witt's Blog

Happy November the Onest!

Time never passed this quickly when I was working! I can't believe that it is already November. Time to start making the cranberry relish and pounds and pounds of pound cake.

It was wonderful to be able to see dawn break this morning at 6:30 a.m., but then again, it won't be as much fun to see the sun set at 5:30 p.m.

There was some drizzling going on this morning when I got up. Hubby and I always play a game when it rains, which is rarely around the Bucolic Bungalow. We guess the amount before he checks the gauge. If you go over the correct amount, you lose. This morning I guessed 0.09. Hubby guessed 0.11. I suppose he had more faith that it rained during the night. Well, he won! It was 1.0. One whole inch. I don't mind losing that game. That is wonderful.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful first day of this new month.

Well, it's All Hallows Eve eve. I'm going to miss all this Halloween foolishness. It's been so much fun that I hate to see it end.

There has not been much yard-happenings lately. It seems that we're at a doctor's office most of the time. I think Hubby has four or five different docs that we have to make the rounds. Today we discovered that he's lost a pound! Dang it. I think that I gained five!

The plants that I have brought into the house aren't looking too great. I think that they liked it a lot better outside. I sure hope they perk up!

We haven't had any more cold weather lately, so the plants that are in the yard are still going strong. I have enjoyed the heck out of the orange cosmos. I have gathered seed from it every time that I see some have formed, so I hope to have them again next year.

I hope that everyone enjoys decorating and seeing all the fun doings of their neighbors. It seems everyone in the county has really gone all out with their Halloween and/or autumnal displays this year. Hey! Maybe that's a sign that the economy is picking up! I pray that it will soon. Son had an interview today, but the job wasn't in line with his expertise.

Have a happy All Hallows Eve eve.

The leaves are beginning to fall and collect on the porch. As I was sweeping them off yesterday, I realized how bare the porch was after moving the house plants back inside. There is no green left, only one little sedum.

I'm going to miss my little jungle for about five months and try to enjoy sweeping off autumn leaves.

I positioned a lawn chair in such a way as to have the best view. I was a bit disappointed. I had hoped that it would be like the last time the sky was clear during a meteor shower. It was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen. The sky was lit by what looked like a fireworks show without the sound the last time. This time I only saw about five falling stars and six or seven shooting stars. It was not the show that I was expecting, but it was fun listening to the sounds of the world waking up. I stayed out until dawn broke. I was quite chilled and stiff as a board. At first I thought I'd never get out of the chair, and with my knee in the shape that it's in, I was afraid that I'd tumble down the steps trying to get back into the house.

It's amazing how much the temperature changed. By afternoon it was really warm. I couldn't wait to get outside and enjoy it. Hubby was burning some debris, and the flies must have thought it was a BBQ or that I was a pile of chicken poop because they were swarming around my the gazillions. They drove me crazy!

It is beginning to look like another beautiful day. I hope that everyone's skies will be lit with fireworks, but not with flies.

Yesterday morning while I was brushing my teeth, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I looked and at first I thought that it was a baby lizard. I thought, no problem, but when I went to get it, it was a baby tree frog. Yuuuuck! I don't like anything that has little suckers on its feet. It gives me the mullygrubs. I snatched down a hand towel so that I could grab it without touching it. When I got right to it, it jumped. Yikes. I threw the towel over it and bundled it up. As I was carrying it toward the bathroom door, the little froggie plopped out on the floor and took a big leap. I threw the towel on top of it again. Did the same procedure...over and over again. I just could not get it to stay in the towel. I was bumping and banging around in there, sounding like a bar fight. Finally, success! I was carrying it outside when Hubby asked if everything was all right. Hmmmm. My hero. Thanks a heap. Too little, too late.

I finally got the garlic chives cut down even with the yellow jackets hanging around. There weren't as many as there have been. I was careful where I stepped and really careful how I cut the flower stalks of the chives. They were covered, and I do mean covered, with aphids. Yuck, yuck, YUCK! I didn't want them on me and I definitely wore my gloves. I hauled out three bucket loads. I cut a few of the Easter lilies whose seed heads were so heavy they were falling over. I'm sure I'll get plenty of seeds from the ones that are left.

The pineapple sage has some decent blossoms now. I'm so glad. Hubby loves them. I did a little edging so that the surrounding area wouldn't look thrown-away near their fiery red.

While I had the camera outside, I just had to get a picture of the orange cosmos. No I wasn't lying on my belly to take this picture. It's that tall. It has grown to about seven feet and still has buds. It certainly commands attention.

