Hot and blooming

 

The coleus is bolting...so I've put this planter in a shadier spot. 

My over-wintered geraniums are still giving slightly feeble looking flowers, but they make up for it by being abundant.

The apartment grounds are full of many varieties of day lilies.

My apple mint is needing to be harvested. But since a nice spider was living on it for weeks, I've been hesitant. Soon...

Sharing with Floral Friday Fotos 

Today's quote:

When we are willing to be intimate with what actually is here now, to look directly at all of our experience, we might recognize that this is our life, however different from our thoughts and ideas about it.

ROSHI PAT ENKYO O'HARA

Sort of stuck on Art and flowers

 

The entrance to the Black Mountain Center for the Arts

Maxfield Parrish, The Mill Pond, 1945

This picture is so calming and just cooling, for when I come in from the hot sunshine outside. Thank heavens for air conditioning too!

View of Nature in Assending Regions by Levi Walter Yaggy from Geographical Portfolio, 1893.as shared in the Marginalian.

I've posted about Juneteenth over on my blog When I Was 69. 

Today's quote:

What the Caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly. -Richard Bach, writer (b. 23 Jun 1936)

The porch plants

 

New Miss Lavender is doing really well. No fertilizing, and kind of dry and hot these days!

I've got two or three pots of purple petunias.

This coleus made several very large leaves, but has yet to sprout upward further...we shall see what happens with it.

Personally I'm getting much better at attending events I've signed up for...like the Tailgate Market yesterday morning, and docent volunteering at the Center for the Arts big gallery exhibit in the afternoon. Fortunately in the morning it wasn't unbearably hot in the shade outside, and in the afternoon the gallery was frigid with air conditioning really turned low. I stood in the doorway to the very hot patio for a few minutes to warm up.  And I came home after a late lunch of a Bento Box at Sake Sushi of scallops teriyaki - with leftovers for another meal! Guess what the next 3 hours were? Yep, a solid nap! This elder knows how the old machine works, and needs resting when doing lots of "out there" activities. As an introvert, I especially need my alone time to re-charge!

Sharing with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, 

Today's quote:

The goal of life
is to make your heartbeat
match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.

The goal of life is to be a vehicle
for something higher.

- Joseph Campbell, Reflections on the Art of Living: A Joseph Campbell Companion.  

Pitcher plant flowers

 Two kinds of plants have completely different forms of flowers.

The white kind, which are pollinated and give seeds.

These red flowers are sterile

The plant owner also makes beautiful things with copper. I'll have to get photos of that next time.

Today's quote:

In appreciating our neighbor, we’re participating in something truly sacred.

FRED ROGERS Sharing with Wordless wednesday on tuesday

Tailgate and flowers

 Yesterday's market was so-so. We each had a few sales, but few people even browsed. My partner in crime, the only other Mud Buddy who is active, did much of the work of set up. 

It was another very beautiful day, and I don't know if it finally rained or not, because I was exhausted and came home and ate lunch and took a nap till late afternoon.

But today I'll share some beautiful flowers I saw. 

The roses were a big surprise...and I was really tempted. But when I saw them, I hadn't yet had sales enough to purchase any! 

A local flower farm had other lovely flowers to make bouquets with. 

I didn't come home with anything but pictures of flowers this week! I guess it might have been because I was coughing up a storm some of the time, and even went to sit in my car for about 15 minutes respite. The heat of the car sitting in the partial sun helped warm my lungs again, and I persevered to the end of market at least. The dampness in the air, foreshadowing a possible thunder storm, disturbed my breathing, but we stayed dry at least. I'm grateful for that. 

Today's quote:

All too often, our lives can be spread too thin, and it becomes important to gather our thoughts and center ourselves to become whole again.

Where's this anyway?

 

Driving by this field and grassy area on Sunday May 19, 2024, it's hard to believe that under the trees on that grass just the day before had been the busy Black Mountain Tailgate Market.

Tailgate Market, May 18, 2024.

OK, there are days when I gird my loins (do women do that?) and go to a big ox store (typo intentional.) I just was waiting and took these shots...BIG is certainly the best way of looking at it. Babe the Blue Ox comes to mind from my typo.

I was amazed that that Milk sign came so clear in the photo from the very front of the store...and you might also note all the men in the grocery aisles! I think a hike in those big outside aisles is clearly over a mile. The only problem is people getting in your way!

I like these pretty flowers. 

Does this give you a good enough hint where I was shopping on Tuesday, May 21? I didn't buy either flowers or watermelon. Just thought they were good photo subjects.

