Dog Daze

DogDaze

Lilly Tang frolics among the wildflowers in the Pecos Wilderness.

It’s the long end of summer. Here are a few random notes about what is going on in my life.

  • I finished the rewrite. The manuscript has a new working title, Schooled. My job now is to go through the manuscript a section at a time, fixing duplicated words and typos. It will take every waking minute of the next ten days to finish before The Breakout Novel Intensive Workshop.
  • Cherry has been sick for five days. We visited the pediatrician yesterday. At least Cherry doesn’t have the Swine Flu. So for now, we’re in wait-it-out mode.
  • I have a car! BBC1 fixed Bacon’s truck when all the mechanics in town said it couldn’t be fixed.
  • Rain. We have rain. I planted tomatoes. The squirrels dug them up. I replanted them. They dug them up again. I replanted, again. The only thing proved is I can be as consistent as a squirrel.

June Garden Journal

Today’s temperature was 104°, a record high for San Antonio. These photos were taken earlier in the month. I’ve harvested the tomatoes and given up on the squash, but the flowers are still beautiful. The city expects to go to Stage 3 water restrictions this week, so unless a tropical storm hits the Gulf of Mexico and floats north, summer gardening is over until September. For now, I’m enjoying what my next-door neighbor calls my “urban oasis.”

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Butterflies are abundant this month. This guy is perched on a plant called Mist. Since my garden is pesticide free, and I purposely planted extra parsley for the caterpillars, we see more than ever.

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This pot has held nearly every kind of plant without success. I should have tried strawberries first! I started too late for a real crop, but I'm inspired for next year. 4 o'clocks round out the rest of the bed.

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Echinacea are in the foreground. Salvia, basil and roses grow in the back. I love this jumble of blooms.

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Esparanza love the heat. Grandpa Ott's Morning Glories climb the fence on strings of jute.

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I managed to harvest quite a few Celebrity tomatoes before the sun roasted the plants. The heat from the brick wall is a problem in this bed.

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The canna in the bathtub is a conversation piece. Our goldfish eat the mosquitoes off the surface.

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I've been warned about the invasive nature of Cypress Vine, but I couldn't resist planting my patio window boxes. The leaves are lacy and green, and a tiny red flower blooms like a star.


May Garden Journal

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In March, I bought three tiny pots of old fashioned, reseeding petunias. I’ve cut them back twice, but they still float over this entire bed. The good thing about a plant like this is it squeezes out the weeds. The tall blue flowers in the background are Celestial Carpet Salvia, a perennial that reappears in the spring and blooms all summer. Coco started it from seed in a flower pot three years ago.

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We have grapes! So far the squirrels and birds haven’t found them.

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Unfortunately, the animals have found the tomatoes. These are the hybrid Celebrity planted with squash and parsley.

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I couldn’t resist this dark blue iris. The lighter flower in the background is plumbago.

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I repotted the water lilly last month. This is our first bloom of the season in the bathtub fishpond.

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The Asiatic Lilly blooms for only for a few weeks, but the blossoms are spectacular.


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