Elliott studying the beer menu before we watched the new Elvis movie, which was superb, with Oscar worthy performances from Austin Butler and Tom Hanks. 

The button bush, a native plant, is blooming happily with the nasturtiums. I’m so pleased with this bush. I’d wanted one for a long time and am elated that it’s so happy in the back garden.

The canoe is looking resplendent today. The zinnias and lavender are in full bloom after the recent storm which gave the canoe a good soaking. I’ve only had to use the hosepipe once this summer!

The first box arrived today at work, for my new hobby of MIG welding. This is the actual welder. The rest of the accessories will arrive this week. And I already have a potential client, a lady from the garden tour on Saturday, who’s interested in my garden ornament ideas.

Elliott taking a photo of a lamp I loved while we were at Strasburg with Bill, Eric and Jackie. We couldn’t buy this one, at $500, but Bill did give me a lovely dark red lampshade he wasn’t keen on, that came from a lamp he bought.

25 June 2022

Jen by a small patio at Birdsong Pleasure Gardens, where we all loved this brick pattern.

Boss Man’s son, who we’ve known since birth, and now all grown up, learning how to unload his printed shirt from the press, under the watchful eye of Tody and Heron.

Elliott got tickets to America, one of my favorite bands! And they’re playing about 45 minutes down the road, so we’ll be close to home in a rural setting, not having to travel to northern VA as I’ve done in the past. Thank you Elliott, love you! xx

The sparkler bush and the lilac seem happy to get some rain, but it was a major deluge.

Rosie Lee is very fastidious with her meals. Unlike the other two, she likes her wet and dry food to be in separate dishes, and will go back and forth while eating. Although lately, she’s taken to leaving her dry food for later on in the evening. What a princess!

While watering the garden this evening I spotted two pairs of red milkweed beetles. Initially alarmed, I looked them up, and found they feed off the milkweed but pose no threat to monarch butterflies or caterpillars. They help to preserve the balance of nature so I let them be. They emit a shrill cry if frightened, but also purr when feeding. I was actually pleased that this proves I’ve been successful in helping to create an ecosystem in the garden for wildlife. And of course, they are also a possible food source for birds.

My favorite wild flower, chicory. I planted seeds last year that came up, the plants reseeded, and this year they have returned, beautiful clumps of blue down one bank of the front garden.

The desserts at Bill and Jen’s party, with my strawberry and almond cake in the foreground.

Stepping into the production room at 6:30am, o Lu a couple of us here so far. Clean screens leaning up against the dryer, ready for artwork to be burned onto them. The smaller ones are for the manual presses and the bigger ones are for the automatic presses.

The swamp milkweed is alive with bees, and the scent is divine. No monarchs yet, but I’ve been reading on my Facebook groups that they’re late this year.

Boss Man got the Kona truck to park outside work so we could all have free ice cones on this hot afternoon. I wasn’t overly impressed with the sweet syrups but Jen said for next week, we should have some rum or Malibu, which I thought would be a splendid addition.

Today is Flag Day, and coincidentally, the 3 embroidery files I received from my digitizer in China are in British colors. Wonderful! And U.S. colors too, whatever, the Brits came first.

Tragopogon pratensis, a lesser known species with several common names including yellow goat’s beard and yellow salsify. We dug one of these up last year from beside an abandoned railroad. It didn’t do much but obviously self seeded to a happier spot where it’s produced these amazing seed heads. Not seen that often, we’re honored that this native likes its new abode. The seed head is about 3” across. 

Elliott and I passed this in Front Royal. We had no idea that student training classes for 18 wheelers were held here. Might be interesting to watch one day.

A house in Strasburg. This has been recently painted. There used to be lots of plants and garden ornaments out the front and all along the side of the house, but most of these have now gone. I’ve never seen the owners, yet would love to meet them. There’s also many pits of plants inside, it looks like it was once a shop. 

Me and my bestie hanging out on her porch and drinking red wine. A great way to finish the week.

Not having any energy to dig up turf after work, I decided to just pot a couple of annuals, but then found myself pulling up an invasive weed, speedwell. It had spread ferociously, but I got it all, and uncovered 2 sweet joe pyes, an ajuga and 2 baby trumpet vines, these 2 I’ll try to transplant along the back fence. So, not a bad evening’s work after all!

This swamp milkweed was only 3 plants last year but has self seeded and is throughout the flower bed. Hopefully, we’ll see the monarchs soon, I check almost daily now.

7 June 2022

Rain clouds hanging over the Skyline Drive. More rain in the next couple of days, which is good for the plants, but not for me trying to dig up more lawn.

A terrible day for commuting today. 2.5 hours to get to work because of a crash and 1.5 hours to get home, another hold up on Rte 66, but I did see some nice lights on an old truck.

More gardening done today, planting more perennials, but a pivotal point was planting 4 prickly pear cacti. I’ve loved these plants for so long, I’d seen  them at the local arboretum, but now we have 4 of them on a bank in the front garden. I hope they flower this year.

I was first in line for the plant sale in Middletown this morning, and scored big time. A great buy of native perennials, tiger lilies and more prickly pear cacti. Planting will commence very soon.

After 5 weeks of waiting, the additional driveway is done. Now to get a retro camper, put stone steps down the grass bank, set up the other canoe for planting, and loads more jobs. Exciting work ahead!

The quality of awards that we sell to clients has plummeted. These cheap wrap covered, plastic trophies arrived from the vendor, many of them broken, which we then had to repair before sending out. You only get what you pay for, admittedly, but these aren’t awards that will be kept for years on a shelf, but instead will likely end up in a landfill. A waste of resources. 

Fluffy dandelions slowly releasing their seeds. The flowers have gone and now the summer blooms are appearing.