(no subject)

[nonelvis]

As annoying as it was when the neighbors chopped down their giant Norway maple, leaving 8" holes in my yard and a (now deceased) colony of refugee carpenter ants in my house, the extra sun in the herb garden is making the flowers very happy. Especially the pyrethrum daisies:





They really are this amazing bright scarlet color. I love them.



This one wasn't quite the crop I was hoping for, but it was windy out, so I was lucky to get anything close to what I wanted:



I didn't even notice the tiny ant at lower right until I downloaded the photos! You can see him better in the large view.

And finally, a cat photo, because Mr. P was so asleep this afternoon he didn't notice when I got up from where he was leaning against me, much less when I zoomed in to take this shot. One of the only advantages of him having gone deaf in his old age is that now I can zoom in without frightening him off with the noise of the lens moving.

Comments

[nonelvis]

I'm going to let you in on my gardening secret: I planted a bunch of stuff when we moved in, and virtually everything since then has just been letting the plants do their thing while I beat back the weeds. Many of the plants I put in turn out to self-seed readily (columbines, yarrow, bergamot, echinacea), so the herb/flower garden mostly takes care of itself. I do need to find more stuff that flowers in June, though; right now most of it is a huge, boring mass of foliage.

I'm glad you found some flowers that will grow on your shady patio! Post photos when you can, and I'll see if I can identify them. And the mint will do fine regardless of how much sun it gets; it's indestructible.

[syzygy-lj.livejournal.com]

I was going to take pictures today, but it looked like the apocalypse outside this afternoon. We have so much smoke coming in from the forest fires that the sky was yellow.

[nonelvis]

DUDE, THE SMOKE MADE IT TO BOSTON TODAY. I thought the National Weather Service was joking when they had a little icon for "smoke" in today's forecast, but it smelled vaguely of smoke outside, and everything was kind of hazy.

That's one hell of a fire you guys have going up there.

[syzygy-lj.livejournal.com]

Given that forest fires happen EVERY DAMN YEAR, I'm surprised Quebec has any trees left. This one is unusual, though-- I can't remember the last time this happened.