Bay Laurel December 14, 2014

It's great to have a Bay Laurel because I always have bay leaves for cooking.  This year I see little fruit on the branches which I have never noticed before.  Very interesting.  Bay trees - either large shrubs or small trees - are evergreen with leathery dark green leaves.  I have never had a problem with damage from freezes.  I have read that they are tolerant of pruning, and they can be used as topiaries and hedges. Obviously, mine has just been allowed to shoot out every which way!

 In the picture below you can just see the little flowers / fruits.  Fascinating!

 

Weekend at the Farm December 13 - 14, 2019

This is my Yuletide Camellia.

Arrived Thursday evening.  Home on Saturday afternoon for Lights in the Heights party at Josh's house.  Sam and Charlie spent the night with me on Saturday night.

• Friday.  I walked around all the gardens to decide where to plant my two new camellia japonicas that I purchased from The Arbor Gate.  Planting camellias at the age of 58 is proof that I am in a very optimistic phase of my life because they grow very, very slowly.  I guess I think things are going pretty well!  I walked through various gardens with the shovel in my hands and stuck it in several places to see if the soil was loose or matted (from the cedar trees).
• I planted Coral Delight Camellia japonica in the Medicine Garden.  This is a good spot for a camellia - dappled sunlight and pretty decent water source.  The flowers are a deep coral-pink.  Camellia sinensis is the plant used for tea in China (and in Lipton tea).  My camellia is a japonica - a decorative, merely a representative of the medicinal herb.  But still fun to have in the Medicine Garden, I think.  I bought a large one.  They grow so very slowly.  It was laden with buds, so it looks like a very good bloomer.  I think I will love it!  
• I planted Royal Velvet in one of the Star Garden beds that line the walk to the Rose Garden,  Royal Velvet has flowers of deep red.  While I was there I cleaned up the area a bit - cut away the Philippine lily stalks, picked up twigs, pulled up some dead winter vegetation.  I also laid down some compost around my Sweet Olive and the Giant Ligularia. 
• The lady at Arbor Gate advised that I should add shale to the holes that I dig for the camellias, so I bought a bag of shale chips, mixed it with compost, and layered it generously at the bottom of the holes that I dug.  Watered the camellias in well.
• I also bought a White Pillar Rose of Sharon.  White flowers are so showy.  This is a semi-double.  I planted it near the front arbor.  I used some of the shale I bought.
•  And I planted 3 salvia nemorosa Blue Marvel.  I love the nemorosas, but I haven't had real good luck with them.  I have planted them in the early spring, but I think I will have better luck planting them now so that they have more time to establish themselves.  They look better in mass, but they are $9 each.  I'd love to have 20 of them planted together.  
• I did quite a bit of raking.  I loaded the cadet 3 times with leaves and dumped them in the Daffodil Border.  I'm almost finished with that, then I want to put some in the wild part of the Star Garden.  This is an important time of year.  I have to use fallen leaves for mulch in many parts of my gardens.  I can't use purchased mulch in all my gardens, I could never afford that.  So I need to rake leaves and use them.  Eventually, if I don't act within the first month after they fall, they scatter to the woods and they are gone.  
• I also raked up 2 truckloads of pine needles and laid them down in the Orchard.   
• Dug up two clumps of Butter Pat mums that were growing in the path in the Rose Garden and transplanted them to a bed. 
• I took 3 Country Girl mum cuttings, sprinkled them with root stimulator, and stuck them in a pot.  I will try to grow some new plants, don't know if it will work.
• Saturday.  I finished laying down leaves in the Daffodil Border.  Yay!
• I raked more leaves and laid them down in the wild part of the Star Garden.
• And I raked up a big truckload of pine needles and spread them in the Orchard underneath the big blackberry bed.
• I dug up 4 clumps of day lilies in the Orchard and moved them to the Rose Garden.  Not a great time to move day lilies, but they were totally shaded by a plum tree.  They have basically been disappearing over the last two summers, and I wanted to move them before they became dormant.  They are in a very sunny spot now.
• I helped Bert clear out some yaupon that was crowding a trail.  I poisoned the cuts after he cut them down, and then we dragged the debris out of the way.  That was quite a bit of work.  
• After that, we went to the clearing that I began last winter, and he used the electric saw to cut down some of the thick yaupon.  We dragged it to our debris pile.  I spent another hour lopping small yaupon, poisoning the cuts and dragging it off.  It is pretty in there, lots of woodland bunch grass, beautyberry and farkleberry with dappled sun shining through.  It is a long term project with no end in sight, but I'm determined to see it through until I can't do it anymore.
• Headed home about 2:00.

