Although the Gardenias don't put on their lavish show of masses of blossoms of Spring, one by one they bloom, showcasing their singular beauty and intoxicating aroma that will drift by as you walk to the front door.
The Chives emerge from their papery cocoon. Could any carefully arranged bouquet match it's artless beauty?
The tiny Blackfoot Daisy peaks shyly out from behind it's foliage.
And the ever-faithful Begonia never fails to please.
The white, as well as pale lavender, are my favorite shades of Crepe Myrtle.
Moving to the backyard side garden, the Morning Glories are still putting on a show in spite of droopy sad foliage.
My first attempt at capturing the image of a butterfly. It patiently rested while I tried to get a good shot, but after four, it said enough, and sailed away.
Under Sebastian's tree, the Liriope with it's pale lavender blooms edged in white are cool and refreshing.
The Lavender, dotted throughout all the beds, are starting another bloom cycle.
I feel I must apologize for being so reticent lately. It seems that summer just flew by after we got home from vacation. It felt as though I just turned around and it was time to start school shopping for the girls. Now that they are properly clothed and outfitted with school supplies, I have wanted to do nothing more than get my hands in the dirt again. The heat along with the threat of rattlesnakes has kept me indoors. We have been warned of snakes coming into the neighborhoods looking for water, and a few have been found in ours. I am so afraid of Loudon stepping on one without realizing, that I have decided to hibernate awhile longer. I have plenty to do inside, but I always start feeling a little scattered and unhappy when I can't get my hands in the dirt.
I have started my Fall cleaning since I am stuck inside. There is much to do, and I start feeling guilty getting on the computer. It does seem that gardening centers me and keeps me from obsessing about the house. I wouldn't be on the computer this weekend except I was forced! I am in a hotel room with a book and my computer! Hubby and I came up to the panhandle to a family reunion, and I "should" be there right now. On the way up yesterday, I started getting a scratchy throat, and by morning, I had lost my voice. I am running a fever, and the infection seems to have gone straight to my chest. If it is not strep throat, I am guessing the flu. I can't help but think this forced slow-down was what I needed to stop "doing" so much. Although achy and dizzy, I can't help but enjoy my forced vacation from life. Now I am off to see what all of you, my cyber friends have been up to since I have been away!
34 comments:
Hi Jen, oh do take care! How dreadful to be sick when you're not at home. It's bad enough at home, but when you are away....!
Funny, I have been getting the same messages - to slow down. The other day I was stuck for an hour in traffic, due to a horrible accident. I always say a prayer for the injured people and thank God that I'm not in that accident. I'm just inconvenienced by a traffic jam. But the message was clear. And it came out in other little things too.
Don't apologize for not blogging. BWO - blogging without obligation. We blog when we can. And sometimes life comes first. I have not been blogging much at all this summer either. Would much rather be out in my garden. It's not too hot here and today I was tidying up. Not looking forward to fall clean-up, as it signals the end of gardening for us.
I love your pics. They do look refreshing. I wish I could get my lavender to bloom. It just doesn't. And your morning glory rocks!!
Hugs - hope you feel better soon.
Glad to have you back, MG, but I'm sorry to hear you're ill. Do slow down if you can, and take care of yourself.
Lovely white blooms--I keep telling myself I need to add more white to the garden; it does add a serene presence that the more gaudy colors just don't have. But rattlesnakes in the garden?? I would be inside, too, until I knew for sure they were gone!
Take care,
Rose
Haven't heard from you in a while, glad to see your post. The whites just look "cool", a welcome break from the heat. I love gardenias, haven't smelled one in years, they bring back lots of memories.
Sorry to hear you have the flu! I understand your fear of rattlesnakes, but part of me feels bad for them that they're in need of water so much. It's hard as we humans take over more of wildlife's territory... Anyhoo, I do love white flowers. I let my garlic chives to go flower so I could get seeds, but I also just love the blooms!
