happy flowers after a flood of rain

It's good to be back in this space.  I'm hoping to make it out in the garden today for some heavy duty weeding.  We've had our own personal Shark Week here at Cicada Cottage and are slowly working our way back into life.  A huge rainfall yesterday has given us a new start in the yard.  A huge outpouring of prayers and support has done the same for our hearts (and Lucy's leg).

We're eating tomatoes every day.  Tomatillos are ripening faster than we can roast them.  A bumper crop of jalapenos and cantaloupe mean summer is still in full force.  August is the best month for fresh eating! 

What are you eating?

Growing and Killing

At eight o'clock in the evening, the fireflies come out and the chickens make their way "in" for the night.  It's a magical time of day.  We are all falling into a new rhythm now that the rigor of school schedules has subsided.  Without an impending morning rush, we feel some give at the end of it that encourages us to linger a little longer outside. Even past eight o'clock in the evening.

It's the perfect time to water.  Holding the hose at least one minute (ideally two) in the vegetable boxes each evening gives me lots of time to plan and think.  Planning for what will take the place of tomatoes and cucumbers come end of August.  Thinking about my own four growing (Seth will be 8 this week) and how they seem to be getting ahead of me.  Suddenly.  How does steady growth in living things always seem so sudden?

Then, there's the killing of living things.  Like squash beetles laying eggs on my zucchini leaves.  Tiny, shiny maroon-colored eggs.  They've begun to hatch.  Lucy would hunt them down and I would smoosh them into oblivion.  I don't have THAT much zucchini.  Not enough to share with hundreds of black and gray bugs.  Also weeds.  June is national weed month.  I am declaring it.  We had a family yardwork day yesterday.  The usual pit stop gardening wasn't cutting it and in the war against weeds, Cicada Cottage was losing fast.

I have some recipes I've made in the past week or so.  One to use the cucumber bounty and one to use the zucchini piling up.  The best recipes.  At least I think so.  Things are not slowing down here: weeds, bugs, vegetables, or kids.  So, hopefully I can show up here with proof of it all happening a little more frequently!

*Dr. Gooch grilling our dinner (chicken) with the chickens.

Weed Dreaming

I'm dreaming of the beach.  But I'm weeding and watering in reality.  Heat hit our home full force this week.  I killed one of my lovely ferns on the screen porch.  I think I can revive it though.  This is the first time this growing season I've had to get out with the hose.  I soaked the vegetables today because I locked myself and the four rascals outside so I thought I may as well get some work done.  Then, after said rascals were in bed I went out and trimmed the wisteria, chopped down the rust-laden hollyhocks and weeded like a mad woman until it was too dark to see (9:00).

It was just me and the fireflies.  Not bad for not being the beach.

Saturday Night Turn

I walked around the yard tonight after I put the children in their beds.  Prodded out of doors by their promises to stay put, I took a turn around the yard.  All the way around.  I do this a handful of times during the day if I am home.  I've been home most of the day feeling miserable with a cold.  

On these turns, I usually pocket a few eggs from the coop.  The other day I pulled up all the lettuce that had begun to bolt and then harvested the red kale (all of this made room for the beans, which I planted on a morning turn today).

I discovered a good sunny spot for the fig tree and Dr. Gooch planted it.  It's his fig tree, so his approval was crucial.  He may beg to differ (meaning he may not believe that I believe his approval was crucial), but it's true to be sure.

On a turn tonight I plucked a twig from an unknown-to-me tree (to take inside and give it the ol' dichotomous key treatment), I frowned at the eggplant that don't seem to be thriving as well as I'd like, but saw that my cosmos and wildflowers that I poked into the ground last week have sprouted.  It's all this wonderful spring rain we've been getting.  I watched the hens.  The younger girls (now three) like to head in for the evening earlier than the older ones.  But Gloria and her gang kick them out and demand first choice as far as roosting goes, so the non-layers have to step aside and then resettle themselves.  Every single night.   The same ritual.  Our lone rooster was killed the night before last.  All that remains is a smattering of pretty black and white feathers by the compost pile (Dr. Gooch disposed of the mangled body before the rest of us had even stirred). I wonder if they miss their man.