Giant Ligularia December 13, 2019

I have Giant Ligularia planted in deep shade.  It is a shade lover, but it can take some morning sun. But mine is never exposed to any direct sunlight.  It is nice to have something blooming right now.

Thanksgiving Long Weekend 2019

This is Cinco de Mayo rose.  I just bought her, she is still very small.  This photo does not do justice to the color of this flower.  I read one description "smoked lavender and rusty red-orange'.
I drove up on Wednesday afternoon.  Before I hired a maid, arriving on Wednesday would have been a terrible slog of work to clean the house.  It has been a life-changing (and expensive) improvement.  I cooked the things I was assigned and gathered greenery and berry branches for the tables.  We had 22 adults and five children.  Very fun day, very good to be together as a family.  Everyone was gone by noon on Friday except for Nathan's dogs.  I kept them for the weekend while the family went to Austin.  Bert left to go hunting with Will at the ranch as he does every Thanksgiving, but this time Henry went with them - three generations.

• The seeds I sowed have sprouted everywhere, and it is the usual thrill.  I love to watch the seedlings grow.  
• I've never been very good at starting work in the middle of the day.  So I did very little on Friday.
• I raked leaves and loaded the cadet five or so times , dumped the leaves in the Daffodil Border.  I'm almost finished mulching that area.  It's very long, and I make my layer of leaves pretty deep to keep down the weeds.  
• I pulled everything out of the shed that I'm going to use tomorrow morning so I will ready to hit the ground running. 
• Saturday.  I filled the four x four bed in the Vegetable Garden with compost that Bert and I built up last weekend.  (We added another row of cedar logs to make the bed deeper.)  I planted the cloves from 3 garlic bulbs throughout most of it, then sowed Corncockle in the rest of the bed.  I sowed Corncockle, Tall Poppy Mallow and red corn poppies in a few other spots as well.  I've never planted garlic at this time of year.  I forgot about it, actually.  I ordered it and was going to plant it in the early fall, but I stuck it in my seed box and forgot about it.  The cloves are sitting in pure mushroom compost.  Garlic is a very heavy feeder, so maybe it will grow fabulously despite being planted in late November. 
• I worked in the Orchard for a while.  I moved the pine needles in four or so spots in the Jujube bed, threw down some compost and sowed seeds - Tall Poppy Mallow, California Poppy, red poppy and Moss Verbena.
• I did some raking in the Rose Garden.  And I prepped some spots and sowed seeds.  Did a little weeding, but there aren't many weeds - summer weeds have died off and winter weeds are still tiny.  Plus, I have been laying down lots of compost which smothers the weeds.  
• I trimmed the Sweetspire in the Circle so that I can see my beautiful Debutante Camellia from the house.  So, so pretty right now.
• I laid down compost in a few spots in the Star Garden, and I sowed seeds. 
• Sunday.  Bert and I were up before light.  We drank coffee on the porch in the cool dark morning.
• I cleaned out the area behind the Vegetable Garden.  That area is a combination of compost pile attempts, dead Mexican Sunflower vegetation, dead castor plant vegetation, and emerging growth of wildflowers and weeds.  The sunflowers and castors look like dried up skeletons after the first freeze.  I yanked them out of the ground and loaded them in the cadet.  I also forked out all the branches, twigs, etc - things that take too long to rot.  I raked up three truckloads of leaves at one of my favorite leaf-gathering spots just adjacent to the Vegetable Garden along the backside of the Shade Garden.  That is some good leaf!  I stuffed a bunch of leaves into one of my large plastic buckets to begin a new compost pile.  And I added leaves to my current one and mixed it all up really well.  
• I worked on my Kitchen Herb Garden for a couple of hours.  I turned over the soil and added lots and lots of compost.  I planted 4 thyme, 1 sage, 2 winter savory, 2 prostrate rosemary, 2 oregano, and 3 chive.  Then I sowed the last of my parsley seeds.  Those seeds were a great purchase.  I will always buy parsley in bulk.  It will always get used.
• I hauled 4 or so wheel barrowsful of  compost over to the Long Border and spread it around next to my 2 climbers.  Then I sowed seeds - poppy mallow and poppies.
• Watered-in all the seeds I sowed.
• Headed in to work on Monday morning. 

