for the front part. (Did I mention yet that it was 100 degrees outside?  Oh, yes I did.  Nevermind.)  The underside where the screws went had a vertical separation underneath so I could only reach one half at a time. 

Here's a view looking up at the underside of a step:

That gray line down the middle?  That is a "fin" that hangs down about 4 inches and runs from end to end of each step.  You can see a strip of wood on the far right, where the wood overhangs the front of the step.   You can understand why I needed a hand mirror and a flashright, right?  There was no way to see where I was working -- and what's more fun than totally reversing your view of your workspace??  As a side note, I nearly failed geometry in junior high.  Reversing everything?  Rock on!

Here's another view of the workspace:

See how the rug drops off steeply to the right?  That, and about a foot deeper is where I had to get with the drill.  Lovely!

Anyway, I got it done:

And just because we can, let's look down from the landing:

Obviously still more wood preservative to apply... note the drastic color change.  I can't believe the sun has faded the wood so much so fast!  Welcome to Texas...