Weekend at the Farm August 22, 2015

 This is Cleome, common name is Spider Flower.  There are three colors that I know of - hot pink, light pink, and white.  After they flower they send out a long pod full of seeds that will supply you with a whole new crop of plants the next year.

 Above, this is a Cleome bud.  And note the leaves - they look just like marijuana leaves. 

Thursday evening birthday party for my dad.  Bert's kids, my kids, spouses, their kids, Lisa and Nan and mom.  About 16 of us.  Happy occasion.  To the farm next day early Friday morning.  Jess, Nathan, and the kids came for the weekend.  They put their house on the market so they wanted to clear out of there the first weekend.

• Friday all I did was "straighten out" the flowerbeds.  The armadillos tear up the flowerbeds - big holes, big piles, dirt strewn over the paths.  Little bastards.
• Napped for about four hours!
• Woke about four and started cooking Osso Buco and Risotto Milanese for dinner.
• Took a ride around the property with Bert at dusk.  The air was cool and heavy with wonderful smells of wet earth and the mystery of flowers that you cannot see.
• Saturday morning, walked around with coffee and looked at everything.  The Rose Garden is in pretty good shape thanks to the work I did the last several weekends.
• Weeded in the Orchard for most of the morning.  Cut back blackberry vines that were leaning into the paths, cut away dead canes - yuck!!!!!, weeded along the grape arbor, that area has really gotten away from me.  Laid down grass clippings and the last of my precious mulch over the area where I weeded along the grape arbor.  Pulled up salvia that I was sick of looking at.
• Swam in the pool with Bert.  The water was cool!
• Spent some time in the Star Garden cutting away plants that were growing towards the paths, in particular the Almond Verbena tree, the red cannas, verbena bonariensis, and weeds.
• Tied back Peggy Martin canes onto the chain that Bert attached to the tree nearby.
• Inside to rest through the hottest part of the day.  
• Swam with Nathan, Jess and the kids.
• My Hurricane Lilies are popping up.  How do they know that fall is approaching when the weather is still 100 degrees outside?
• Sunday morning I watered in the Rose Garden.  
• Did some much-needed house cleaning.
• Planted some green bean seeds in the Vegetable Garden.  I think I'll be getting a crop just under the wire unless the first frost is early.  Around here the average first frost is December 9, which means I have a 50 percent chance of getting a frost before that date.   Ollie came in the garden and walked all over where I planted the seeds - well, why not, it was the softest looking, most inviting dirt
• Sowed some lettuce seeds also. And a few Borage seeds.
• Raked in the Orchard.  
• Pulled up lots of salvia in the Orchard and sowed some zinnias.
• We all swam in the pool before Jess left with the babies and dogs to visit her folks for a week.  Nathan left soon after.
• I weeded in the Star Garden for a while.
• Dumped a wheel barrow full of mulch, part into the back bed to fend off some weeds and part around my Marie d Orleans rose in the front bed. 
• Fed my bees some sugar water again.
• Since I've been here about a dozen of my Schoolhouse Lilies have popped up.  Small red flower, but I also have a pink variety that my sister gave me.  The pink ones are not as common, and they are said to be slower multipliers than the red ones.
• Home to take Max to the grocery store before he returns to school.