Debutante Camellia November 29, 2019

So pretty!

Weekend at the Farm November 15 - 17, 2019

I drove up on Thursday evening,  Bert was already here.  Cool and sunny - perfect.

• Friday.  Cold in the early morning, perfect all day long.  The leaves still have not dropped in large enough numbers for me to begin gathering them up.
• I spent some time cleaning up the Vegetable Garden.  All the summer vegetation has died back due to the early freeze we had.  I pulled up the amaranth, castor, sun flowers, basil and morning glories. 
• I worked in the Rose Garden for awhile.  I filled the Ballerina boxes with compost to drown the weeds and feed the Ballerinas.  I dug up a dozen clumps of Clyde Redmond iris from the Dining Room Bed and planted them next to Cadenza in the Rose Garden. 
• Spread lots of compost in the long bed of the Star Garden.  Sowed Moss Verbena, Tall poppy Mallow, red poppies, and Strawflowers.
• Pulled up lots of dead vegetation.  
• I transplanted the Mexican Mint Marigold from the wooden barrel near the dining room that was falling apart.  I planted them in the long bed of the Star Garden.  Threw the rotting pickets into the fire pit.
• I trimmed back the trailing lantana and verbenas in the Rose Garden so that they don't lean out into the paths.   
• Grey Kitty showed up for the first time in many months.  Yay!  He's alive.  And very solid.  Someone is taking care of him.  But he ate ravenously and slept in his usual spot, the laundry basket.  
• Saturday.  I sowed Sweet Peas on a trellis in the Star Garden.  I soaked them overnight in water to get their germination started.
• I planted the Celeste Fig in the Orchard.  I used lots of mushroom compost.  Figs are susceptible to nematodes, and nematodes don't like rich soil.  So I put lots of compost in the hole and around and on top of the little tree.  I sowed Strawflower around it.  
• I planted a Cinco de Mayo rose in the Star Garden.
• I made a pretty big change to my Hojo Santo bed in the shady part of the Star Garden.  I cut down the Hojo Santo and poisoned the cuts with my Remedy / diesel mix.  I'm getting rid of it.  It is off-putting to walk in that area because those plants are so tall.  I spent a lot of time loosening the soil in the bed.  That bed is surrounded by cedar trees, and cedar trees make a very thick mat of roots that spread out very far from the trees.  I had to work hard to get workable soil that was relatively free of root mats.  I worked in lots of compost and planted a 'In the Pink' Camellia japonica.  I spread compost over the rest of the bed - it is a large bed.  Then I spread a bunch of Philippine Lily seeds over everything.
• I did lots raking in the Star Garden.  And I lifted a lot of cedar borders with my shovel and pushed dirt under them to lift them up.  Over time the cedar edgings around my beds will sink down, so I lift them out of the dirt.  It really improves the look of the gardens. 
• I spread compost around my Snowball Bush.
• I spread compost around the Sweetshrub next to the Greenhouse.
•  I spread compost around the Noisette in the Roe Garden.
• I raked the Rose Garden and did some light puttering around in there.
• I sowed a packet of Feverfew and some parsley in the big pot in the Star Garden.  I have no idea if the Feverfew will germinate in cold / cool weather.
• Bert cut a cedar log into pieces so that I can build up a bed in the Vegetable Garden.  Filling it with soil is a project for another day.  While I was in there I loosened the soil in one of the 16 foot beds and sowed the rest of my hairy vetch.  I will plant tomatoes in that spot next spring.
• Throughout the day I weeded here and there and laid down compost. 

Weekend at the Farm November 2 - 3, 2019

 I thought my sassafras tree looked pretty this weekend.

Drove up early Saturday morning.  Bert went hunting with Will.  Blake and family came up for the day.  We had beautiful weather, took a walk, built a fire, had lunch.

