Up onto a fence post closer to the brilliant blue sky that is! Speaking of daisies...
This just arrived as a large canvas, my first ever photo into canvas...more on that later.
For now I'm just going to smell the daisies!
Wait...daisies stink!
But they sure make me happy!
Go out and do somthing that makes you happy...walk among the daisies! I dare you not to smile...
Happy August all! I hope this is the very best August of your life!
Once again I am here to advocate for your local pollinators...
Bees LOVE Borage!
Love, love LOVE it...seriously crazy about the stuff!
It freely reseeds (yet is easy to pull)
It is a lovely blue color...
I know I preach the benefite of borage at least once a year... but I really truly adore the stuff.
So will your bees!
But be forwarned...it gets BIG
About 3 - 4 feet tall and about that big around!
Big bushes with bold blue star like flowers!
When I was talking to my kiddos this week and we were brainstorming how we could do a scavenger hunt for KinderGARDENS, they came up with all kinds of ideas...
Baby Boy: Garden Bugs, Garden Monsters, Slugs, Garden Super Heros.
Sweet Girl: Prettiest Color, Favorite Vegetable, Nicest Bugs, Most beautiful Chicken
I decided to go with one of Sweet Girl's ideas, but instead of looking for the prettiest color we have decided to see how many colors we could find in the garden!
Of course things like green and yellow were easy to find but I had the darndest time finding black or grey...maybe you will have better luck!
And to make Baby Boy happy, we are going to see who can come up with the most colorful insect this week!
So here we go, let's find the rainbow!
Purple Cauliflower, Potato Blossom, Chicken House...
Blue Berries, BlueMan Scarecrow, Blue Borage an herb planted for our bees.
Field Daisies, Early Girl Tomato, Nasturtium Leaves...
Sweet Meat Squash Bloosom, Sunflower, Broccoli Blooms...
SunGold Tomato, Nasturtium, Marigold...
Pink Swiss Chard, Pink Dahlia, Cosmos
Red Raspberry, Red Bucket,???... I don't remember!
White Rose, Cosmo, Guara... or "Whirling butterflies" (thanks Eileen!)
This is for Baby Boy, Bugs!
Sorry Baby, no super heroes.
Well maybe just one...
Captain Pajamas to the rescue...on guard!
I was not going to post anymore rain pictures...
But I just had to show you these.
Rain rocks on pansies...
And cosmos!
Just in case you ever wanted to know what bird netting looked like in the rain!
*****
Breaking News: We just received our new alpacas...3 mamas, 3 babies, and neutered male named Mojo!
Come back tomorrow for pictures and find out what our resident llamas thought about the whole thing!
Well we have gone from this...
All sunshine and loveliness...
(as a side note of complete honesty...that is my compost pile behind Baby Boy. Hmmm, I'm thinking I need to do something about that, good grief!)
With all our little pollinators so covered with pollen they could hardly fly...
To this... everything being all wet and droopy.
But we do have a few exciting updates!
So come on in and take a look around...
The Scarlett Runner Beans are blooming!
And twining...
The cucumbers are finally blooming.
The maze is slowly starting to fill in.
As are each bed...this one has from front to back...eggplant, lentils, heirloom bush beans, early tomatoes.
I have completely mixed up all my beds this year with a variety of plants from different botanical families in each bed. It should make crop rotation a nightmare next year! But I like the mixed up look better than the one bed, one crop, look of past years...much more fun!
On a completely different subject may I just suggest that everyone have this in their gardens? Yes everyone needs a chicken or two, or twenty...they are just so much fun to listen to and watch while you're out their weeding!
And if you have chickens you have an excuse for a chicken yard, which leads to a reason for having these growing on said chicken yard fence...
Which of course in turns leads to an excuse for...
Taking a little break from weeding, to take a few photos of the roses blooming, on the chicken yard fence, all because you have chickens in your garden...see my logic?
So until the sun comes out and we are back to doing this...
I'll be doing this...
Taking pictures of sad, sad flowers that have tipped completely upside down due to moisture overload!
*****
Next week look for the new button in the sidebar for our 'Grow to Give' campaign for giving our produce to those hungry in our communities.
I can't wait to see how many pounds we can give to those in need!
*****
Some people are highly edited. They always have perfect makeup, clothes that are hip and modern. They watch what they say and do and usually drive cool cars.
Other people don't wear makeup, have no clue what the is 'in'...and frankly need to edit what comes out of their mouths before speaking just a little bit more.
I will let you all guess which camp I am in!
Well photos are often the same...
Some are highly edited with flashy colors and high contrast.
Some are not...they are straight out of the camera.
I don't usually have time for dinking around with photos, so after a little tweaking of the brightness or contrast I'm done.
Today is not that case!
Today's are highly edited...flashy and highly contrasted.
Its fun to be flashy once in while!
Although I wouldn't want to make a habit of it...
So what about you?
Are you highly edited or straight out of the camera?
How about your photos?
I always thought those people that collected orchids were a bit strange.
Seriously why collect a plant that you can not eat?
Or that need bright light but not direct light...or is rather expensive?
It all alluded me until...
My sweet daughter wanted this for her birthday...
Yes for her 8th birthday she wanted a pink/purple orchid!
So on my windowsill stands this intriguing little plant.
I have enjoyed having it there.
Which came as a surprise to me as my windowsills are usually filled with seedlings or herbs.
Then...
I saw this one...
And I had to have it!
But then there were two orchids sitting on my windowsill.
Everyone knows that odd numbers always look better than even numbers so...
OK...now I'm one of the freaky orchid collectors (of course I mean freaky in the kindest of ways!)
But I still cannot eat, dry, or can, an orchid.
Which begs the question.
What the heck does a farmer needs with a windowsill of orchids?
I'll have to get back to you on that.
Newly Orchid Obsessed!
I have a dear friend.
She is an amazing gardener.
She grows all kinds of delicious fruits and veggies but...
She also excels at growing flowers.
I must say that I envy her gardens...very much!
She has stunning baskets everywhere...I have to fuchsias that I cannot for the life of me remember to keep watered!
I have tried to grow clematis twice...twice failed.
Trying Begonias for the first time this year...we will see.
I can do Petunias...unfortunately so can my slugs!
Just lovely...again slugs.
Beautiful beyond words...poisonous...so not till the kids are older.
LOVE Lupin!
Have no clue what this is, but...
Its simply stunning from every angle!
Someday when I grow up I want to grow flowers like my friend Annette.
But till then I'll just have to make due with the flowers my kids pick from her yard...yep second hand daisies on old blue jeans is pretty much me for now!
So what about your garden? Is it overflowing with flowers and such? Or is it more utilitrian like mine, you know...if you can't eat it you don't grow it? Or is it the perfect balance of both?
The kids and I were stuck in the car for a short time the other day. Short enough that I didn't let them out of their seats, but long enough for mama to get bored (which usually happens within minutes)
Sweet Girl handed me a flower that she had picked at a friends house (post on friend's garden later this week...its stunning!) Anyway while sitting in the front seat of my husband's car and per usual having my camera in my purse...well you can guess!
Daisy on Blue Jeans...
Daisy on Dashboard...
Daisy against Blue Sky through Windshield...
All because someone handed me a daisy...
And I was bored...
As usual.
So what do you do in the car when you're bored?
