6 posts tagged “gardening”

Today was perfect weather (albeit HOT) for butterflies. My mom's gardens are gearing up for their final bursts of color before fall, and she's got the perfect place for the butterflies by her front door...zinnias, cosmos, black-eyed susans, and many more. It's a veritable butterfly paradise.

If you've ever tried to photograph butterflies, you know how you've just got your shot set up and then they flitter off. It took several several tries but I finally captured some. (Thank God for digital cameras, I would've wasted rolls of film today!)

Setting the scene

The scene by the front door...this area is filled with flowers almost year-round...and the butterflies love it!

Black eyed susans

Trying to capture these Eastern Tiger Swallowtails was hard...I never managed to get the male (yellow) with his wings open or in focus...

green with envy

I love this color zinnia, I planted some this color in my own garden but they hadn't yet opened when we moved out, hopefully the people who moved in are enjoying them!!

The common buckeye butterfly is much smaller but easier to photograph, they stay in one place!! I love the intricate patterns on their wings.

Buckeye

Waiting....and patience finally pays off!

Really creepy stinging caterpillar

In the mean time, we spotted this crazy alien-looking caterpillar. My dad mentions they sting as it's crawling up my leg. Needless to say I started screaming like a girl and begging him to "get it off! get it off!" Caterpillar and I both survived intact.

Finally captured her!

Since it doesn't look like we'll have another house to live in before it turns cold and therefore kills my chances for a fall garden... I'll just look back on what I had :) And realize I took no pictures of all my hard work by the mail box...boo.

I've always loved zinnias and they seemed to love growing at our old house. I literally threw seed down, and let nature do the rest. I loved how they had so many diverse colors and how they grew taller each time it rained. They bloomed right up till Halloween last year when the frost finally killed them. They were so easy to care for and simple pruning kept them looking fantastic. FWIW, Andrew hates zinnias...he thought they looked too wild, and when they were first coming up he though they were weeds and tried to pull them out!  How could he not love these? They drew every butterfly and dragonfly and hummingbird in the neighborhood....And I could see it all from my kitchen window :)

Hummingbird in Zinnia

Butterfly in zinnias

With our current run of luck I think I should be researching just exactly what grows (and doesn't) in North Dakota...just in case we do end up moving there, I will know if I can have a cutting garden.

It finally stopped raining a few hours ago. It rained most of the night, and all morning. Lots of rain, buckets of rain, inches and inches it seems of rain. I came home from a Mom Mentor group at church this morning to find my front flower bed underwater. Snapdragons up to their little necks in water. (Can you tell I have poor drainage in that bed? But won't do anything about it since we'll be gone in a few months!)

I bailed out part of the bed with a cup (I'm sure the neighbors thought I was crazy since it was still pouring down rain while I was doing this...leaning out from under the overhang trying not to get soaked. Then I discovered a space in the landscaping edge where I could "let" out all the water almost like pulling the stopper out of the bathtub. Same effect, after I removed a few pieces of mulch and rocks...all the water in the bed, whooshed out and down the driveway.

Now the sun is blazing down on the poor half-drowned flowers (that had just recovered from last weekend's downpour). I hope it helps to dry it out soon!

I should be cleaning and tidying the house for tomorrow. Since tomorrow Andrew's family will converge upon the house for graduation festivities. And then my parents are watching Gavin and our niece Lauren while we, and Andrew's parents and sister go to the graduation dinner that promises to be probably another long-winded speech punctuated by food and being out past my bedtime (you'll understand once you have a baby...when they go to bed, it's a good idea to just pack it up for the day too!) after an already long-winded day of breakfast at 8 (I'm never presentable to the world by 8!), graduation at 10, and then Andrew getting his long-anticipated wings at 11. Then there's a million tours of the squadron and looking at planes and all that fun stuff, where I might be tempted to sneak home and take a nap :)

So I should be preparing for all of this, but I've been enjoying a quiet couple of hours, since it's 4:35 and Gav laid down for a nap at 2. I ate my lunch in peace, I read a magazine, I sort of watched some odd movie with Harrison Ford involving Amish people, and I'm debating about starting dinner even though Andrew flies tonight and won't be home till late. I think I'm just going to enjoy my last few minutes of quiet time where I'm not being tugged on, or squealed at...and do nothing.

I've been planting up a storm in preparation for the Yard of the Month contest that starts in a few weeks. I added ageratum, snapdragons, red sage,dusty miller, pots of salvia, lantana, sweet william, verbena and all were doing just fine until recently. Out of the blue, half of my snapdragons started wilting, they were still damp around the roots so I'm assuming I over-watered them, so I swore off watering them. A couple improved, a few died. Then when they dried out- it rained a little (not much at all) but not enough that I didn't need to water them again this weekend, and more are wilting now. So either they had something wrong with them, the neighbors dog did more damage than I thought he did when he stepped in my flowers, or I just have bad luck with the snapdragons. I don't know what I'm going to put in their place if they all die. I'm nervous to put more in (though they're my favorite flower, aside from sunflowers and poppies), but I don't know what else has their color variety and height.