Then, it begins to be too dark to see anything but the silhouette of the three great Willow Oaks against the sky.  I come in.  The unknown tree is another (younger) Willow Oak but with larger leaves.  The chickens are settled.  All six.

I'll go to bed congested but content to have this little bit of earth for the six of us.

Happy Mother's Day.

RIP,  Mister Rooster

On The Grass

As much of a pain (and some might say "waste") a big lawn can be, I love that my rascals have ample room to romp.  Besides, ours is more like a clover field than a lush lawn.

Seasonal Forgetful Disorder

It is late on a Monday.  The last hour of the day actually.  I spent nearly the entire day outside.  After a big thundery rain we had a hot day.  High 80s for sure, maybe even a few minutes in the saveitforsummer 90s.  Between those two conditions it was like living in a greenhouse.  The garden seemed to explode right before my eyes and nose.  With the Wisteria still offering up waves of sweet air, I walked around finding a smattering of surprises (as well as some old standbys that were right on time).

I love the idea of sneaking seeds into unsuspecting spots and forgetting about them.  I tried this same technique when I was young, maybe 13.  I had a huge volume of Anne of Green Gables, into which I never quite delved.  Too quaint for me, maybe, not enough disaster or grief.  I know.

Regardless, I had the idea of hiding a twenty dollar bill in the middle of this volume feeling like it would be swallowed up by the thick pages and, that when the fancy struck, I would stumble upon it and...well, imagine the delight at coming into money that way.  At least, it sounded delightful to my 13-year-old self.

It never worked.  I always remembered it was there and it was recaptured as quick as the changing whim of a young teen.

But, sneaking a seed into the ground at Thanksgiving, or even early Spring, one has high chances and good odds at being taken aback by the height and color that might spring forth.

When seasons pass, things are forgotten.  One might sense that the fullness felt after a Christmas Eve feast will last her at least until April Fool's Day.  Or that burning sensation of an afternoon in August makes you think that come the "relief" of January temps you will never again crave such a wave of heat.  Not so.  Seasons have a way of wiping the slate.  I suppose, if we remembered everything, we would be too tired to get our hands dirty again and wait again for the blossoms and the buds.

But instead of Exhaustion there is Anticipation.  Spring has arrived and it flows so slowly here in the Southeast.  So, take your time, and walk with me through 20 photos from today!

This California Poppy popped out of nowhere!  The daffs are looking tired, so they are happy for some help.

Oh Columbine! Oh Columbine!  How graceful are your stems.  This one was a leftover from last years wildflower seed fling.

I just loved this shot.

These hollyhocks were also a part of that fling and they are BURSTING at the stem.  Just look at that bud.

I love this view.  The CC looks like it is going to be swallowed up between the Chocolate Vine and that climbing rose.

These are at your Local Lowe's right now.  Hardy and reliable.  Salvia.

Such stature, such stately strutting, these Lilies that have yet to bloom.

The mystery shrub/vine...still cannot track it down.

Absolutely no editing here.  This is the actual color and texture of this early rose.  An English Antique.

Queen of Night Tulips under a Jap Map

Yes!  That is MY foot.  And a pine pollen dusted sun-worshiping tulip.  Everything right now is dusted in pine pollen.  Even my bathroom sink.

Speaking of sticking seeds in the ground.  Try sunflowers, these are only beginning, but...just you wait!! They get so tall even birds struggle to reach them.

They were just so beautiful in the afternoon light.  It was worth getting mulch in my ears for this shot.

Another, different sort of poppy.  Did I fling these seeds or did you Dr. Gooch (let's see if we can get him to leave a comment).

"Y" plant a Japanese Maple?  Because they come in every color of the rainbow.

Even on such a WARM day, the Wisteria reminds us it is indeed Spring.

Hosta, about a week old, pushed through under trees just starting to leaf out.  Hostas like shade.

Corel Bells will bloom in June, but who needs flowers when your leaves are this gorgeous!

Tender Veggies and herbs and a soccer goal in the distance.