• Sunday morning.  I decided to plant the bulbs Amy gave me last weekend.  They have already sprouted, and they needed to be in the ground.  We don't know what they are, but I suspect they are Lycoris.  Based on that assumption, I planted them along the path that leads to the shed -  which is crappy / un-medicated soil, but they are okay with that.  I did put some mushroom compost in the trench I dug, so I gave them a little boost.  There were a lot of bulbs in the bag, maybe 40.
• I dug up a red / purple leaved canna that was growing in the path, and I transplanted it to a bed in the Star Garden.
• Cut back all my Pringle Aster and dumped them in the lower Meadow to see if any of the seeds will take root.  They are native, although we don't have any around here.  We have all sorts of asters, but not this particular variety.
• I planted two White Mist Flower shrubs in the Ehrlicheer bed.  I re-panted the bulbs that I dug up.  That bed looks good once a year - after that it is kind of weedy and messy.  So I decided to plant a few things in there that will take up space and have interest at a different time of year - they are fall bloomers.
• I planted a Beverly Eleganza hybrid rose in the front bed, and I am already regretting where I put it, but I'm not going to dig it back out and move it.  Too much trouble. 
• Planted a Gorizia rosemary in the dry part of the front bed.  Hopefully it will survive and take up some space there.
• I drove to the Antique Rose Emporium about 12:30.  I bought 2 altheas:  Minerva (a very old althea) and Blueberry Smoothie, 3 May Night salvia nemorosa, and 2 White Mist flower shrubs. I planted one of the altheas in the Long Border and one of them in the Rose Garden.  I planted the nemorosas in the Rose Garden around the althea.  The white mist flowers will be planted another day.
• I had a sackful of Ehrlicheer bulbs that I dug up last summer.  I planted them all around a tree in the Star Garden.
• I sprayed herbicide in the Daffodil Border.  I allowed a very bad grass with a seed head to take up residence in the Daffodil Border last spring.  By "allowed", I mean that I didn't handle the infestation before the daffodils emerged.  After that, I couldn't spray or else I would have killed my daffodils.  I tried pulling it up, but there was way too much of it.  The spraying and a layer of leaves should help, although I don't think I've seen the last of that grass.
• Sprayed fungicide on the roses.  Of course it was about two weeks too late.  I already see blackspot.
• I spread compost here and there.  Around some of my roses and in several places in the Star Garden.
• Wherever I spread compost in the Rose Garden, I prepped the bed and sowed seeds:  Moss Verbena, Cornflower, Spurred Snapdragon, and red poppies. 
• Bert won't be happy about this, but I sowed half a pound of red poppies next to the Orchard.  It will look pretty if he doesn't insist on mowing it down.
• I also sowed half a pound of Dwarf Plains Coreopsis at the bottom of the slope in the Meadow.  It is the wettest spot, and this variety of coreopsis likes to be wet.  I have never tried to grow it, it is an expreriment. 

Country Girl Mums and Swamp Sunflower October 27, 2019

White Philippine Violet October 27, 2019

White Philippine Violet is an unreliable perennial but a heavy re-seeder.  It has popped up in so many places!  I think the seeds burst out of the pods rather than just drop to the ground, because plants are scattered far and wide in several of my gardens.  I have tried to grow the purple variety several times, but with no luck.  I really love the purple variety, so I'm disappointed about that.  I think of Philippine Violet as a shade plant, but it seems to be doing fine in the sunny spots where it has popped up.

Fall Flowers

 Dependable zinnias.

 This is Texas Aster.

 This is ageratum and Mint Marigold.

 A bud from La Vesuve rose.

 A cluster of flowers - Caldwell Pink.

All the blue salvias are an intense blue due to the cooler weather.

Week at the Farm October 23 - 27, 2019

Monday and Tuesday procedures for skin cancer on my nose.  Drove to the farm on Wednesday morning to rest.  Last weekend was an Airbnb guest, and the weekend before that we were in Florida for Al's 100 birthday (Dad, Nan, Me, Josh and family, and Max - Mom too sick to go).  And the two weeks before were something else.  So, despite the fact that I cannot work, it is really good to be here.

I wandered quite a bit looking at everything.  It has held up well considering I have not been here for 5 weeks - a record for us. 

• I walked through the gardens when we arrived.  The weather was so beautiful, and the garden were looking pretty good considering our lengthy absence.
• I deadheaded some roses - nice easy pleasant work.
• I felt so happy.
• There are so many things I want to work on, but I am successfully refraining from working.  And instead I'm making lists of plants that I want to buy to fill empty spaces.
• I had 5 yards of mushroom compost delivered on Friday.  It is there for when I can work again.
• Under my supervision, Bert amended the soil and planted 2 mustards and 3 collards.
• Saturday Josh, Amy and the girls came for a visit.  The girls weren't too freaked out by my black eye, etc., so I guess it's time to go back to work!   
• I did very little the entire time we were here - including walking around.  Slept a lot and healed.  Drove home to Houston on Sunday.  