There is something peaceful about white blooms. I envy your gardenia - not the rattlesnakes.
Hope you're feeling better.
You really do have a case of the whites in your garden. I always thought the gardenias flowered in the winter. But of course you were bound to have a morning glory in there-don't we all. I love the flowers but they just seem to become rampant in my garden, growing all over the other plants.
Hi Morning Glories.....I do hope that you are soon feeling well again....put your feet up and take it easy...
I love your blooms....white is such a favourite of mine....I see a white flower and I am hooked.....
It must be so difficult to deal with the constant heat....very draining I would think...and snakes, I can understand your worry....they are not loved by many......
I have missed your posts....it is good to see you back again.....
Dear Wendy,
I always say a prayer for those in accidents too--not only the people involved, but those who are there to render aid. I think all the emergency workers who put themselves in harms way to help others need extra prayers. My cousin was an EMT, who was disabled from being hit while working an accident.
I like that--BWO. Why do we take was is supposed to be a pleasure, and make it another obligation?
I don't blame you for spending every moment you can outside in your garden. Your growing season is so short, you must take advantage.
I am feeling better...my voice is back...I am sure I will be as right as rain in a few more days. Thanks for your good thoughts.
Hi Rose! Thanks for the good wishes. I'm glad you enjoyed my white blossom showcase. I am with you--rattlesnakes are not to be taken lightly. I hope we get some good rains, and they go back to the wilds where they belong.
Hi Nola! Good to hear from you too! I just love the smell of gardenias. Isn't it funny how fragrances spark memories?
Hi Monica, I feel sorry for all the wild life that are having to find water right now. I hope we get some substantial rains to refresh us all.
I just love the blossoms of Chives...but they are more of a thug in the garden than Morning
Glories! Morning Glories are easy to pull up, but I have to dynamite chives! LOL!
Hello Lancashire Rose! I have just been catching up on reading your cruise adventures. What fun--something Hubby and I hope to do someday.
I had someone ask me on my blog why in the world I would want such a invasive in the garden as Morning Glories. I think they are so easy to pull out as opposed to say--chives or Bermuda grass. I just love the bold colorful blooms and the fact that they do survive this Texas heat.
My Gardenias bloom heavy in the Spring and then periodically through Summer and Fall. The first cold snap will kill any buds or blooms even though the plant is ever green.
Marie,
It seems I am in good company in my love of white blooms. I am more than a little freaked out by the Rattlesnakes. I just hope it rains soon so they will go back to their their home and not mine!
Dear Cheryl,
So good to hear from you. I do miss all my Blog Friends.
When my middle daughter was in college, I went with her to a Rattlesnake farm to interview the man who owned it. He was a retired curator of the San Antonio Zoo. I was repulsed when I went, but came away with a grudging respect for the snake. I do think people go overboard on the fear factor, but I think ignorance and exaggeration of the dangers has created the panic people feel. I get physically sick when I think of the Rattlesnake Roundups they have all over Texas. I believe they have a purpose, and we need to learn to live with them (at a very respectful distance).
Phew! Sorry this is so long!
Wonderful photos...love the butterfly and the morning glory... :)
I wish I could smell that Gardenia. Your photos are beautiful. What nice wings the butterfly has, very pretty shape.
I'm getting some garlic chives from my dad this fall. I already have the spring blooming ones.
Marnie
Girl, I hope you are feeling better by now. Nothing worse than being sick while it's still hot.
Hello AWG! Thank you so much--that is high praise indeed!
Marnie, Thanks so much for the kind comments. I wish I could box up the smell of gardenias and send it to you...it is so intoxicating.
I had Society Garlic planted next to the Garlic Chives, and they smothered out the Society Garlic. But the white and purple blooms were beautiful together while it lasted. The bees have been very busy working in the Chives...I counted 10 this afternoon.
Susie, I hope I will be better soon. I went to the doctor today and he put me on antibiotics. Thanks for the good wishes.
