Ho-hum

Finally stopped raining today. Had a total of 4.6" of rain over 4 days. Pat had started digging holes for drain pipe and two holes filled up with water. Today he discovered a frog living in the water and munching away on the little creatures growing in the water (some kind of larva....mosquito?).

Leah and I checked on the bluebird nest today hoping to find some chicks. But still just 4 pale blue eggs in the birdhouse. Soon hopefully we'll hear the chirps of chicks.

I discovered 100's of caterpillars of some kind all over one of my dogwood bushes. They've annihilated the leaves on the bush. Need to get something to kill them before they move on to the next dogwood or worse yet my daylilies. I posted a question about them on Dave's Garden. Hopefully there's an overwhelming answer that is the sure fix for the buggers.

It's been overcast even though the rains have left the city, so I still feel a bit "blue". Hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine and I can get outside. Humidity will probably be horrific for the next few days. We needed the rain, but this was a bit overkill with most of it running off after the ground became saturated.

I've been thinking about starting a new mosaic project.....a stepping stone. I need to get more tiles to work with though. Maybe go to a flea market and look for some stuff to use....old plates or dishes perhaps. I bought mortar this week so it's a question of mosaic materials at this point.

Somehow or another Leah and I got on the topic of starvation. So I showed her Google pictures of starving people....nothing too over the top since she's only five. After she left, I did some browsing and ended up on the World Vision website. I ended up sponsoring a girl with the same birthday as Leah. She is in Colombia and her name is Dayan. As the commercial goes, for just $1 a day I can sponsor her. I look forward to writing to her and sending her things like stickers, hair ribbons, barrettes, and the like. They don't allow you to send them packages only letters and things that will fit into an envelope. I remember Grandma sponsoring a child I think she was from Ecuador (don't remember for sure). But Grandma sponsored her until she was an adult and may have continued to sponsor her after that....I don't really know. It made me feel like the day wasn't an entire waste....I did a good thing today.

Domestic Goddess

So far this week I've baked a loaf of wheat bread (it was awful...like a brick), 2 batches of cookies, and some fried okra from farmer's market on Wednesday. Today I am spending the day doing laundry. I cleaned Leah's room up on Wed. and Sarah's today. So I am domestic goddess this week.

It's been raining since Tuesday night with flash flood warnings. We got 1/2" yesterday and 9/10" today for a 2-day total of 1.4". Luckily our drainage problem has remained at bay since each shower only lasts for 30 min or so and it's at least 2 hours between rain storms; giving time for the water to drain away.

Watched Blood Diamond with Leo DiCaprio today. Pretty good movie, but nothing to rave about. Interesting learning about the "conflict diamond" trade. Makes me wonder if my wedding ring is one of them. Most likely is given the timeframe in which it was purchased.

Still thinking of getting away with Patrick sometime in late July or early August before we go to Burning Man. Ideas range from Herman, MO to Chicago or New Orleans.

Above: Vatican City At right: At Sunset

Gorgeous day

Today is a beautiful day out following a night of rain. A tour of the gardens delighted me with several new daylilies in bloom. The rains were not kind to all of them and a few were rainsoaked and streaked. Found this beauty blooming.... Vatican City.

Ran several errands today including ortho for Sarah, hair appt for Sarah (found out it's tomorrow though! doh!), and Verizon store with Matt. Finally got home to start laundry and work on my photos.

Discovered the bluebirds on the deck laid 3 eggs in the birdhouse Pat & Leah built together. Guess they did a good job! The cowbird laid another egg in the now abandoned bluebird nest in the copper/tile birdhouse. Wonder what will become of those 2 eggs....the first is still inside the nest there.

New Blooms Today

Aphrodite double asiatic lily in bloom

I believe this is Tropical Dream, but no marker so not 100% sure.

Rain, rain... Go away....

Two inches of rain today led to another lake in the backyard. This time it was pretty bad in that the mulch washed out of the beds and onto the sidewalk, patio and eventually into the pool.

Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder....

Enjoying the bluebird couple that set up home in one of my decorative birdhouses. Spotted a cowbird intruder the other day and now there is 2 brown speckled eggs and only 1 blue egg. There had been 2 blue eggs and a speckled one. Is the cowbird destroying the bluebird's own eggs to make room for its eggs?

A blog for a non-blogger

Well thought I'd start one of these. I have an online journal for gardening, so not sure if this will be useful or used. Time shall tell. Will hopefully be able to share things other than gardening here with friends & family.