This little volunteer maple tree just had to sing!
I also noticed these while walking by the high school playing field…
Strange looking mushrooms I thought…. no a dozen eggs.
Someone must have been walking home for the grocery and the bag failed or? Anyway, a dozen eggs were under the pine trees. Had Guppy been with me she would have suggested that we should smash them in case they were squirrel eggs. Don’t need any more squirrels you know!
It has been all go here. Ben got sick and then I got sick. No fun at all. His daughter in Florida was directly impacted by Hurricane Ian. They have lost their house and most everything they owned. It is not as if we can run down there and help them. They are very resilant but I still worry about them. For us the hurricane was two hours without electricity and lots of branches down. Annoying but nothing serious. Worse for others around us. Lots of big trees fell here in Raleigh.
Last week started with 80 degree temps but by mid-week there was a freeze warning. I had to hustle the plants in our house and rehome others.
You can tell that it was traumatic for the hibiscus. Just blooming away…..
The deck looks almost naked
The next ten days are supposed to be warmer than normal so I have left a few elephant ears. The ferns (Guppy’s favorite) had made it inside. But had to move for Ben to take his shower so I just moved them back out for this next warm period.
Not as tropical as it was but still looking very good. I have made many visits to Campbell Road Nursery.
Three flats of pansies so far. I have gotten 2.5 of them planted along with ripping out two azaleas. Replacing them with a BoBo hydragena and a white butterfly bush. Lots of digging and tugging. But the front will look good next spring.
I really like these ‘black’ pansies. I have combined them in pots with white ones on the front porch. I thought they were ‘edgie’. It is a different look. Hope fall is treating you well.
Pretty good I think, thanks for asking. We had a long string of 90+ days in July and August. There have been a number of thunderstorms. But the tree and foliage coverage is so thick that the rain doesn’t always get to all the plants. A long way of saying that I have had to do some watering. But that’s okay. The humidity and heat worked their magic.
Trees have been on my mind lately. This is part of the one that is mostly on school property but also over hangs our neighbor. It is losing leaves at an alarming rate. Hopefully only a few branches will need to be cut and not the whole tree. We’ll see.
The garbage can plants look good. I finally got the squirrels to leave them alone.
The banana plants have taken off.
The birds enjoy their ‘garden cafe’. A few complaints when the old lady who brings the food shows up late. But what are you gonna do….
The hummers have been visiting these white flowers on the deck. The hummer is just to the left of the center.
The caladiums at the end of the ramp look really good. Ben’s daughter picked up some more minature ones for me. I like mixing the two sizes. And I also like how well they have done in the pots on the deck rails.
Now that the season is coming to an end the hibiscus has finally decided to come in to its own.
This red plant has not gotten a chance to shine but I’ll be getting more of these next year and trying them in a different space.
And this beauty is waiting until the weather breaks. It will be going in the front.
Our buliding is one part of a U shape that forms a courtyard in the back. The courtyard is dominated by two trees. One in the center of the courtyard and one on the edge of the property, the other side of which is a public school.
The turquoise and white things are the ugly school buses parked at the edge to the school property. I am worried about this the large tree that is the lower circle.
This tree. Recently, it has dropped two LARGE branches. The first damaging the deck of our neighbors. The most recent one destroyed a concrete birdbath. For the first time that I have noticed, the tree is dropping pin head size green balls. And then there is this.
A very noticeable a dark stain of something coming down the trunk. And of course, there are these branches which hang over my neighbors’ bedroom.
See how thin the leaves are! I am really afraid that the whole tree will have to be cut down. The entire courtyard will be changed. Not to mention the amount of sun that we will now get. And the fence between the properties goes right through the tree.
My hydragenas start just at the edge of the tree’s roots. I think difficult times will be ahead for our little courtyard paradise.
Well, that is so nice that you asked. It started out slow. All those bulbs that I started inside took their time popping up. It took the intense heat of June and a good bit of rain…..
I am real excited that all my planting has inspired my neighbors on each side and two more neighbors nearby to buy some plants.
I planted a number of seeds. None of which have been a sucess. I have come to the decision that starting elephant ears inside is pointless. A number of them will be planted in the ground in the fall. I am thinking of keeping the small elephant ears and small caldium bulbs inside. And then maybe starting them in pots outside in April or so. I did get a number of volunteer sunflowers from birdseed droppings.
Including this funky one in a hanging pot. And of course there have been some bargins that I couldn’t pass up. All the ferns…so many that some of them have to live with my neighbors. And then of course a hybiscus. I can’t pass them by
That ends the garden tour. Thanks for stopping by. Let me know ahead, next time, and we’ll sit on the deck and have a glass of wine.
Really! I’m just here for a little snack
A little chipmunk would be nice……
A young squirrel maybe…..I think all the rabbits are gone.