We never got any rain. As a matter of fact, by four o'clock the sky was blue in every direction. Not a cloud. I had put the potted orange marigold that I had rooted out in the Patio Garden so that it could get a drink of rainwater. That didn't happen, so before I gave it up for the day, I gave it some of the collected rainwater. Everything is dry as a bone again.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful day.

Is it October? Autumn? Well, you couldn't tell it around here yesterday. It was steamy hot. I went around replanting all the things that I had planted a few weeks ago. I hate to sound like a broken record, but, yep, Sid the Squirrel had dug up every last thing that I had planted and tossed it aside! The yard looks like a war zone. I got tired of trying to stomp the grass back into the holes. Besides, he'll just dig up another area after I'm gone. I went around gathering more seeds. I didn't realize that gaillardia made seed. I've been deadheading it like crazy all summer, but there were some that I had slipped by me unnoticed. I pulled on one of the "balls" and out came the fluffy seeds. One of my buddies dropped by with a bag of zinnia heads for me full of seeds. I guess she had heard me complain enough about not having zinnias this year. (The ones that FairyGarden gave me finally bloomed.) She plants them in long rows in her garden, so she was gathering hers for next year and decided to share some with me. Unfortunately, she had gotten into fire ants. She had just treated a mound, but evidently they were still there and covered her ankles. I know that she will be in misery for a while. She also brought me the most beautiful bell peppers I have ever seen. They were huge and gorgeous. I was almost through preparing them when it dawned on me to take a picture. It's hard to tell how large they were in this picture, but they were all between 4-5 inches in diameter. Not a pipsqueak in the bunch.

I don't know how she does it. We can't grow a bell pepper if our lives depended on it, and here it is October and hers are still growing strong. Now that I think about it, I'll bet I do know how she does it. They raise cows. Enough said. They will get me through a lot of stews this winter.

FairyGarden, she said that now is the time to scatter the poppy seeds--anytime between now and November 1. Just scratch up the ground, sprinkle them about, and step on them--don't cover them. They will pop out in February. I sure hope that I can get some going. She said that the goldfinches just flock around them when they go to seed. They love them.

It's still hard to work around here because of all the yellow jackets swarming over everything. I cleaned and refreshed my hummer feeders for the stragglers, and I was nervous about trying to walk through the Patio Garden to hang that one up. I was scared that I would step on one and that's bad. I know if you kill one the rest of them will come to its defense. Luckily, I didn't squish any.

After all this, I took a set-down in the back yard to listen to all the woodpeckers squawking back and forth. There must be babies everywhere. As I swiped at the sweat forming on my upper lip, I pondered, can this really be October?

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sometimes I feel like Lucy Ricardo when I start baking in the kitchen. The other day I made a banana nut bread and it fell in the middle. Yesterday I decided to make some blondies again since they were so good the last time. I had assembled all the ingredients and was checking to see what the baking temperature, etc. were when my eyeballs zoomed in on one of the instructions. It said "Cook the sugars and butter . . ." What? Cook! I read carefully. Oh, my. I didn't cook the sugar and butter together on the stove the first time! I just made them like any other cookie. Cream the sugars and butter together, blend in an egg, then the flour and that's that. It's a wonder they turned out so good the first time. When I did it correctly, they turned out ok. The texture is a bit different with this cooking thing, but they were still good. I tried doing them again this morning, but I was going to cream the sugar and butter together. This time I noticed, oh no, one tablespoon? I had been putting in only one teaspoon of baking powder. Well, dang! I used one tablespoon and they turned out much better. I can't complain, though. What can I expect when I'm like Lucy in the kitchen?

Yesterday day wasn't a day for being outside, but it was a good day for cooking. It wasn't really raining, but it did drizzle enough to give us 0.2 inches in the gauge.

I made the chicken and dumplings and boy, was it good. I ate more dumplings than anything else. I'm supposed to be fattening up Hubby, not myself!

I can't believe that the begonias are still going strong in this little corner, but they bring a little joy when we don't expect it. The lamb's ears seem to be doing well there too. I just can't seem to get them to survive here at the Bucolic Bungalow. I have tried them in just about every bed.

I'm so tickled with my rooted mums. I had no idea that they would do this well. I remember in the spring, one of my buddies said that you can't root mums. Au contraire. They may not look as lush as the ones you see in a nursery, but they really brighten up the fading flower beds.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. I shall now enjoy some of the banana nut bread that I made during my day of cooking.

Here's one of the biggest thrills of the garden this year. The cleome.

