Photo taken one-handed while I was watering the peppers.

Coneflower with mason bee

Yay, they are blooming!

Spiderwort and bee balm.

Coreopsis

My coreopsis is blooming. It's good stuff.  Next year I think I'll move some things so that the yellow coreopsis and blue spiderwort are next to one another, since they bloom at the same time and the color contrast would be very nice.

Someone looking at my blog might think that I have a nice big healthy garden and take good care of it.  Not true. It's weedy and largely unmulched and is generally unimpressive.  I am happy to report, though, that my three tomato plants, in tilled soil, are the happiest-looking I've ever had, and I might actually be getting some edible carrots soon.  There are lots of little peppers on my cayenne plants and the basil is, as always, doing well.

Trees on Lime Kiln Lane

I like sycamores.

Accidental feral tennis ball planter

We participated in a kayak/canoe outing on Goose Creek last week to pick up trash.  One thing I found was a tennis ball floating in the water, with a plant sprouting in its dirty fuzz. The roots wrap around it. I decided I would keep it to see how it turned out.

Philodendron

I will post updates so YOU CAN SEE MY PHILODENDRON GROW!!!

Update 6-27-15:

Blackberry flower and ant

This ant was very happy with the blissom. I heard her saying, "Oh boy, yum!"

Wild flower detective work

I found a mystery plant growing among my Asiatic lilies and daffodils, and had to research it to figure out what it was.  First, I noticed that its flowers and stalk were similar to those of ground ivy (creeping charlie). I had recently learned that ground ivy was a near relative of mint, which completely made sense in light of its strong odor and invasive nature, plus its stem shape.  I put a photo of the plant on Facebook, and my friend Helga thought it looked like ajuga, which I also have in my yard.  It really was similar to ajuga, but the leaves were the wrong shape, but then I found out that ajuga is also in the family Lamiaceae, along with mint. Aha! So I started looking into other plants in Lamiaceae, but it’s a huge family.  But I knew I was on the right track. Finally, after looking at lots of categories of Lamiaceae, I hit upon some combination of key words that led me to the answer: Salvia lyrata, also known as lyre-leaf sage, a native wildflower.  I forget how I finally figured it out exactly, but I think I tried looking for lobe-leafed salvias and spotted it.

Anyway, I am happy to figure it out.  The information I read indicates that it reseeds easily and can be invasive, but since it’s a native flowering plant I think I’m OK with that.  That’s what I want.

Salvia lyrata

You can add a little Cinco de Mayonnaise

Gardening

Last weekend I tilled a couple of small garden spots in m yard.  They had never been tilled before.  Previously, I had always just turned them over with a spade before planting.  I am thinking that this tilling, with the compost I added, will make a big difference in my heavy-clay back yard.

I planted three different tomato plants (three different varieties: Rapunzel, Mortgage Lifter, and … I forget the third).  I also planted three basil plants, plus a Culver’s root plant (purely decorative, a native flower).

Yesterday I received some seeds I ordered.  Butterfly milkweed, plus a bonus of rose milkweed.  After reading about them on the internet, it looks like I should cold-stratify them by putting them in a damp paper towel or wet sand in the refrigerator for about 30 days before sowing them.  I’m kind of excited about them.

Metal Detecting 4-24-15

Last Friday I spent a few hours metal detecting near the house of a lady Kim works with.  In the first couple of minutes, I hit a nice signal by the back walkway, and started digging.  About an inch down I uncovered the grave marker for Copper the dog (1965 - 1969), and decided that I had better move to another spot. ("Oh, yes!" said the lady who owns the property, when I mentioned it to her later. "The previous owner had three dogs. They're all by the sidewalk.")

I surveyed different spots around the yard. I found four pennies, a dime, a wing nut, a bolt, a nail, two pull tabs, several bits of gutter flashing and can slaw (I hate gutter flashing and can slaw).  Finally, right before I left, I found this quarter-dollar:

This first photo I took because it's the first 2015 coin I have found.  Looking through the change, there were quite a few more, so I guess they have been around and I just didn't notice them.  I think this Homestead Monument quarter has a nice design; almost-but-not-quite symmetrical, rather bold, nice textures without being too busy. I've seen better, but as far as our recent quarters go this one is one of the good ones.

I found this in change and thought it was funny because it sure looks like it was found by a metal detectorist. Discolored, dirt-encrusted, like the ones I pull out of the ground. Someone dug this up in the recent past, I bet.

And speaking of which, I did some detecting for the first time in many months. A couple of months ago, as I was entering my house, I dropped a large coin--either a half dollar or a dollar. It hit the concrete one time (Kim and I both heard it) and then disappeared. I thought it must have fallen into the snow.

So a few days ago, I got out the detector and searched all around our porch and sidewalk. I did not find my big coin, but I did find $.68 (including the quarter and a few pennies from the back yard).  Some of it is from the past ten years, so it was lost by our family; some of it had been there longer, I am sure. I never have thoroughly searched our yard, so I am sure there is more change around.

...But where did that big coin go? I think it might be lodged up against the porch or in the bushes where I can't get to it, and where it's masked from my metal detector by its proximity to the downspout, underground pipes, buried scraps of gutter flashing, etc. Darn it! Maybe it will turn up. I think it was a big ol' Eisenhower dollar, so it should have been hard for it to hide.

Another photo from Shaker Village

Draft horses at Shaker Village

Undulatus

Visiting Daniel Boone's Grave

On our visit to Frankfort a couple of weeks ago, we went by the grave of Daniel and Rebecca Boone in Frankfort Cemetery.  The view of Frankfort and the Kentucky River was nice from there.

Nearby was the grave of Elison Williamson, "Friend and Companion of Daniel Boon."  My Google searches have turned up no information on Mr. Williamson, so he remains a mystery to me.

Also nearby were the graves of some Bibbs, my distant kin.

dream

A couple of nights ago I dreamed that I was running a saloon in the old west.  Some woman came in and ordered a pitcher of beer, but refused to pay for it, and my staff were angry with her.  She ended up spitting in the pitcher of beer and cussing at us. We'd had trouble with her before.  There was also a guy there who was on the run from bounty hunters, but he was going out to where they were--to confront them.  He did not expect to return, which was sad, because he was a nice guy.  So he was preparing to leave, and meanwhile my staff was grabbing this woman and holder her upside down, trying to shake money out of her pockets, and I finally told everyone, "Meet me back in my office NOW!" because I was going to start teaching everyone about conflict de-escalation.  Then I woke up.

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Last week, during spring break, we visited Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill.  It was my third (I think) time there, although I had not been there in more than ten years.  It's a beautiful locale, and I find the history of the place fascinating.  The people who work there are top-notch, and the displays are fun to look at.  While there we watched a sheep-shearing demo, saw lots of baby animals, enjoyed a presentation of Shaker worship and music, and toured the numerous old buildings (some more than 200 years old.) Lots of fun.