Seen hunting in our courtyard in early November. I had not seen the hawk family for a while. This bird didn’t find any treats so it flew off after a bit. Always nice to have a visit.
It is ending……sorta sad, but frankly I am over 90+ degree days. We had a string of them in August along with high humidity. Very difficult for Ben and me too. So our last bit of summer has been hanging out inside. We have had a decent amount of rain and spaced out well. I didn’t have to start a lot of extra watering until mid-August. It was while watering that I was stung by a bumblebee. Then a few weeks later I was bitten by fire ants! The bumblebee I could cope with. Made me mad, since I was watering the plants that it gets pollen from. The fire ants were a total fluke. I rarely am not wearing my waterproof hiking shoes. We had just staggered awake and I noticed that the SQUIRREL had torn down the hummingbird feeder. I was curious to see if it was broken or just in pieces so I ventured out in my sandals to the front yard. Big MISTAKE! As I picked up the feeder the big ants scattered. It was the little ones that started biting. Eight bites or so to one foot. Much pain and burning. Ten days and two tubes of itch cream later I have more or less recovered. The HOA sent someone right out with something that seems to have killed them. Still, now my signature scent is Deep Woods OFF with hints of SPF 30.
The yard care company continues its assault on my flower beds. I have determined that their gardening style is bush/bed 4 to 6 inch frame of bare earth around it and then grass. Anything that hangs over into the bare earth area gets trimmed to nubs.
See to the left of the ‘stone’ the liriope that has been cut down to nubs and is slowly coming back. It was a lush green border like the plants behind and to the right of the ‘stone’. The worker must have started on the his scorched earth trimming policy and then decided that maybe it was a border and could possibly stay. The stone is what I am asking the HOA if I can use to border my beds. Normally I would just do it. But it is a considerable investment. So before I bought I thought I might ask to make sure no one comes back and says no no no.
The plants in the back look good. I had some reservations about this Silver Falls Dichondra. It has really taken off though. I am very impressed with it and will have it back again next year.
The painting on the deck is holding up but it gets dirty. Some of that is from the work that is going on at the nearby high school playing fields and some of it is from 4 footed ones. Guppy claims it is not her! (She can be so catty sometimes. “Have you seen the size of Magnolia’s paws? (her friend Magnolia)) Anyway, this first, nice weekend I just had to scrub the deck. Looks much better.
This area at the bottom of the ramp looks really nice. I plan to let those elephant ears remain in the pot for the winter. Hopefully they will all come back.
The tropical area with banana plants and elephant ears looks really good too. I hope that my ‘border stones’ get approved. If they do, I plan to put these elephant ears in the ground. Hopefully the stones defining the border will protect them next spring from the marauding weed eaters.
Look how great this turned out. You really have to look to see the ugly communications post that these plants hide.
And fnally the veg. The beans never produced but the seeds were so old that I didn’t expect them to. They look a little scraggly as do the tomato plants which are still producing. The $15 bag of dirt that I bought for the tomatoes was totally worth it. I have not given the plants any additional fertilizer. Just water.
Well, enough chit chat about plants. Having the resources, the time and the ability to have these plants is a privilge and I am thankful for it.
One morning, a few weeks ago I was awaken by the sounds of the hawks. The adult parents were teaching the juvenile how to hunt. This involved all three of them settling on the top of one tree and with much screeching. One adult flying off to another tree. I could hear all of this with our whoop dee doo double paned windows shut and the AC running. Much screeching and calling continued. This is how I imagined the conversation going.
Momma Bird: “Now, sweetie, see that chipmunk on your right? No, your other right. See it?
Juvenile: “Oh, it’s so cute! Look at those spots!”
MB: “Now, dear, I want you to swope down, pick it up with your talons and then fly over to your father.”
Juvie: ” MOTHER! You know I am vegan!”
MB: ” Of course dear I know you are Vegan. These are vegan chipmunks and squirrels. You have been eating these since you were a baby. Why do you think we hunt in this neighborhood? Because they only have vegan, organic, non-GMO chipmunks and squirrels. Really dear! Your father is waiting!”
Father has not been waiting patiently. Much screeching and calling has been going on. Lower in the trees, the smaller birds are all raising the alarm about the hawk family being on the prowl. Downtown Raleigh is not peaceful.
The weather has encouraged large and multiple litters of squirrels and rabbits. The young rabbits are the worst. They will move just enough to catch Guppy’s notice and then freeze dead. Guppy freezes. Then it is a Mexican stand-off over who will go in which direction with me trying to hang on/drag Guppy away. One in particular comes most every evening to much on the clover near our front door. Guppy is so conditioned to sit and watch for it that she doesn’t want to come sit on the back deck with me because “I might miss barking at that nervy rabbit!”
