Hydrangea

My hydrangea is budding out. I should have open flowers by the weekend. I'm kinda wondering if they are going to be pink or blue this year. Regardless, I need to fertilize it with food for acidic plants this year. As well as the Rhodies.

The chrysanthemum that I thought I lost last year, is coming back strong. The little yellow buds are about to burst forth. Maybe I'll get around to posting photos one of these days.

Weekly Update

So, I was having a good weekend until I mowed the lawn.

I had gotten notice that the landlord wants to have the deck powerwashed and restained. Which I took as notification that he had managed to come out and look at the fence. So, I dug out an old piece of wood from the stack behind the shed and propped up the fence. I had done it just in time for the last batch of thunderstorms. It held up fine.

One morning on the way to work, I saw a little frog on my front sidewalk. He was about the size of my thumb and brown in the near dawn darkness. I left him to go about his job of eating bugs.

I had taken the day off Friday and was working in the living room on stuff. While I was sitting there, several little birds were looking for birdseed. I didn't get up, because they never come back when I disturb them. Until one of the little brown birds perched on the screen and looked in. I took that as a sign that they were really, really hungry.

I went canoeing yesterday before more storms. I get a little further each time and feel less worn out afterwards.

Right, mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, I discovered that I had a garter snake in the backyard the hard way. :( Poor little snake. It was about a foot long. Just the right size to be eating slugs and other pests. Drats.

Huh, 400.

So, some changes at work have made blogging weird for awhile. I'll find a new grove.

Anyway, Wednesday we had truly terrible storms buffet the region. There was rotation spotted on Doppler near work. And since there was a confirmed tornado near there that killed two girls several years ago, they take that kind of thing seriously. Fortunately, the first batch of storms moved along at 60 mph. Unprecidented in our region. So, it was here and gone. A few hours later, another batch moved through, also with tornados and strong winds. Not as fast, but still fast. A third moved through in the late night hours. I didn't have electricity for a couple hours, which wasn't too bad, seeing as how it was late. But, trying to sleep without even a fan going in the mugginess was terrible.

Right now, we're heading into a weekend of extreme heat advisories. Tomorrow the feels like temperatures will be between 105 and 109. Sunday and Monday, it will feel like it is 110 or higher. Ouch. Air quality is going to be horrid. And some folks are still without power from the storms.

Something is wrong with my peonies. The buds I was so proud of died. Just dried up. Since I've already verified the depths and the late cold snaps weren't serious frosts, I'm looking at some kind of disease. Drats. Probably a non-organic remedy too. Bugger.

But the evening primrose are blooming, so there's something in the yard.

Summer

Well, there has been a return to summerlike temperatures this week. Unfortunately, that has been balanced out with night time temperatures in the 40s. Brrr. Got to work cold, and come home baking. Ah, spring.

I have two flowers on the rhodie, both buried deep in the bush itself. You can see them if you look hard enough. Same color as the lamium flowers underneath.

The amaryllis is blooming. I really need to take pictures when the sun is at a better angle.

Millions of Millions of Bells

Well, I got the canoe out on the lake today. Saw a blue bird and a tiger swallowtail and two blue herons. It was a beautiful day. Wasn't out for long. There had been a lot of lugging that tired me out, but I wanted to get out on the lake.

I bought a purple million bells, and a peachy cross between million bells and petunia, and two six packs of petunias. I need to get out and plant them at some point. And take pictures. But not now. It's a spectacularly wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Sunny and warm all weekend. :)

Cold Shower Season

Yesterday, I stopped out to pick up sundries and was swayed to bring home some plants. A Roma tomato plant, to replace the previous seedling. Seedling was forgotten while hardening up, and did not exactly approve of cold temperatures, strong winds and deluges. *sigh* And true to form, I picked up a hanging basket of millionbells. Mixed basket of pale yellow, golden yellow and a pinkish red variety. :)

This morning, I mowed my back yard. The grass loves the rain. It even loves living in soupy soil. Unfortunately, that means that I created some muddy spots as water filled in my footsteps in places. *sigh* Hot out there too.

Yellow iris are open now, as are the white Tennessee variety. :)

National Ride Your Bike to Work Day

And what a day it is. Steady rain, flood watch, and lots of ponding due to saturated ground. Ah, yes. It was actually the kind of weather that encouraged traffic to slow down.

Still, despite being sick of rain and desiring several days of sun in a row, it is better than the alternative that seems to pop up most days occasions like this. Weather so sunny and hot that we slip into a bad air quality rating.

Mid-week Break

Well, we've got a break between the rain drops. Not too sunny, but not raining. It allowed me to get some more photos. Ignore the grass, it loves the rain.

First, some better photos of my iris.





Next up my Julia peony. The hybrid has a lot fancier leaves.



A close up of the bud on the Big Ben peony. This is as much for proof that it was willing to bloom the first year. The stalk with the other bud has died back. Not sure the cause. Doesn't appear to be affecting this one.



And then something dug out a huge hole in my garlic pot. I blame squirrels. I did fill it in after the picture.

Soggy Mother's Day

Well, the good news is the drought is ended. Of course, it ended with 5-8 inches of rain over five days, which isn't good for plants either. Lots of trees lost limbs or were uprooted. It also dipped into the 40s for the past two nights. Barely got into the 50s yesterday.

But, I do have plants blooming. In the house even! Snake plant is sending up more flowers. The amaryllis, despite having leaves up the entire time, has sent up a new flower stalk. And the red hibiscus has a bud.

Iris Among the Rain Drops

Not the best picture, but then this steady drip drip really defuses the light. Everything else washed out. *wink* The white Tennessee iris aren't all blooming yet for a count, and the yellow ones are a later blooming variety.

Iris count: 12 blue ones, 8 with the maroon edging.

Five Good Things

While I've been ignoring the back yard for a spell, a glance outside registered a bit of blue. My iris! I have five different stalks of blue iris blooming! Too bad the lighting wasn't right for my camera. I should get a new one. But five in bloom, with several more on the way.

Part of one of my peonies seems to have died. Might have been frost damage. Not sure. But there's still plenty of plant left.

Denial

I've been sulking for the last few days. And in a gardening quandry. Saturday, I was out cutting my front lawn, or rather the half that grew tall enough for a cut, when the neighbor came out to talk to me. The privacy fence in the back yard is leaning, worse, pulling out of the ground. I figured it was my landlord's, since the neighbor doesn't have privacy fencing. And I figured I could always insert a new post if things got from bad to worse.

But no, it's technically on the neighbor's land, and her responsibility. She wanted to see if I had a more direct route to the landlord than through the agency. I don't, but agreed to forward her complaint.

Eek. My garden. My prize peonies are against that fence. My sunflowers were supposed to be against that fence. Do I plant, or don't I? And will they crush my peonies before they bloom? *sulk* Maybe the landlord will prove unreachable.