And Everything Exploded

It was dark when we got home last night, so of course I couldn't go out in my back yard and see what had happened during the 10 days we had been gone. You can guess where I went first thing this morning. Needless to say I was amazed. You just never notice how much growth there is when you see things every day. But when you've been away for a period of time - things seem to go "kaboom!" I have a watering system hooked up, which injects fertilizer into the lines, and I have it set to water on a daily basis. That might help just a tish. So here's a little tour:

The humming birds love the red salvia in this picture. On the left is grape that Ole planted this spring. It's already half way up a 10 foot arbor.


That's a wisteria with all the tendrils hanging out looking for a place to climb. I would allow it to climb, but then I'd have to chop it down in the fall because I have to take it in. It's not hardy here.

I absolutely love ferns and have a ton of them in the ground in various places around the house. I also love the potted hanging variety and I must say this one is humongous! It's in a perfect place - shaded and no wind, and with the humidity we have here it does very well. Below that is a Christmas cactus - it belonged to my grandmother who passed it to my mom who gave it to me when she didn't have room for it anymore. I keep it outside in the shade all summer long and don't take it in until the temps reach about 40 degrees in the fall. It never fails to bless me with a beautiful display of flowers starting around Thanksgiving until some time in January.

This is a daylily that's put on quite a display for me. I think it's called Pirate's Cove. I bought it from a magazine ad that didn't have the price posted, but thinking a daylily couldn't be more than $10 or $15 at the most. Boy was I surprised when the bill came - it was just a "wee" bit more than that. Ole would have my head if he knew what I ended up paying for it Oh, well.

I was so thrilled to see this one come up this year. Years ago my mother used to have a big bed of old fashioned tiger lilies. So of course when we started landscaping I got some from her. Over the years they seemed to have disappeared. Now after about 10 years, this one popped up out of nowhere. Believe me, I'll baby it along so it will reproduce.

That's a clematis vine - too bad the beautiful purple blossoms don't show up better, but it's just covered. I love clematis - I've got four huge trellises with different colors on each one.

And here's my snowball bush. It's blossomed for me before, but the heads have never been this big. I'm going to pick them and dry them this fall because they turn a beautiful burnished bronze color when they're dry.

There you have it, Folks, just a bit of a tour of current conditions. Friends of Lovely Daughter's are having an engagement party for her and Lars in a couple of weeks. I volunteered my backyard because neither of the girls giving the party have back yards big enough to hold all the people invited. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't be in shape for an event after being gone for a couple of weeks. Usually by that time the weeds are taller than the flowers. But things look like they're well under control, so it should be okay.

Well, I guess I've goofed off enough for today. Today's plan is to unload and clean the RV. It won't be too big a job though - not as big a job as loading because I'm leaving a lot of the things in it because we plan to take off again in October, barring any surgery complications with Ole's leg.

BTW, just an update on that: Ole's leg is looking pretty darn good these days. Granted, at this point he could probably win the world's ugliest leg contest, but it's so much better than it was. He goes in to see the surgeon next week, so we should know more where he stands then. He sunburned his lower lip when out riding and he says that hurts worse than the leg now. So I KNOW he's making progress.

Ta, ta!! More later.

Love Lena