Long Overdue Post

It's been a while since I posted; I'm afraid the second half of my semester got a bit more frantic

than I had anticipated. I've almost finished with finals, though, and I seem to have survived another semester with my GPA intact. No more classes until next fall, so I'll have a bit more time to devote to the garden and crafts. Here's hoping for a nice relaxing summer before I have kick it into gear again. Of course I still have to finish my grad program applications this summer, too.

Here are a few pictures of what's going on in my garden the past month:

The patchwork wallflowers have been blooming their little hearts out. I just love these little guys. They'll bloom from now until Christmas.

Here's another shot of the wallflowers with a Venus' Looking Glass coming up in the middle of them.

The Texas native Pink Evening Primroses, or as we used to call them, Buttercups (because of their yellow pollen) are making their annual attempt at world domination. I've got it as a volunteer in both flower beds, across the yard and throughout the ditch.

Remember the fairy statue? Can you find her in the next picture?

And here's a close-up of that native Verbena.

The rose I wasn't sure about is blooming nicely. There's a bit of a problem with powdery mildew, but nothing too terrible. I guess she's a keeper.

Kitties in the garden:

Suzy Q

Selkie

& Suzy, again.

Finally, the swallows are back for another year. There are four little nestlings huddled up in that nest. It's almost too small for the lot of them. That wasp's nest in the corner of the porch is history. Their mama and papa ate every one of them.

Venus' Looking Glass

I was out this morning with the weed-whacker, taking out the Johnson grass and other bits that were trying to absorb the brick pathway back into the soil while trying not to take out the little Venus' Looking Glass seedlings that were starting to peek out from between the bricks.

Venus' Looking Glass, or Triodanis perfoliata, is one of my favourite wildflowers. I've been quietly encouraging the little darlings for several years, now, and get a decent clump every spring. It's not as showy as some of our other wildflowers. No one will ever stop the car on the highway to bundle the kids out to have their picture taken in a field of them -- the Babies in the Bluebonnets photo is an annual ritual here in Texas. No one will ever come around a bend and be dazzled by a sea of them, as I was last Fall by the Maximillian sunflowers. But I think they are easily one of the prettiest of the annual wildflowers, and the one that always means Spring to me.

Dave's Garden lists the mature height of the Venus' Looking Glass as 18" - 24", but I've never really seen them larger than about 10". According to the USDA website, their range extends throughout the continental US, except for Nevada and some of the northern central states. They produce pretty little six-petaled flowers in a rich shade of purple or blue-violet that's not often seen in wild flowers. My neice, Theresa and I used to use their flowers, along with grass leaves and blue Day-flowers, as an improvised paint, mashing them onto paper to create smears of color. They also press well. There are probably still a few between the leaves of my mother's 1952 Encyclopedia Americana.