Readying the patio for summer

By Elizabeth Prata

My goal for the spring was to obtain some new succulents. I like how they look, and I like how it takes a lot to kill them. I need both in my life, hardy, and pretty, lol.

Kroger had a $1 sale on small succulents so I bought ten. My goal for the Memorial Day Holiday was to re-pot them. I also wanted to refresh my little patio area, clean it, and ready it for summer outdoors enjoyment.

So I did!

These are the small rosettes atop leggy hens & chicks I snipped off to dry.

Yesterday a hawk (maybe an eagle, probably a hawk) was circling above the yard and pasture, likely looking for mice. He was hard to catch with the camera but this one snap came out OK

There's a blooming magnolia flower atop the tippy top of the tree. Yup, it's there.

Let me use the Nikon zoom. There it is! Pretty good zoom for a point N shoot camera.

Here's the Hosta 'eye' springing up. I had wanted to split the hosta but I learned that it's better to do it in the early spring, or at least before the eye springs up.

The Nikon zoom tends to get grainy but the camera does a good job on macro.

Today is a cool day but in Georgia after about mid-May cool means cloudy and max humidity. You just feel drenched all the time. My air conditioner has a setting called "Dry." I'd read in the reviews before I'd bought it that owners really loved the dry setting. I turned it on today and set to dry and you know what, it IS great. I'm not drenched I'm dry. It's the simple things.

Enjoy your summer, whether oven dry, or humid dry or rainy or wet or cool or hot! It's all good, really. This season is for taking it slower, enjoying outdoors with family, reading, grilling (not barbecuing, I learned the difference when I moved to the South), pools, lakes, seashore, and just plain enjoying life.

Blooming garden

The heat seems to have abated with the storms that came through yesterday, and I went outside to take some yard shots. After 6 consecutive days of sitting, I decided to get up. LOL.

The yard looks great, thanks to the landlord's mowing and blowing yesterday, and the rain. It is verdant green carpet, with flowering bushes and budding trees everywhere.

This is some kind of flowering bush along the north side of the house. I know, that isn't too knowledgeable nor is it very descriptive...

Here is a closeup of that bush. It is really pretty. It bloomed in the last few days.

And, even closer.

Now that I am outside, and not inside, the cat doesn't know what's happening. "Where is she? Why isn't she in her chair? What is this screen between us? What is out there?" he kept following me from window to window...

Last year the landlord cut back the crepe myrtle. Or severely pruned. Or, as the Grumpy Gardener says, 'crepe murder.' Anyway, as the crepe myrtle comes back, it looks like Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons...

Last year I'd thrown around a bunch of flower seeds (again, not descriptive, I forget what kind these are) and here they are, nestled against the tree trunk in the front yard.

I planted a pepper, two flowers with a name starting with C, and some other flowers. LOL, I am not a gardener. I just bought what was cheap, pretty, and would last in a sunny spot with concrete, and went from there. If anything actually comes up I will be shocked. I spent a total of 20 minutes. At least I put them in fresh potting soil.

A friend of mine will give me an aloe cutting and also a spider plant cutting. I will stay on the lookout for small succulents to put in my white espresso cups. And now, I'm back down. Up is good. Down is better.

Photo lushness, garden goodness

Monday I visited a friend in the more rural part of the county to help her pick her garden produce. What a garden! It was beautiful as were the rolling hills surrounding it and the treeline filled with songbirds. At 7:30 am they were lively, the heat of the day not having set in nor the dew having been dried by relentless summer Georgia sun. Here are a few pictures of my drive to there, and the garden itself.

A quiet, windy country road over red clay in the early morning.

Sunrays peeking out from the clouds as I turned the curve out from under the trees.

Reminded me of the Downeast blueberry barrens on the way to Lubec, Maine

Her garden. Nice, isn't it?!

Her granddaughter in the sunflower row.

Aren't sunflowers gorgeous??

Finally tired of cavorting with the kids, the dog just sits and guards the garden.

Somehow the cat makes a more threatening guard, lol.

See the bees working the sunflower?

And that was one fine summer day. I came home with tomatoes, cukes, purple hull peas, beans, blackberries, and blueberries. Thank you for sharing!