What's Blooming in Patricia's Garden?

Well, it looks like spring is finally here, save for the late March freeze we always have. I thought I'd post a few pictures of the pretties I'm finding in my garden this week.

Mom's Christmas gift bloomed very prettily for me. Everybody got either an amaryllis or paperwhites this year. She thought they were kind of cheesy, but I thought they were a perfect gift.

I'm happier with the pink iceberg this year. I think it just needed some time to develop... and maybe a little rain.


The lantana is bent on world domination once again. I forgot to prune it back in February.



Here's Sebastian. He's not quite sure about that thing I'm holding in front of my face.

The yellow half of my Lady Banks is making an appearance. Hopefully the white half will start blooming soon, as well.

The lavender continues to bloom its little heart out. Hopefully it will continue through the summer this year.

Selkie's found his favorite napping spot.

This Mexican Petunia is coming up in a sheltered spot. It somehow survived the whole winter and is blooming early.

Say "Hello" to Oreo.

The daffodil bucket hasn't produced any flowers yet this year. I'm still hopeful, though. Maybe later in March.

Hmm. Well. Yes, I waited too long for the broccoli. At least it's pretty. It also gives Chupacabra something to hide under. (How did such a pretty cat get that name? He earned it.)

10 Most Stylish Men in America

There's not much gardening going on yet, but this headline on MSN caught my eye. All I can say is, if this is the best we can do, we're in serious trouble. Really, is it too much to ask that a guy not look like he pulled his clothes out from behind the sofa cushion this morning?

How Much Time Have You Spent in Cemetaries?

That's the question I wanted to ask the twenty-something who was sitting behind me in the restaurant this evening. I had to get up and leave before the urge to take him by the scruff of the neck and rattle his teeth for him got too strong. The topic of conversation -- or, rather, monologue -- that was being loudly aired was childhood vaccinations. The speaker was waxing passionate over the unnatural introduction of toxic substances into the body and how vaccinations were more dangerous than the diseases they were intended to prevent and about the children he would father in the future who would never be endangered by them. I very much wanted to get up and ask him: "How much time have you spent in cemetaries?"

I have spent time in cemetaries. I've spent time in cemetaries for historical research, to identify the location of family plots, simply to walk and take in the reflections of the tastes and lives and loves of people long gone. I spent time talking to an elderly lady who came to walk the aisles and visit with her parents and husband in the family plot and with a long-dead baby sister who was buried -- oh, she wasn't quite sure where. The family of an itenerant lumberjack hadn't been able to afford a coffin, let alone a headstone. The child, felled by some unnamed childhood disease, had been buried in a boot box in a donated plot somewhere near a large tree.

Another question I have for this young man: "Do you really want to return to a time when parents buried three or more children in the space of a week?" I've seen those headstones, too, lined up along the edges of family plots, rows of little lambs sleeping among lilies, with birth dates ranging over years but dates of death all too close together. Those parents didn't have a choice, they didn't have a way to stop the death that came for their children. We do. Those parents would have been amazed, thrilled by what we can do for our children -- and, knowing what they knew, bewildered by what some of us would refuse to do.

Oh, Look! Lavender Does Bloom!

It apparently just waits until the middle of winter to do it. Although, you couldn't tell it was winter by the weather around here. We've been enjoying temps in the seventies for this past week or so here in Central Texas -- which will be more than accounted for during the summer, of course, so we're enjoying them while we can. I've been off work since Christmas Eve for the holidays and have spent the last few days piddling around the house and garden and sprawling on the various porches with books and cats. I've recently discovered J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts) and have been through three of her mystery novels since Christmas. Thank goodness for Half Price Books!

I'm starting to get that hopeful gardening feeling again. This past summer was brutal to the poor plants. I lost a lot of the newcomers I put in last spring to the heat and dry weather, but the lavender held on, as you can see above, and the double bridal wreath spirea and the two rose bushes survived as well. The Lady Banks actually put on a lot of growth, I've had to re-stake her to keep her from sprawling across the yard.

My mom gave me some of my grandfather's old-fashioned red Guernsey Lilies (aka Red Spider Lilies) to plant again. We'll see how they do, since the cats have devoted themselves to digging up every bulb I plant at least twice this fall and winter. They're tough little bulbs, though, so hopefully they'll manage to hang on and put up flower stalks next summer and fall.

The official name for these bulbs is Lycoris radiata, but this is not the red Lycoris you'll see in most catelogues. I always knew there was something off about the Lycoris being offered in the garden centers and in catalogues, they just didn't look quite right. The entry at Old House Gardens confirms it: Grumpy's Guernsey Lilies are triploid, the new selections are diploid. Something about that changes the way the flowers look, at least to me.

Shelli's Engaged

Here's a photo of my DD and her new husband-to-be. He came by last Saturday and asked my permission, which I was happy to give. Erik's matured into a lovely young man over the last few years and he's got a good head on his shoulders, so I'm sure they'll be fine. He proposed on Tuesday during a horse-and-carriage ride through down-town Austin.

They won't be getting married too soon, though. Erik has another semester at his university and Michelle graduates next December. Shelli was saying something about this next summer, perhaps.

Anyway, best wishes to both kids and all my love.

Well, It's Been a While...

But now I'm back. The Fall semester is nearly over, just a couple of papers to write and a final exam to take and I'll be free for the holidays... sigh... I'm not so sure my GPA will survive the semester, but I have. Sometimes I wonder why I'm doing this to myself at all, especially when I look in my study and see all those balls of yarn and the shelves to finish putting up and the sewing machine I haven't even broken in yet. I guess I'm just a little down about it all at the moment.

My company has been tied up in temporary lay-offs for the last month or so. I'm only now being affected with the three-day work week that we're all on at the moment. At the end of December, the permanent lay-offs begin. We'll have to see where I am at the end of the month.

With everything that's going on right now, I'm afraid the garden's gone by the wayside for the time being. I haven't had a chance to do more than mow and now that it's getting cold the grass will be going dormant. Maybe I'll get out and do something next weekend once the school work is behind me.

I did get a chance to watch a mockingbird enjoying my chile piquins earlier in the week. They grow up through the front steps every year and keep the birds happy all winter.

On top of everything, I really need to start working on my grad school apps again... sigh...

Why am I doing this again?

It's Dry Out There

It is dry, dry, dry. I've been watering every couple of days or so, but it just seems to disappear by the next day. We're in drought restrictions for the summer, now, so I can only water enough to keep everything alive at the moment.

Just a few minutes ago, though, the wind kicked up and some dark clouds are building. The bamboo - dry and crinkly as it is - is leaning over almost double out there. Hopefully we'll get some rain out of this, but lately it seems everything just skips right over us and dissipates in the air. You'd think, dry as it is, we wouldn't have mosquitos, but it doesn't seem to have deterred them any.

There's a new generation of baby barn swallows peeping out of the nest in the eaves this weekend. The previous set still perches in the porch eaves at night, hunting the bugs attracted to the porch light.

There are a few things blooming. I couldn't get a decent photo of the lantana, which is blooming its little pink and yellow heart out, but here are a couple of photos from the garden today.