Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Mid July

Good afternoon Folks,

It is hard to believe it is the middle of July already.  That’s fine with us though, we look forward to fall, as I’m sure many of you are also.  I worked outside yesterday morning and this morning for about 3 hours each, and was sopping wet both mornings and stopped when I’d had enough.  You can only do what you can do, especially at this age and in the heat and humidity. We’ve been having lots of rain and I don’t want to say that too much because so many of you are in drought conditions, as we were for the last 5 years.  Rain will come again to all of you, hang in there. Anyway, we’ve had so much that I cannot keep up with all the overgrowth of vines, weeds, etc. Why on earth would I want a larger piece of property, this is enough right here, our little 1/4 acre.

This morning when I was working out front, I noticed 3 flower buds on our night blooming cereus.  I am THRILLED. A customer where I work gave me a piece of theirs quite a few years ago and it climbed and grew up the pine tree at the back of the property. I’ve not been able to get good photos or smell their scent as the blooms are too high to appreciate. I will be taking pictures of these as they grow and bloom.  The open blooms only last a night.

I stuck a section of this cactus next to our front gate on the inside and it has grown up and clung to the gate arbor.

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Blanket flower with the lovely foliage of a hibiscus.

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Vanda orchids that I just plopped into the lattice surrounding the rain barrel.

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What a surprise to see this azalea in bloom today.

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Blackberry lily.

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Caladiums.

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Tork .

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Tork

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Longview looking north.

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Shed garden.

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Borderer.

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Penelope

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Below:

St. George’s church taken from Venice 1973.

You can read more about this lovely church here.

This is an old slide of ours, that DH took a picture of with my camera just to see how it would come out. We have LOTS of slides from our three years in Europe and would like to get them on CD. We’re buying an adapter for my camera to see if it will work with some of his camera gear from back then, if it doesn’t we will buy the piece that will work.  We had a Minolta SLR back then, developed our own slides and made some prints too, all in our tiny bathroom in Rota, Spain where DH was stationed for 3 years in the US Navy. The colors have faded, but hopefully that won’t matter too much.

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Venice was one of our very favorite places.  We stayed there 6 days.

We look forward to going through our slides and hopefully most of them will be good enough to put on CD.  They sure will bring back some fantastic memories from our early 20’s.

That’s it for now.

FlowerLady Lorraine

10 comments:

denimflyz said...

Good Afternoon, my friend.
It is unbearably hot here, running in the 100's daily. No rain. We had a very tiny thunderboomer yesterday, with about 5 drops in it, and I just came inside now and it looks like we have a storm coming in from the northwest, I may have to take the canopy down, depends if we get any hail, I hope not.
I had to take a second look, at Tork, I did not see her because she blended in so well with the rocks, I laughed at myself. She is a stealthy kitty.
Stay cool, and I am going to try to get an email to you. It has been so busy here, and I am neglecting people badly.
Hugs my friend.

Nancy J said...

I almost missed Tork too. My Hugh still has his Minolta SLR, and we have hundreds of slides, later this year I am having them put into a digital form, b&w photos as well, from my Dad's younger days, my Mum's days nursing at Kingseat Hospital , and my childhood.Your weather sounds very humid!! Guess you will be happy to have the cooler days of your winter. Cheers, Jean.

Betsy Banks Adams said...

Hi Lorraine, So glad you have had alot of rain this summer... We got some last week--but are dry again now... It's very hot and humid here this year... I'm ready for Fall... ha

Love your Florida flowers --especially the orchids.... Gorgeous!!!
Hugs,
Betsy

Darcie said...

I know...can't believe it is already so far into the month of July. But I, like you, am more then ready for fall too. We have had a scorcher this summer, but no rain. Glad you can enjoy your rain, especially with all the flowers you grow.

Happy Summer Flowerlady!

GRACE PETERSON said...

How wonderful that you've got those photos. I bet you're thoroughly enjoying going through them, remembering the good time you two shared. Tork is sure a sweet cat.

I hope you have comfortable, garden-working weather.

Anonymous said...

Hi FlowerLady ~

I agree with you about the rain. Hard to complain about it . . . but keeping up with the weeds it brings in its aftermath is nearly impossible. Not to mention it's no fun riding my scooter. : )

Lovely pictures of your flowers and Tork. He looks like he might be lizard hunting. My Bones follows me around hunting lizards as well. Unfortunately for her - but fortunate for the lizards, her reflexes are so very slow that one could fall on her head and she'd miss it.

I hope your slide project turns out well. I would love to see more. I have boxes and boxes of slides from my Mom and Dad just couldn't figure out what to do with them - thanks for the idea!

Have a wonderful day~

eli

Sunray Gardens said...

The heat has been awful but glad you are getting rain. You have lovely blooms which are appreciating it.
Cher Sunray Gardens

Lona said...

Hi. I just love your orchid growing against the lattice. So beautiful. That azalea bloom is a wonderful surprise. But we all like those blooming surprises. Tork looks like something is getting its attention. LOL! Have a lovely week.

L. D. said...

Rain and heat would be ok by me. Your outside photos of all the garden areas look wonderful. Your close views of the hibiscus and lily are great. Stay inside and stay cool.

Georgianna said...

Hi again, Lorraine! It's such a treat to see all that is blooming in your garden. We live in such different climates but some plants seem to be universal. Very surprising indeed about the azalea!

I loved seeing your slide from Venice. What an exciting project to get your travel images on CD. And a good preservation move, too. You'll be able to rescue a lot of the colors in the computer and know that they won't fade any further.

Look forward to seeing more! – g