And then there are the black bears. Yes, in Raleigh. A young cub spent the night up a tree near Rex Hospital. (the new Rex, not the old one, but still in a populated area) He was finally lured down in the early morning by a biologist who bought a dozen Krispy Kreme jelly filled doughnuts. (Did the biologist grow up watching Yogi and Boo-Boo? Did he leave a pick-a-nic basket too?) Smeared the jelly at the base of the tree and then laid a path of the doughnuts towards Umstead Park. The newspaper article about this bear also (in one sentence) mentioned a sighting of a bear cub on Oberlin Road which is 4 blocks from us. Now Oberlin Road is more than a mile long and the article didn’t say where the cub was seen. Still, I guess maybe I should pay a little more attention to Guppy at night when we go out. Every now and then she will claim that there is something out there in the distant dark of the school practice fields. “Let’s go see….” Yeah, right.
But the very best wild animal story of the year is the Zebra Cobra Snake story. This happened in a North Raleigh suburb. One with normal size lots, not half acre lots. Houses with 30 or 40 feet between them. One night on a homeowners’ security camera a Zebra Cobra Snake was spotted near the house. Animal Control were called, who quickly called the police. The WHOLE neighborhood was locked down and yellow crime scene taped off. The snake is very venomous. Can spit venomon 10 FEET!. Of course, this makes the local news. It goes on for days. No one comes forward to claim the snake. Finally, someone remembers, “You remember that kid that was bitten by a venomous snake back in the spring…..and they had to bring in anti-venom from South Carolina……Let’s go check on him.” Turns out that he lives nearby. And Oh, by the way, that snake has been missing since November!
Of course, this causes a HUGE FOLDEROL and legislation about keeping dangerous animals is now being considered on a state wide level as well as locally. Now here is the funny part. One of the local newscasters wants to interview the homeowner where the snake was seen. This newscaster is very proper and feminine. Black sheath dress, black heels. Carrying her microphone. The camera is on her as she goes up the 6 or so brick, front porch steps. All of a sudden she freezes and then very slowly backs down the steps, backs down the drive and then runs as fast as those heels will permit her to the parked police car. She can be seen wildly gesturing. Then the camera man is shown focusing on the porch and on the snake just hanging out in the sun. Using glue boards, it was finally caught on that porch. If you want to see the video of this here is the link. It never fails to make me laugh. https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/venom-spitting-snake-on-the-loose-in-raleigh-neighborhood-spotted-by-cbs-17-reporter/
Not even the end of July, hawks, always present squirrels, rabbits, bears and a snake. Let’s see what August will bring.
Maybe too good of a place to hide…..
Ben and I decided that when we received this next round of stimulus money, after sharing with relatives and a community member we would treat ourselves and get take out once a week from a local restaurant. The first week was from Tazza Pizza kitchen. Hungry! No pictures. This past week was from David’s Dumpling and Noodle Bar. https://www.ddandnb.com/
I am always suspicious of an Asian restaurant that offers dishes from multiple Asian countries. You know ‘Jack of all trades. Master of none.’ (Cameron Village desperately needs a Thai or Vietnamese restaurant.) After reading about Chef David Mao at David’s I decided we would give them a chance.
I had my fav, cold Vietnamese beef noodle salad. It was good. As good as I can make. Not as good as Hieubowl, which has closed permanently. It was just getting started when the pandemic hit. I mourn its passing.
Earlier in the day, I had Ben looking at the website for David’s to see what he wanted. I looked over his shoulder and saw that he had tucked about $70 worth of dishes in his cart. I had to point out that unlike Mr. Dumpling which is a ‘destination restaurant’ for us, a 30 minute drive away, David’s is less than a 5 minute drive and that if the food was good we would go back. He finally settled on Seafood Deluxe.
It was very good. Lots of fresh veg, seafood and a tasty sauce. We will be going back.
The K&W closed! Very sad news. The K&W was a cafeteria. You went through the line pushing your tray, the ladies behind the counter yelling ‘Serve you? Serve you?’. A good place to go when one person wanted one thing and the other person wanted something else. Or when you were just too tired, hot or what ever to cook or to eat something you just didn’t want to cook, like fried chicken or fried fish. Oh and the pumpkin pie was the best.
And living within in walking distance of the K&W was a big selling point for living in Cameron Village. I believe that there are older single folks who had at least one meal a day there. Not sure what they will be doing now.
When we were out riding around when we lived in Italy, Ben and I would often joke….”Well, let’s just go to the K&W.” We certainly missed it then and will miss it now too. Forever!
 | taccarinoinitaly on I have a book!!!! |
 | beenehrc on I have a book!!!! |
| beenehrc on What’s going on with… |
 | dcdinoto on What’s going on with… |
 | Dinah Loney on How do you….? |
carolinainmymind 