This and That: A Blog

 Woolly Apple mint is a reliable invasive!  One of the self-seeded Sungold tomatoes.  I guess I won't have to buy any plants this year!    Star of Bethlehem is a weed that's hard to get rid of, but it sure is pretty.  Hopefully it stays cool enough for the snap peas to reach maturity.  They are in no hurry this year.  One of the oreganos pops up all over the yard.  It's pretty, so I don't mind. Golden Oregano  Geum Fire Storm  One of the free curb irises is blooming.  As are the California poppies.  I think 99% of them came up in the paths not the beds.    I'm already pulling them out. The globe artichoke is coming back nicely.  The weather's been nice, cool mornings and warm afternoons in the 70s.  By the weekend it will cool off though, with rain expected in a few days.   That might give the peas a chance!

While I'm not getting the snow some of you are (my son back east and has an "historic amount of snow"), it's been very rainy.   The far back of the yard has it's usual puddles.  No, puddles is not the correct word.  Flooded areas.  They're nothing that doesn't happen with every heavy rain. I put these down for stepping stones.   Yesterday Mickey considered going outside... changed his mind... and took up a drier location to watch the rain. This morning I attempted to catch a falling water droplet.  My back started aching from bending over so long I had to quit.   That's a flowering plum I got years ago from a former co-worker.  He son had planted a pit in a container.  I had it growing in a big ceramic one on the deck until last April when I planted it into the herb garden.  I thought it was pot bound, but it wasn't.  Still, it's been happy.  It's growth was stunted, so it's now a miniature flowering plum! ...

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge It's the festive time of year!  Happy Christmas Eve!

 The park renovation is finished, other than the restroom which is scheduled for September .  It was scheduled, but there's just a porta-potty in October.  Mickey was peeking at the pickleball players.  The arch is a Lappset Sona dance and play arch.  Every time we walk past it startles Mickey by talking.  " Hi there!  Want to play ?" it said this day. There is a lot of new wood chips.  Around the trees, new and old, and around the edges of the grass near the fences.  I guess to make mowing easier, although they'll be kicked around before long, mixed in with the grass.  Not that I mean anyone will do it on purpose, which some might, but just time.  Kids and dogs running, kicking, playing.    New trees and wood chips.  The black fence in the upper left is the new dog park.   The chips are the perfect environment for fungi.  These are fairy inkcaps.