Day at the Farm October 6, 2019

The Airbnb folks left at noon on Sunday, and Bert and I drove up for the remainder of the day.  We spent the night, and I drove in to work on Monday morning.  Bert took poor Rocky to the vet to get him a steroid shot and re-fill his itch-meds.  Next weekend is Bert's 50th reunion in New York, and the next weekend is Airbnb again. So we made a quick trip.  I watered a few areas where the plants were in distress.  It's dry.

• Watered in the Medicine Garden, the dry parts of the Star Garden, and the Rose Garden.
• Weeded here and there.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden.  Spending money and effort and time on that soil mix was a waste.  I need compost for the Vegetable Garden, and I should have sprung for the large up-front cost rather than the dribs and drabs cost of the soil mix.  The seeds have performed horribly except for the Edamame - and I prepped that bed perfectly.
• Sprayed herbicide in the area around the Medicine Garden.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Star Garden.  I saw that my Senna tree / shrub died.  I thought it was going to die the last time I was here, and sure enough.
• Sprayed herbicide on the driveway.
• Sprayed herbicide in the Rose Garden.
• That's about it.    

White and Purple September 21, 2019

Pringle Aster, Salvia, and Perennial Ageratum:

Days at the Farm September 19 - 21, 2019

 This is Moonflower vine.  The flowers open in the evening - this picture was taken at 7:00 pm.  Moths and other night-active insects are drawn to it.  I did not sow a seed for this vine.  It sprouted from a seed that fell to ground last summer.

I took Thursday and Friday vacation.  Dove up here Wednesday evening, Bert was already here.  Home on Saturday afternoon for Mom and Dad's 60th wedding anniversary at Tony's.  Gretchen, Keith and Beckett flew in for the festivities.

• I don't know if it was the excitement of being here or what, but I woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep.  I watched tv on my Ipad for an hour then got up at 4 and drank coffee.  I tried to go back to sleep for an hour, but I finally got up and got dressed.  I was outside before daylight.  What with the Airbnb guests and family obligations, etc., I haven't been here much.  So I think I was just wound up.
• I weeded wherever the urge took me.  I sat down here and there and weeded.  I stayed in the Star Garden and the Rose Garden all morning weeding and smoothing out the soil where the armadillos had disturbed it.
• I transplanted one of my red and purple cannas that the armadillos had uprooted.
• I watered in the Rose Garden - Houston is flooding grom Hurricane Imelda, but no rain here until about 3:00.  Then we got a pretty hard rain for about 30 minutes and drizzles after that.  I took what was left of a bag of fertilizer and walked around in the rain throwing handfuls down around all my new roses.
• I bought 2 3cubic bags of compost at Buchanan's.  I added compost to empty spots where my seeds did not sprout.  Sowed beets, turnips and kale in those spots.  I added compost to two of the buckets and sowed one of the buckets with parsley and one of the buckets with Swiss Chard.  I pulled up the okra, added a bag of compost and sowed cilantro, and more beets, kale and turnips.
• Next I added some of the compost to my wheelbarrow planter and two clay pots.  I sowed parsley in the wheelbarrow and Tickseed and Moss Verbena to the pots.  Also pulled weeds out of another pot and added some parsley seed amongst parsley already growing.
• My wonderful banana shrubs are in bloom and the smell of rip bananas permeates the garden.  It is especially pronounced in the damp, close atmosphere caused by the rain and clouds.
• The Candida rain lilies, hurricane lilies, roses, zinnias, ageratum, cannas, altheas, morning glories, and salvias are all blooming.  We have had better fall displays in the past (the drought-y conditions have taken their toll), but it is pretty nevertheless.  I love seeing the roses with all their red and gold new growth.  I sowed some Moss Verbena and Tickseed in the Rose Garden - I had some on hand.  I have not ordered my 2019 wildflower seeds yet.  I had really good germination last year when I sowed the seed in very late October / November time frame.  So, I might as well wait to spend the money if I'm going to sow late in the season.
• Friday - up at day break and out to the Orchard.  I brought my loppers, my long leather gloves, my oil can of poison, the rake, shovel, and cushion.  I spent pretty much the whole day down there weeding and generally cleaning up.  My coneflower is a major interest for me.  I have been spending time protecting it all year.  I started it from seed, and I spread the seed in the Orchard and the Star Garden.  I have been very conscientiously weeding amongst my coneflower.  It has been my special project.  It makes a wonderful flower, it is much-loved by the bees, and it is a medicinal herb.  The armadillos be-devil it, but luckily it has a long tap root and seems to be able to withstand the assault.   I also weeded the paths and other beds.  I cut away dead blackberry canes and, although I hated to do it - I cut down cow pen daisy that was thriving in my Scarlet Wave canna bed.  I really don't want those tall daisies re-seeding in my canna bed.  I cut away trailing grape vines.  I wove blackberry vines around each other to get them out of the paths. Deadheaded zinnias.  I stayed out there until about 3:00.
• Lots of pine needles on the ground in my excellent spot next to the Rose Garden.  I raked up a truck load and spread them in some of the spots in the Orchard where I weeded.  
•  When the sun got really hot, I moved to the Shade Garden and started working in there.  I cut back anything that was leaning into the paths.  I transplanted one clump of Southern Wood Fern from a path in the Shade Garden to a spot in the shady part of the Star Garden.
• I decided to drive around in the cadet and mow down the tall growth in the meadow.  I got stuck and had to schlepp home and tell Bert.  He pulled it out the next morning.
• Saturday.  Up and outside early.  I went back down to the Orchard.  It was a two-day effort to get it together down there.  I pulled more weeds, but mostly I laid down pine needles.  I raked up two more truckloads of pine needles and covered up all the spots where I weeded the day before.  I also tackled the big blackberry bed.  I cut and pulled out dead canes.  I yanked up handfuls of weeds.  I cut and poisoned a mustang grape vine that had snaked its way through my blackberries.  I got a lot of the Orchard mulched with pine needles.  That will keep the weeds down until fall is over.  I walked the outside of the Orchard and found (one of) the spot where the armadillo is coming in.  I nailed down the opening with a stake. 
• Adjusted the sprinklers in the Rose Garden because I have a new timer out there.  
• Sprayed herbicide in the Orchard. 
• Set out towels and soap for our AirBnb guests that arrive next Sunday. 
• Drove home for the party.

