Back at the ranch

My front garden Not sure what the white spiky things are or that blue cloud to the left is either. Aside from the blue love-in-the-mist, I have white and pink too. And more giant pink hydrangeas.

last fall I found some orange cosmos on school property. Waited until the heads dried up and collected the seed. Now have lots of orange cosmos. Meanwhile I have only 2 zinnias from all the seed I saved

Despite me leaving extra nectar, Steve did not fill the hummingbird feeders. Fortunately for them, the hostas are in bloom so they didn't starve. Still trying to lure them back to the feeders

pink and white snapdragons that seeded themselves

Allie and my son went boating

Miss Maya's acrobatics

I returned home to all sorts of chaos: empty bird feeders, rampant weeds, flowers needing dead heading. And the other house remains unsold despite a few promising leads. This is the first year I ever had a vegetable garden. I grossly underestimated how big my little 25 cents a piece plants would get so everything is very close together. The Brussels sprouts plants are especially huge covering up my kale which I have harvested. Even the remaining Swiss chard can be harvested (smaller plants from the roots are growing. The bunnies ate the tops before I caged everything up).

 

My orange cosmos is now in bloom. I have never been able to find plants to buy but saw some growing in the school garden last fall. As they don't dead head anything, I took my scissors and did the job for them saving the heads. I put some of the seeds in little planters and threw the rest of the seed in the vegetable garden. The vegetable garden seed turned into big plants but the light was being blocked by these sunflowers that are now as tall as me so I did a lot of replanting yesterday. The tiger lilies are now blooming despite the heavy pruning they got by the mouths of the deer. Mystery to me flowers are now in bloom too along with the hollyhock that almost died due to transplant shock.. So lots of time weeding, removing dead wood from our hard winter, fertilizing,etc.

 

It was hard to get back into the exercise routine with Sunday being so hot and humid. The next day was much drier and cooler so I ran and then got back into that saddle again. Today I got a flat tire about a mile from home though a bicyclist offered to change it for me or call someone. But I am happy I didn't get the flat on my big ride. I assume its due in part to how fast the rear tire is wearing out so a trip to the bike store is in the cards this afternoon, fortunately near a friend that I will visit.

 

I've been having some fun: a lunch with Josh and Allie Sunday and a visit from Maya and Naomi today. Last night I went out to dinner with 3 ex-colleagues. It was fun catching up.