Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

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Garden Report

Sometimes I worry my garden reports might be kind of boring because most of what I grow has been featured before. Multiple times. Every year.

Yet my garden is exciting to me, and even more so when the crippling heat doesn't destroy it. There are so many things to see all summer long! And every once in a while, I still get a huge surprise. Sometimes the surprise is weeds. Sometimes the surprise is a garden helper or a garden terrorist. And sometimes, it's a flower I did not expect at all!

This year's gigantic surprise! The baby white picotee amaryllis pup spawned by my very first amaryllis has bloomed! In solid upper 90-degree weather! I am in utter shock!!! This is my favorite amaryllis, and now I have TWO active bulbs!

I planted my first-ever iris seeds last year, and quite frankly, I gave up on them and dropped some other seeds in the pot this spring. This year, at least one of those iris seeds is sprouting!

I've had my first Colorado zucchini ever. None of the cucumbers, crookneck squash, white pumpkins or melons (both waternelon and canteloup) are producing. But I have zucchini! I might even be able to celebrate "Sneak a Zucchini on Your Neighbor's Porch Day" this year (official holiday on August 8)!

Half of the first zucchini provided a zucchini boat with turkey sausage, as well as onions, tomatoes and serrano peppers from my garden, and the second half became the best home-grown homemade spaghetti sauce I've ever made.

Lizard didn't care for the zucchini boat, so I got the entire thing to myself. We didn't get even one serving of the quinoa noodles with sauce from my very own home-grown tomatoes, onions, serranos, carrots, spinach, zucchini, oregano and basil. (With store-bought garlic, celery, olives, mushrooms and tomato paste.)

I cried and cried.

Now I have another fresh zucchini. I plan to try my hand at spaghetti sauce again. I'll be using one of my new *plastic* mixing bowls... No more glass bowls for me!!!

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Friday Fun

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The Best Things in Life

I'd worked super late the night before. I did NOT want to get up when the alarm sounded. I'd promised my bosses I'd go in early to finish up what they hoped would wrap up overnight. I hit the snooze button. Twice. The third time the alarm sounded, I decided I could skip sunrise and just go to work. As long as I got up the next hour when the re-set alarm sounded, I could still get a spot at the park and ride, and I'd still be to work a bit early.


I curled back up in my warm bed with my fraying Dancing Lizards quilt and tried to wash sour memories of one of the previous night's documents out of my head. I told myself if I couldn't fall back asleep in five minutes, I'd go ahead and get up, get ready, and report to work. I'd peeked out the window, and it didn't look like the sunrise would be worth shooting.

The nasty pagination of the messed-up document won, and I made the bed, re-set the alarm back to 5 a.m. and got dressed for work.

I didn't rush because I wouldn't be missing anything by not walking along the greenway before boarding the train. I'd communed with my favorite great blue heron the previous day and had earned a Charity Miles badge from Team Fox. If I could get off in time this particular night, I could walk on the greenway the next day, prior to our next big snowstorm, which might bring a better sunrise than we would get this day.




I stuffed my breakfast, lunch and crochet bag into my backpack and hung my little point and shoot camera around my neck, just in case the sky to the west turned pretty during my drive to the park and ride.

The eastern horizon had taken on a different appearance than when Venus shone brightly nearly an hour earlier. A waffle-shaped cloud might prevent the sun from painting the foothills bright gold, or it might turn bright gold...

I decided to park near the greenway, even though I didn't have time to go far now, instead of closer to Denver, where I didn't have to pay for parking. The tips of the cloud began turning pink as I engaged the parking brake, and before I reached the bike path, a sun pillar was lighting up the previously gray cloud.






Now I was fully awake and remorseful for not dragging myself out of bed when the first alarm sounded. I couldn't walk more than about a quarter of a mile because I needed to be on the train in half an hour, but now I was in the mood to fill up a memory card.

I walked along the bike path to the first bridge, initially intending to turn back there, but a pair of deer posed, and the sunrise was turning out pretty darned awesome.




I decided to walk beneath the overpass and to a tiny little waterfall where I had previously seen muskrats on occasion. I might even be able to get another pink water reflection shot, and perhaps a mallard would pose for me.


I stood still on the bank of the river, blocking out sounds of the city and listening to the water cascading over a series of rocks. Mist was rising off the water, visible only from a distance. I could smell the humidity, and I wished I could stand in that spot all day.

The corner of my eye caught the movement of a tiny bump in the water above the spillway. I tried to track its movement as it swam behind the rocks toward the waterfall. I was certain it was either a muskrat or a very small beaver; no fowl head and neck periscoped from the silhouetted mound.

It didn't appear at the top of the spillway as I thought it should have, and I assumed it was munching on the sparse winter brush emerging from a few of the rocks. I looked back at the waterfall and pondered if I could get into position to move the pink reflection in front of me onto the base of the bubbling water.


Just then, a tiny little lump with a long tail slid down the waterfall as if it was enjoying a theme park ride! Down into the water it dove, and I stood breathlessly motionless as I visually scanned the water's surface in search of the little mammal.

Even though I didn't get a photo, I was utterly thrilled to have beheld a critter enjoying his backyard Disneyland. I began composing this blog post in my head. If I'd begun this little walk an hour earlier, as initially planned, I would be over by my favorite blue heron, and possibly getting some great shots. But I would have missed this tiny little treasure that will keep me smiling for weeks. And perhaps keep me searching for similar photo opportunities for months.

