Birthday Blooms

My garden greeted me with birthday blooms this morning -- everywhere I turned it seemed like their little heads and faces were turned towards me and were extra vibrant and strong -- I hope to absorb that feeling for my new year!

The day has barely started and I have already received so many birthday wishes -- thank you!  I feel so loved, and so uplifted -- I am a very lucky girl -- and am living a fabulous life.  I am grateful.

Penofin - done!

I finally got the last portion of the ipe treated with the Penofin preservative.   It had a few application constraints -- scrub it down, let it dry 48 hours, apply when the wood is cool to the touch, wipe it down 20-30 minutes after application, oh, and only do it when there's no chance of rain for 24 hours... oy.  This was my third round.  I had scrubbed it down Friday morning.  It was ready for the application Sunday morning -- and I was not going to let the window of opportunity pass.

I awakened Sunday morning with a really bad stomach ache.  I had a little bit of coffee on my porch with neighbors, and as our conversation lingered I found myself shifting from sitting in the porch chair, to laying sideways in the chair, to laying on the porch itself with just my legs up in the chair, to laying stretched out on my stomach on the porch.  Obviously we were there for a couple of hours... but man, I felt like dirt. I was trying to build up the motivation to mow my lawn, and to apply the final treatment of Penofin before it got to 100 degrees outside.

Finally we decided we should all get on with our day.  We stood up, cleared the cups off the porch, neighbors left, and I promptly tossed my cookies.  Ahhh.  No wonder I felt like dirt!  Well, you know the lull after you throw up when you think -- "Oh!  I'll probably feel better now" ?  That's when I dashed out and did the Penofin:

I know, right, because that's what normal people do?  Throw up and then go apply a stinky wood preservative?  I'll tell you, the waiting 20 minutes to wipe off the excess didn't happen. I waited about 10, and then cranked up the ceiling fan and crawled into bed.  I just crawled out of it this morning.

But damn, my steps look good.

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!!