Weekend at the Farm September 8, 2019

Koy's 4th birthday party at the Museum of Natural Science then to Burton after that.  Lots to do in a short time.

• Still no rain to speak of, so I fed the bees some sugar water.
• I watered in the Rose Garden.  I lost a rose.  Boo.  On my To Do list is to get someone out here to run a water line to the Rose Garden and add a faucet.  I can put a timer on it and get a second set of zones out here.  It is too difficult to keep my rose shrubs watered which stunts their growth.  Also, perennial flowers won't live in the dry conditions either.  The only time the Rose Garden looks really, really good is in the spring when the wild flowers are in bloom and filling up the beds with their greenery and flowers.  It will be a lot cheaper than getting more automatic sprinklers (although the hoses running everywhere aren't very attractive).  Of course, July, August and early September can be discouraging months out there because it's so hot.  When we get through those months everything improves - including my attitude.
• Staked some zinnias in the Rose Garden and Star Garden.  I have lots of zinnia seedlings coming up, and I should have blooms by October.
• I weeded in there for several hours.
• Weeded in the Star Garden.  
• I planted three Snow Rose shrubs in the large bed off the dining groom windows.  Then I surrounded the area with chicken wire and staked it in and secured it with stakes around the bottom (to protect it from the armadillos).
• I sprayed herbicide in the Vegetable Garden, Star Garden, and Rose Garden.
• The amaranth looks really pretty.  One good thing about the drought-y conditions is that hard rain usually knocks down my really tall plants.  Well, we are having no problem there...
• I spread two bags of compost in a bed in the Vegetable Garden and sowed some more lettuce seed.
• I never made it down to the Orchard.  Since I was not going to be able to clean up in there, I didn't even want to look!
• I know I did lots of other stuff because I was outside working from 7:00 until 7:00, but none of it comes to mind
• Organized the house for our guests next weekend - towels, soap, shampoo.  The maid will do the rest.
• Headed to work on Monday morning.

Hurricane Lillies September 8, 2019

 They are popping up everywhere, but this stand of hurricane lilies looks really pretty this weekend.

Grandpa Ott Morning Glory September 8, 2019

I have this growing in the Vegetable Garden.  No sense in letting a good arbor go to waste.