Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Positively Prolific Poppies & Lovely Little Lupine


What kind of a bird makes a nest of twigs like this?

Or do you think it's a squirrel?

I have not been out on the deck for the past 4 days so I don't know what has decided to make this bird house its home.

Maybe I will have more time this weekend to sit out there and see what it is.






We had a great time at the magic show. I am still trying to figure out how he made an audience member's watch appear in a box that was sitting in the corner of the stage (right by me) and he never touched the box. Amazing illusions!



As we pulled into the driveway on Sunday, we were hit with this bold splash of color. Luckily I took a picture....
because look at them after the last three days of rain!
Except for that one moment of picture taking, I didn't get to enjoy them at all.

It's a good thing I have plenty of poppies in other gardens that are just beginning to open. I really like the poppies combined with allium.
See how the poppy has that same bit of purple in it's throat?

The spring phlox is also nice with the poppies. Purple is a perfect complement to the vivid orange of poppies. Both the poppies and the spring phlox are really weeds in my garden. They pop up everywhere even though I never let them seed. I must move other flowers and get a little root section of the poppies because they are in places I never planted them. I spend half of the gardening season trying to get rid of most of them. I like them, but I only want them in certain places.


I was very surprised when I went out Sunday and found this lupine. A few years ago I tossed some seeds, but they never amounted to much. I noticed this one two years ago and have been making sure not to dig it up. It was just a tiny little plant (like 2 inches wide) that never bloomed....until this year........Wow!



Look at it now! I have seen other people's lupines that were certainly bigger and better, but for me, this is a very successful lupine.

The mosquitoes are terrible right now because we have had a lot of rain. I went outside to clean my paintbrush and got 4 big bites. (yes, I am still painting and probably will be for the rest of the summer). It's about impossible to work outside for more than 10 minutes. Although I hate the bugs, I would rather put up with the bites, than have a drought like we had last year.

7 comments:

  1. The Lupines look wonderful and so does the Alliums. I am glad that you were able to see your blooms before the rain destryed them.

    I had a similar experience last night. When I awoke this morining to water the gardens, one of my tomatoes seedling was missing. Initially I thought some animal had eaten it. But upon closer inspection the aggressivness of the rain had beaten it into the ground.

    I was momentarily devastated being that I put so much time into my garden. I hoped for rain yesterday but next time I will think twice.

    I am so glad that you enjoyed your weeekend and the magic show.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Hadias, I am sorry to hear about your poor tomato plant. It seems like we always get either too little or too much rain.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Zoey, it looks like House Wrens to me. The mail will fill the whole bird house (or whatever he finds) full of sticks. It is so funny to see the little tiny next which is usually way in the back over the top of the sticks.

    Love that purple and orange together.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, so sorry to see your poppies get pounded like they did. Glad you grabbed the camera when you did. I had some poppies years ago and they died off.
    And your lupine is awesome! I just bought a plant, but it's nice to know it can seed itself.
    Glad to hear the zinnias are coming up. Their seeds don't like much dirt over them, like 1/4" to grow. I think I have one little patch of Rose Campion out in the sunny garden with the irises. As I said before, I think I planted them and then it rained buckets, possible making the seeds rot. Darn. I hope the little patch amounts to something next year. I'll have to mark it.
    Awesome about the show you saw. They are sure fun to watch. Not awesome about painting. My LR and hall could stand a coat, but I'm not in the mood. ; )

    ReplyDelete
  5. The rain really did a number on your poppies.
    We've had the high heat and winds again. It just is so hard on everything in the garden.
    I'm dreading our water bill..
    xo

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm glad you had a great time away, Zoey!
    And your flowers look so lovely..those orange poppies really make a statement!
    We are having lots of rain so the mosquitoes aren't far behind!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have a similar "nest" in one of my birdhouses, too. Hubby was just commenting to me yesterday how strange it was. I haven't seen any birds go in/out so I'm not sure who is using it!

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to leave a comment. I will try to answer any questions you have. Please note due to Blogger changing word verification so almost nobody can read it, I have had to change to no word verification and only allow registered users to comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...