Redux: Day 4
Posted: November 13, 2008 Filed under: Dirty Dozen, Writers Write | Tags: antique bath tub, backyard pond, goldfish, water garden, water lilly, writers, writing Leave a comment »
- This water lilly is blooming in my bathtub fish pond. The goldfish like to hang out just under the lilly’s petals.
- I spent most of the day at a doctor’s appointment, so it wasn’t much of a writing day. I edited a few pages in the waiting room, but I didn’t make any real progress.
- I planned to take this day off from writing, so I’m not behind.
Summer Garden… before it’s burned to a CRISP
Posted: June 18, 2008 Filed under: Housekeeping | Tags: backyard pond, cottage garden, sunflowers 1 Comment »Since we’ve had days on end of 95° plus temperatures and only 6½ inches of rain since last fall, my green world is browning out by the minute. Here are a few images of my summer garden before it’s dead and gone.
The view in the photo above is from my patio to the east corner of the yard. Most of these flowers were planted from seed. I like for the different varieties to blend into one another without borders.
The view below is the opposite side of the same bed. Purple coneflower has a fabulous scent, and it’s a perennial like the salvia growing next to it. The frosty-looking plant is called Dusty Miller. It’s supposed to be an annual, but this little bush is 3 years old.
We’ve enjoyed the water lilly growing in our bathtub pond. The tub is home to three goldfish named Fred. Bacon named them. Cherry and Coco remind him daily, “It’s time to feed the Freds.”
It’s been a good year for sunflowers. They don’t mind the dry weather and love the heat. The bloom below is smaller than most of these Mammoths, but still as big as a dinner plate. I’m hoping to harvest a few seeds before the squirrel population beats me to it!
The Goldfish Bowl
Posted: May 7, 2008 Filed under: A Zany Life, Housekeeping | Tags: antique bath tub, backyard pond, goldfish, water garden 3 Comments »
Since 1997, I’ve been the owner of an antique bathtub. It’s a large white-enameled vessel, bigger than most. It sits on a platform instead of claw feet. The tub migrated to my house from the school where I used to teach. It was a play prop that lived in my garage, and later, my backyard. It held tomato plants once. When that didn’t work out, it sat in the flower bed, empty. Well, almost empty. I’m not counting random leaves or occasional gecko.
Every time my dad saw it, he suggested I give it to my sister to use as a watering trough for her cows. Never mind that my sister lives 500 miles away or that the tub is gargantuan-heavy, or that I paid good money for it. Dad couldn’t be dissuaded. As far as he was concerned, it was good for watering cows.
I once had delusions about remodeling my bathroom. I fantasized soaking in the massive white basin, filled with fragrant bubbles, while I read trashy novels and ate bonbons. Like that would ever happen.
Bacon joked about making it into a fish pond. This week his dream came true. I plugged the drain, filled the tub with water, and made a dozen trips to Lowe’s for pond supplies. After three days of work and one emergency call to Cowgirl Crisp (my sister), I am the proud owner of a ginormous goldfish bowl.