KeyWee gave me the seeds this spring. The ones that I planted in the yard didn't do much, but this one which sprouted in the pot after I had pricked out the seedlings. I just left it there. It has grown to be about four feet tall and has already flowered once. I have even gathered the seeds. Then it popped out another blossom; this one. The plant is right at the edge of the carporch, so we can see it every time we go in and out. What a joy it has been.

The Russian sage has bloomed, but it doesn't seem to be getting any bigger over the years. As a matter of fact it seems to be getting smaller. I sure don't want to lose it. I wish I knew how to divide it and spread it around into some different beds.

You'd think that I could get some seeds from it and try growing more that way, but I have yet to be able to collect any seeds. It is a lovely plant, though, and I'd like to spread the joy.

I hope that I will be able to spread some joy today to everyone whom I see. I hope that everyone has a joyful day.

I took Hubby on a short walkabout. He has been so weak, but I thought it would lift his spirits to take a look at the flowers that are blooming now. I also got some pictures.

I showed him the mystery plant that popped up in the Poison Garden. It was a spider lily. How it got there I have no idea. I have been trying to get them going here for twenty years with no luck. Now this one just popped out of the ground where none have ever been planted. It has opened more since this picture.

We were both thrilled with it.

The spider lily was behind the angelonia. I love the blue! I hope that I can get it to do again from the few seeds that I gathered.

Next I showed him the Butterfly Garden. He looked at the turk's cap flower more closely and noticed its uniqueness.

Then the sasanqua. He really enjoys seeing that from the front window.

Next I showed him the pitiful lantana in the Hibiscus Garden. Out of all the lantanas we had last year, this was the only one that came back and it just barely did that!

He really liked the Mexican heather behind the marigolds and vinca.

Then I showed him the pineapple sage. One of his favorites. There's the little blossom beginning!

On the way back in I showed him the sedum that has bloomed for the first time

and the progress of the hens and chicks in the chicken thingy after Sid had pulled them out an umpteen times!

That was about all he could take at one time, but I think that he enjoyed the tour, up close and personal.

I decided to transplant some nandina seedlings into the harsh environs of the Potting Shed Bed. Maybe they will grow without much attention. I also put one of the serrisa rootings there as well. I also rooted a green and white variegated euonymous (at least that's what I think it is.). I might put it there.

I was going to get pictures yesterday, but as usual the battery was low. Maybe I'll be able to snap a few today. It's overcast and not as gorgeous as yesterday, but I'm sure I'll find plenty to do out there.

I hope everyone has a glorious day.

I haven't been on much lately because every time I get in, I get zapped by that mean old Sprint frog, and it freezes up the pooter. Exasperating!

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with my plants. I want to dig up the caladiums before they get killed, but in order to do that I will have to disturb the impatiens and they are soooo pretty. They have been a joy all summer and still going strong. I'll probably get caught with my trowel down as usual and not be able to get them up before a frost. I also don't know what to do with the echevaria. Do I leave them outside or are they too tender to survive the winter in pots like hens and chicks? This is the first year that I have had success with them.

I still have the Kong coleus in water in the kitchen window. It is doing wonderfully well, and I don't know if I should leave it in water or pot it up. It doesn't appear to be unhappy in the water at all. No sign of rot. What a quandary.

I really don't have a lot of gardening news, but I did want to try to get in here today and see what's been going on. I don't know how long I will be able to look around before the Sprint frog gets me, but here goes...

He got through the surgery pretty well yesterday, but he was really shaky. He asked us where we wanted to go eat. Bless his heart. He's always thinking of others. We nixed that idea. We had to go by the drug store to pick up his antibiotics and that would be enough of an adventure for him after all he'd been through. He insisted on going in with us. While we were waiting, I decided to pick up some more of those pretty rocks, but they were out. I did find some decorative glass ones, though. They had blues and greens in different shapes. I got shells and stars. I put them in the ceramic swan flower pot, and they picked up the aqua in it quite well.

Hubby says that he's not hurting too badly from the surgery this morning. He did say that his back was hurting worse from the fall that he took a couple of weeks ago. Today it's off to the ophthalmologist. He has to check on his macular degeneration and see if he needs to change his lenses. We didn't want to cancel because it take over six months to get in to see this doc.

Oh, and that home health nurse is supposed to come today with the oxygen monitor. Pooey! I don't know if we'll be back or not, and I don't know if we'll grocery shop today or not either. I guess we'll just have to see how Hubby fares from the eye doc's. I know that I won't be taking him tv shopping. That would be just too much for him.

Now I guess we'll have to do something about the tv. I sure wish I knew someone who did that type of work. There just aren't any people left around here that does house calls!

 One good thing about this blog: At least this isn't about Sid the Squirrel.