Paula made this Thai dish, rad nah. It has garden garlic in it. The chef made the broth from scratch, from chicken and turkey bones. He also provided Paula with the hearty noodles. It was delicious!Earlier in the day, Shacks watched the herb garden for skinks and grasshoppers.
The last few weeks have been a bit chaotic. Nonetheless, Briar says it’s important to take time to smell the inland sea oats!The yellow flowerThe flower on its giant plantsMy mystery soft growing plants have turned out to be GIANT Heterotheca subaxillaris. the flowers are regular size but the plants are 2-4 feet tall!
Ironweed, gaura, four point primrose, gumweed, and more have grown very tall this year. Briar likes her short grassy spot at the edge of the very tall “prairie”.My supervisor likes her grassy spot. A rattlebox flower blooming again!Gaura longifolia doing well right now. The gaura are very tall!A very late Texas Dandelion blooming this morning!
Briar the dog had her sixth birthday today. We took a walk at Lexington WMA! The low clouds and a breeze kept us cooler than usual for July. Occasionally I asked Briar to sit so she wouldn’t scare a bug we were looking at. Even with the cooler than typical July weather, Briar still enjoyed laying in her favorite mud puddle. Cool is mid 80s in July!
I was pulling some bermudagrass that is still in the buffalograss. Briar sat and helped. Behind her is the orange and red section of the rainbow garden. The new orange Agastache is in full bloom by the dwarf peach tree. The tall stalks are what’s still blooming of the standing cypress. In front of those stalks are the Will Rogers zinnias. After a few generations some other colors are sneaking in- especially that bright yellow one! It’s pretty though. Over by the house in the background you can see our Maximilian Sunflowers in front of the trash and recycling bins sure have gotten tall.
Potted E. vivipara flowers!Briar guards The front yard one blooms too. PrettyWe want fruit! Paula used a q-tip to pollinate. Hopefully also some insects will visit.
Paula took Briar out on Wednesday night and she found a possum. The possum says “nobody home! Ignore my tight grip on the bird bath!!” it worked though. Briar wandered off. After Briar wandered off to drink water and Paula got this lovely picture of the goofy young creature. They were gone by the time we humans checked again for the young friend. A great bit of possum theatre with Briar none the wiser!
The garlic, picked on the solstice (accidentally). Almost every one was very large. I have been growing these for years from the same cloves and they were never this big. The biggest and smallest creatures in the house for scale. Shackleton thought the garlic smelled of Outside and Dust and was very intrigued. Tuqu was interested as well but not as comically. This is probably the most accurate size comparison photo. Tuqu is small. Garlic is large. On the 22nd Paula moved the garlic to a mostly shaded area in the backyard where it can dry for a while warm before we bring it in the house. She did a good job!
I moved several pots of flowering plants to where they can drop seeds and also keep the dog from trampling the Baptisia australis in her borkenings at the neighbor dogs. I also moved pavers to try a new human path. I planted the silverleaf nightshade and fern acacia too. This let me rearrange the pots here in a more tidy and compact arrangement.
Paula’s Escobaria vivipara cactus continues to bloom beautifully in the daytime. It was cloudy. I’m not sure if that matters for it to bloom. A very frilly summer iris begins… I think this one is from Judy?The standing cypress is really going now with multiple plants in full bloom!The Chef made a delicious pizza with fresh basil and oregano from the yard. I believe this is a safflower that sprouted from the bird seed. I believe these are our two different sunflowers species. The one on the left has narrower and wavy edged leaves; we think/hope it’s Helianthus petiolaris (both Mom and another friend have given us seeds). The one on the right has big broad leaves and I think is an offspring of the Helianthus annuus that volunteered last year. Ironweed is starting to bud. Greeneyes is about to bloom!The blackberries are starting to ripen! These are wild volunteers dug from Mom and Dad’s house. Last but definitely not least, on Tuesday morning I woke up and emerged to find Gram happily snuggling the Doggie. Briar seemed to understand she could not move as is the cat rule. She was not unhappy though. Eventually he got up to look out the newly opened window so she was released so she could scratch an itch haha.