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Went outside for the first time in a couple of weeks. I’d been trying to take Casper out for a while every morning. It’s usually cool enough to be nice for a couple of hours in the morning. But it’s heated up and gotten really humid for the past couple of weeks so I haven’t gone out. Casper’s been mad at me. He loves his morning out in the garden. As do I. So this morning we sat outside and enjoyed the butterfly parade. Casper enjoyed my orchids.

I got some new fish for the pond recently. I’ve had one for several years and think she’s been lonely, judging by the eggs she’s been laying. I had one fish for a long time before. I bought several at once and then all of them died but the one. This time I decided I quarantine them for a couple of days before I put them in the pond. This time everyone seems to be doing OK. I named them before I got them home; I don’t know why. Blanche, Lucy and Coppertop. I’ve had the other fish for 3 years and never called it anything but fish. At first the newcomers hid from Fish. No wonder, she’s 3 times the size of the others. But as of now they’re schooling around the pot, acting like fish. So far so good.

Hail and farewell

I was working out front when one of the neighbors walked by and told me my flowers were beautiful. It felt really nice to have someone say that. It’s been a while since I’ve had a good garden year and the nasturtiums are particularly exuberant this year. Unfortunately, the nasturtiums are about to go. In very short order.

We’re going from mid-70’s (low 20’s C) to mid-90’s (low 30’s C) in the space of two days. Most things will be OK. It’s no a long hot spell, just a couple of days, but it will be enough to crisp the nasturtiums. I’m sorry to be losing them so early in the season, with their lily pad leaves floating above the planting beds and their hot colors in cool spring.

At least if I have to pull them out early I get to skip the stage where the plants start to get covered with aphids and the flowers are mostly dead.

A pile of flowers

The front yard is a pile of flowers right now. I’ve always loved nasturtiums; they make spring so cheerful. I’m trying to enjoy these while I can. It’s supposed to be in the mid-90’s on Saturday and these will be burned to a crisp by those temperatures. But they sure make the front yard colorful while they last.

Cut-rate Pirate with a Pigeon

The pigeon is getting more pigeon-y every day. On Friday evening we left him on the patio thinking “A little more open sky; maybe he’ll fly away.” And fly he did, right over the roof and back into the atrium. When we’re out on the porch, he often perches on the back of my chair. My husband says I look like a cut-rate pirate.

I’ve started opening the front door and the atrium door when we go out on the patio and he comes out with us. On Sunday he took a short fly around the neighborhood. This morning he was making adult pigeon sounds in addition to the usual squeaks. I’m still hoping that he’ll get brave enough to fly away.

After the heat wave last week I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to move a lot of my plants. Several things got crisped. The leaves on my<a href="http://Haemanthus albifilos” target=”_blank”>Haemanthus albifilos are not looking to good at all. Everything gets stressed when it’s 112 degrees out. My leaves persian shield, which were just starting to sprout, burned to a crisp. I don’t know if it’s going to recover. That one already is in the atrium. The only more sheltered place I can put it is in the house, and I’m horrible at house plants. My Stromanthe sanguinea is looking extra crispy, too. It’s going to go into the atrium, too. The whole atrium needs rearranging. And cleaning out the dead leaves would be ago idea. Aaannnd there it goes again. The tasks propagate faster than the plants do.

IT’S HOT!!

Forecast for my neighborhood today is 112, (44 C). Not my favorite time of year. Everything in the garden goes on hold and we barricade ourselves in the house, windows closed and blinds drawn. It’s a struggle to keep anything in pots alive. I’m going to move some into the planters, just so that they won’t get the reflected heat from the patio surface. Things in smaller containers just dry out so quickly that it’s hard to keep up.

Weather this hot is always disappointing to me. It makes it much more unpleasant to be outside and I really can’t plant anything, even stuff that I’ve had waiting for a while. The plants have enough stress with all the heat. Most wouldn’t survive the stress of transplanting right now. So rather than the high possibility of killing my plants, I’ll wait. But since today is the first day of summer and hot weather often lasts through the end of October here, I may be waiting a while. Impatiently.

Cooking with Mom this weekend was pizza rolls. Not really much of a cooking challenge, but tasty nonetheless.

Crescent rolls filled with a mixture of cheeses, rolled up, sliced and baked, eaten dipped in pizza sauce. We seem to be be doing a lot of pizza sorts of things. We’re going to try the tomato tart again next week with a slightly different recipe. I’ll try to remember to bring the balsamic glaze this time.