Sharing with Thankful Thursday

And Little Things Thursday 

And Floral Friday Fotos

Today's quote:

YOUR LIFE IS AN ART PROJECT! Put the emphasis on the quality of your adventures as much as on what you produce. Regard your life as a noble and inspiring work of art.

Tony Clennell (potter/blogger in Canada)

My life lately

 Coolish 54 when I woke around 7:30.

Rain off and on...so my double layers will hopefully allow me to go here and yon today...with raincoat and umbrella at the ready.

Here're some random shots from the last week.

My very knowledgeable Doctor Drew Schnyder. I passed with flying colors on my yearly exam...mainly blood work. No prodding or listening by doc any more. In and out in 15 min.

The new haircut after I got home from travels. And yes, Dr. Schnyder is going to take off the dark growth (non-cancerous) on the side of my head.

Our peonies several years ago.

Our peonies this year

A map of the Tailgate Market last week. Look down from upper right till you see two trees and two booths at an angle. The first one is ours, Mud Buddies with pottery for sale.

And this last few days I've seen so many wonderful photos from all over of the Aurora Borialis...so here's one I kept.

Aurora Borealis over the Methodist Church in Cades Cove, TN (in Great Smoky Mountains National Park) by Adam Williamson.

Canna Lily 'Monet Sunset' - Canna x generalis by Jaap Cost Budde. From the internet.

I've been enjoying Apple TV's production "Franklin" with Michael Douglas as starring role. It takes place totally in France...so I'm glad to have English subtitles because the production has the speech in French quite often.

And I'm almost finished listening to the last (no. 9) Outlander book, Go Tell The Bees that I am Gone. Now I'll go back and listen to the 8th of the series which somehow I missed. Only 9 more hours to go out of 46 to start! Glad I've been able to renew it through Libby at my library, on line.

Today's quote:

When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.

WILLIE NELSON

What do you do when?

 

What's a 17 year old to do when her laptop crashes the week before finals? Not to mention all her relatives are coming to see one of her sisters graduate from college while the other one is taking part in student protests at her college in Washington DC?

Ask her parents for help.

So her dad talked with me via phone and asked did I have an old laptop? It was just to get her through this last week. He could use her college funds maybe to get a new one for her before next school year...though she did have another year of high school.

I said yes, I had 2 old laptops, one of which worked, and the old Apple needed a new plug. So I hauled it in my suitcase, which didn't end up being overhead because I was sitting in a small plane in the wrong place so it was checked through. I groan when I think of that laptop in a rather sparsely packed bag, being thrown around at least four times in baggage bins.

We found out my old apple just needed a new battery, (since my sons both have had Apples since they were invented, so they could tell it wasn't the plug) so $35 later it worked fine, but somewhat slow. So dear dad purchased a refurbished apple laptop for his daughter!!

We had fun watching her unpack it.

Then dear dad had another request for his mom. He had an aphid infestation in his little basil farm. I looked up on line and found that one of his fungicides that he already had would also kill aphids, but the leaves needed to be harvested so they weren't lying so close together.

That was fun, harvesting the leaves and cleaning off the aphids, putting them in water to then take inside, where later my son made a wonderful pesto, and you probably got some extra protein from aphids, but you couldn't see them or taste them, so...

He then sprayed the remaining leaves, transplanted the latest sprouted plants, and destroyed a few that had really lost their oomph. And he stuck a fertilizer stick in the soil of each pot. (I didn't ask him if that might not be suitable for food crops...he was working so hard.)

There was a hard rain a day or so later, but I went out afterwards and flicked a few leaves, and no aphids flew out. Maybe success. But I'll bet he needs to spray them again maybe once. Sometimes the eggs hatch...and so forth.

His landscaping has really improved, with stone walls in various places, and a family of bunnies that don't eat flowers!

Most of his tulips had bloomed the week before, but a few were still pretty in a shady spot. (house next door in background.)

Then we found this volunteer flower, amid a ground cover. We looked it up, it's Columbine! He's interested in finding some seeds to have more of these lovelies. 

His Lilies of the Valley were just about done blooming

But some nice Fuchsia were brightening up the front step.

His next landscaping job is to plant these roses next to the mailbox out by the road.

"Physical matter is music solidified" - Pythagoras

Sharing with Little Things Thursday

sharing with Thankful Thursday

PS 

I had a wakeup call last night with tornado warning, and thought for a bit about going and sitting in the bathroom (smaller windows) but then decided if a tornado hit here, I am in the midst of a bunch of trees, so they might hit anywhere...and fell back asleep with the C-PAP going and it didn't cut out when the power was off for a while (or at least I somehow breathed till it came back on.) Fortunately I'm not in the area of Black Mountain where power is still off this morning.