Oh heavens, Jenny, do take it easy. Being sick and away from home sucks! As if the snakes weren't bad enough to keep you out of the garden too. Scary stuff! But your flowers look beautiful. Love the gardenias. :-)
Frances
Dear Morning Glories, I nearly missed this post :( even though I have thought about you so much recently and wondered how you were surviving the heat!
I love all your white blooms, very cooling and soothing I'm sure and how wonderful to have Gardenia growing in the garden! We can only grow it indoors here. I just love its fragrance, absolutely heavenly!
I enlarged the butterfly photo and it reminded me of our Comma Butterfly.
I do hope you are feeling a little better now, take care :)
Frances,
Thank you for the well wishes. I am starting to feel better. Although we haven't gotten any rain, all the areas around us have and it looks promising. I am hoping the snakes will go back to their home. Thanks for the nice words for the flowers...there isn't much alive left in the garden to get shots of.
Dear Shy Songbird,
I googled Commas, and I think you are right. I was able to narrow my choices down to the Eastern Comma. It was a pretty little thing. I need to get a good book to help me identify them.
It has been a long week, but I am starting to feel better. Thanks for the good wishes.
Hope you are feeling better! Your garden still looks wonderful ~ I love all the white blooms.
Our late summer-into-fall temps produce a second spring around my gardens. Looks like you are blessed with the same. So serene and peaceful with all that cool white; and yes those chives are a work of art!
I'm a bit late in rounding the blogosphere (I've been busy at home and not finding the time for proper bloggy visits), so I do hope your under-weather status has left you. Prayers for you as you rest and resist the urge to garden among rattlers -- YIKES!!
p.s.
My morning glories failed to make a show this year. All those seeds fell upon the ground and not a one sprouted. *sigh* There's always next year. : D
What a post, Morning Glories! Your garden is blooming in spite of everything, so that's good, but as to the rest, can't decide which is worse: Staying inside for sickness or staying inside for snakes!
Hope you're on the way back to health and that rain is coming your way....enough to make the rattlers head home.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
(Nearly suggested a Question Mark as the butterfly ID but it didn't seem right...glad to know it was a Comma. At least they're both punctuation marks.
Hi Deb!
Thanks for the kind words for the garden and myself. I am feeling better--hopefully I will be as right as rain by the weekend.
Debbie in CA,
Don't apologize for being busy with life--I have been feeling the same way. It seems this time of year life gets a little crazy. Another good blogging friend told me BWO--Blogging Without Obligation. I think that is wonderful advice--no guilt.
Thanks for the good wishes--I am feeling better. Hope by the beginning of the new week, I will be well!
Dear Debbie in CA,
p.s. I am so sorry your morning glories failed. A summer without morning glories is like summer without the sun. Thankfully as gardeners we always look to the future, and next years bounty!
Hi Annie,
I'd rather be stuck inside because of illness than rattlers! I will get over this nasty bug, but what guarantees do we have the snakes won't decide to move in the neighborhood permanently?
We did get lovely rain today! I am still giddy with excitement!
Well, by now you are probably back to normal with your health. I hope the snakes have moved out of the area. I like your white blooms!
You mentioned on my post that Heidi does a good job posing for pictures. I have to laugh, because I have to take a bunch in order to get some good ones. I also try to take them when she doesn't know I'm doing it, because she tends to walk the other way when she sees the camera pointed to her. I kept calling her back to where I wanted her for some of the photos. In some of them, she is sitting because I told her to sit and stay. LOL She does a good job staying out of the flowers, but there is an area in the back yard where she has dug plants out before.
LOL! These pups have a mind of their own, don't they? Heidi looks like a pure bred lab...Bocephus is a Lab, German Shorthair Pointer mix. He is so sweet, but such a naughty boy sometimes.
Sadly, I am still fighting this nasty respiratory infection, Sue. As soon as I finished the antibiotics, I came down with it again. I am on my second round of meds, and Dr. says I will need to go in for tests if it comes back again.
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