We meant to put in the path next to the flower bed this weekend, but it was just to much for us to handle. Friday night we went to our neighbor's (and Andrew's sister flight's) Assignment Night. I had a bit of a headache before we left, but by the time it was over, it was a full blown migraine and I barely made it in the front door without throwing up. My WONDERFUL neighbor and friend, Lindsey saved the day by coming over to help me take care of Gavin and get him ready for bed, since Andrew was still at Assignment Night celebrating with his friends. He has no cell service at the O Club, so I finally was able to get in touch with a wife in our class, who's husband was with Andrew, thereby passing on the information that I needed Andrew to come home early. But Lindsey was such a trooper, she was kind of thrown to the wolves in taking care of Gavin, I couldn't offer much advice or help, I was too busy throwing up.

I had been lulled into believing the cycle of migraines was over, since they constant headache had FINALLY gone away, but that one was the worst I think I've ever had. Once the Imitrex kicked in, though I was feeling 100% better by midnight or so. I should've taken it a lot earlier, but I was worried since I'd taken an Alleve before Assignment Night, I didn't know if they mixed well. I should've realized that as much as I threw up, there probably wasn't any Alleve in my system anymore.

I was feeling like myself on Saturday, so I did get to go to a friend's baby shower. We got thoroughly lost getting there, probably not a good idea on my part to not read all the directions through several times. (Though the directions were wrong to begin with...so it didn't really matter). We finally got there a bit late but it was fun and I can't wait for Sonia's little girl to arrive!!

Sunday was great, we had a fun time at Sunday school and were very thankful that some kind person bought and donated the books that go along with the sermon at the main service. (For Women Only and For Men Only by Shaunti Feldhahn) The sermons have been about Song of Solomon and marriage, and they're really amazing. Andrew and I spent part of yesterday reading the books, and constantly going "You really think this way?". I also took Gavin to see Nana, Poppy and Uncle Matt. Gav was glad to be center of attention (as usual) and was glad to get to explore all of Nana's house.

Then we came home and crashed. Gav stayed up late (again), he hasn't wanted to go to down easily anytime before 8:30 or so this week, but I know he needs more sleep, so I'm just going to try 7 again. He wakes up in a much better mood if he gets 12 hours of sleep.

Today, I've got to tackle the mountain of laundry, dusting, vacuuming, etc. The grass needs to be mowed too, whether or not that gets done though...we'll see.

I got out into my front flower bed yesterday for the first time in forever! It was pretty warm and though it was really cloudy (in anticipation for today's non-stop rain,I really enjoyed myself!
Gavin was in his walker/exersaucer parked on the front walkway and he was pretty content to watch me on my hands and knees digging around in the dirt. He was so cute watching all the planes going overhead. It was fascinating to him, and since one goes every just about every 30 seconds- he was captivated for quite some time!!

That meant Mommy was able to dig around and eventually plant some pansies. While I was cleaning out the mums and leaves and such I discovered I have tulips coming up. I don't know if they'll do anything, since what I've heard is they should be replanted each year, but we'll see. They weren't there last spring when we moved in...so maybe all the fertilizing and new dirt I added made them happy ? I ended up just putting pansies around the tulips so at least the bed got a little color added to it. Now I'm unsure what to do with all the pansies I bought, I didn't put them in that particular bed because I didn't want to disturb the tulips in case they do flower, but now I'm going to either put them in containers or clean out the other flower bed and plant them there (but I had plans for snapdragons there). I'm in an indecisive gardener that's for sure.

Gavin's new car seat came in the mail the other day, we got the Britax Roundabout in a very cute Cow pattern called appropriately enough "Cowmooflauge". My brother took a picture of him- I hope he uploads it soon, (my camera was dead) and Gav looked so adorable in it. We're saving it to use it in our new car (not yet bought new car). But it's a really great seat with great safety ratings that we got an outstanding deal on at Target. Gav loved sitting in it, I'm sure he thought..."Wow! So much more room!".

He was a great baby this morning at our study/discussion group at church, he just sat in my lap and ate cheerios like a good boy. He got fussy at the end because it was nap-time but he slept until we got to the commissary where we braved the rain and he didn't fuss at all while I picked up a few things to make a chicken noodle soup that Elizabeth makes. He was so quiet and well-behaved I managed to dash into the BX and get a few things for his Easter basket.
After all that fun, he was ready to eat and take a nap when we got home. I would've liked a nap too- he got up when Andrew left at 5:30 this morning.

Well, I've got to start the soup...and yell at the dogs for rough housing in the living room!