I decided to take a photo of the little waterfall to illustrate the story. So what if Muskrat Sam wasn't in the picture? We all have imaginations!


Then an idea hit me. I could film the waterfall, and it would be easier to imagine a tiny little skinny dipper gliding down the water as if it was summer.

I tried to steady myself and then gently pressed the record button, and...

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A Sweet Tradition

Back when I was a child, my parents would give each of us seven kids a book of Life Savers in our stockings each year. This was back when a book of Life Savers contained 10, and later 8, rolls of individually packaged flavors such as Wild Cherry, Mixed Berries, Tangerine, Butter Rum, Root Beer, Cinn-O-Mon, Cryst-O-Mint, Pep-O-Mint, Spear-O-Mint, and our most favorite... Wint-O-Green.

We would quickly break into the packages and dig out the wintergreen candy, then run to the bathroom and, with the lights out, chew the candy in front of the mirror to watch the sparks. It was a Christmas ritual.


Check out those awesome Life Saver snowflakes!!!
Back then, we could buy a roll of Life Savers for a nickle. I think the book of Life Savers was under a dollar. Remember penny candy??? A whole roll of Life Savers for a nickle was such a good deal, and one roll would last so long! ...Unless it was Wint-O-Green.

It's a scientific marvel called triboluminescence.


Now a roll of Life Savers runs about a buck and a half, if you can find one, and the Life Saver books are anywhere from $3 to a mind-choking $6. But these days, a book of Life Savers contains only the five-flavor rolls, and there are only four rolls in the book. The front section of the book now is a piece of heavy paperboard.


Aaaah, the good old days. I recently got the opportunity to spend time with my adoptive grands, and we decorated Halloween cookies. We might not get another chance to get all three or four families together before Christmas, so I shared a favorite Christmas memory with them at the end of the evening.

I bought two packages of Wint-O-Green Life Savers and had the parents turn out the lights after we had distributed candy to each of the 16 kids. I told them to stand in a circle so we could see each other's mouths, then let their eyes adjust to the (not very dark) darkness, and then we all chewed at the same time. I told them about the sparks we loved to watch as kids.

The kids were SO excited!

But nothing happened.


I hadn't tested it before I went to the cookie-decorating party to see if the magic still works. I felt like a heel.

It was time for everyone to go home, so I gave the rest of the Life Savers to the parents and told the kids to try it at home in their bathrooms, with the lights off, looking in the mirror while whey chewed.

The next night, my phone rang, and two of the kiddos called to elatedly and enthusiastically report that it works! They thanked me again for the cookies and the Life Savers, and they told me again and again how cool it was to watch the blue lightning in the mirror!

It was my first phone call ever from any of my grandkids!!!

I think now I'm going to have to teach all 16 of them to build Life Saver trains!

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Flower Fanatic

I've had a few surprises in my garden already this year!

Most important, planting onions throughout the garden and fertilizing with my husband's coffee grounds and my own tea bag innards has kept deer and bunnies from feasting. Also, the baby grasshoppers (which seem to be beyond prevalent so far this year) are not big enough yet to do much damage.

I have planted California Bluebells (and Texas Bluebonnets) from seed every year for three years. I've yet to see any in the garden. One single bluebell did bloom one year in one of the pots on the patio, but none managed to be discovered in the garden.

Until this year. Imagine my surprise coming home to this after a stressful day of work!






One night when I got off work after dark, a hummingbird moth was sipping from the California bluebells in the twilight. Make some seeds, Dude! Pollinate away!

Couldn't resist playing with my Lensbaby circular fisheye lens...




I also got a huge surprise the day I noticed my wisteria DID survive the winter! The top portion of the bush may not have lasted, but life remains beneath the soil.




Every year, I cast my allium back into the garden, hoping if there are any viable seeds, some of them might find the soil pleasing and take root. Last year, I had some shoots I suspected might be allium, but I wasn't sure.

This year, doubt is removed. They are smaller than the parents, but they might get bigger each year. The important part is the blue, of course!


One California poppy plant decided to be different. (All my other California poppies are radiant orange.) I'm going to spread the seeds from these buttercup babies all over the front yard garden and the raised bed garden in the backyard!


Guess what's blooming in the barrels!!!


I started three $2 dahlias inside the house way back in about February or March. I put them out on the porch as soon as it started to get warm, and I had to bring them back inside three times. My efforts paid off. I have dahlias the first week of June! That's a first for me, when growing from bulbs. I'm in dahlia heaven!


None of my dahlias were supposed to be white. I bought a hot pink one and a purple one, plus another blue one (third attempt). Of course, there is no such thing as a blue dahlia, and I knew that, but I like "blue" flowers even when they aren't true blue, such as my windflowers and irises.

Another dahlia is beginning to bloom, and it looks to be pink. I've never been able to get the "blue" ones to produce flowers, so I'm not sure if the third plant, which has no blooms yet, will be purple, or if the white one should be purple. (Some of the petals have a very faint pink cast.)

Oh, and all the dahlias are supposed to be dinnerplate size. But this is Colorado, and I am above 6,000 feet in altitude. My largest dahlia to date has been just over four inches across. Dinnerplate might be asking just a bit much. Or perhaps the dinnerplate size refers to doll scale. Doll ya...

Who cares what color the dahlias are when they are this gorgeous? I can make my white dahlia bluish without the use of Photoshop! Here are before and after blue food coloring photos...




I'll love all my dahlias, whatever color they are. I'm so thrilled to have healthy dahlias in Colorado!!!

And somebody needs a soapy water bath...

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