August 14, 2012 -- basket of black-eyed Susans

This funny little basket is something I rescued from a friend's discard pile last night. I was sort of surprised it would stand on its tip (it's supposed to be hung), but it did. In it are Thai basil and the tiny little black-eyed Susan called Rudbeckia triloba.  There's no water in the basket, although I could have dropped a water-holding container into it. These materials will hold up a surprisingly long time without it, though.

August 13, 2102 -- great gourd

I am in love with this gourd. Just can't stop looking at it. It's ridges are so deep, wings and warts so dramatic, it looks like an alien planet. I could live on this planet! The gourds are starting to come in now, but few are as dramatic as this one.

Here's the base of the gourd up close. Mars, eat your heart out!

August 12, 2012 -- peachy zinnias, blue bottles, cooler, etc.

What I love about this array is the way it evolved. I picked some of these peachy-colored zinnias just to keep them blooming and dropped them into a pitcher of water, which I left on the porch of the cabin (second photo). Later, as I was coming back to the cabin from another gardening session, I saw the zinnias sitting on my blue cooler on the porch and noted how pretty those colors looked together. Carried the zinnias back to Ashland with me, where I decided to display them in blue bottles (like the blue of the cooler).



Included with zinnias in the blue bottles are some trumpet vine foliage and (in first bottle on left) one tiny sprig of astilbe (the seed structure). It came into the house wrapped in a grapevine, which I'd thought about including in these bottles, but discarded. For some reason, that one little sprig of astilbe, which I hadn't meant to pick, finishes this off just right for me.  



August 11, 2012 -- Osage orange and turkey feather

These two wonders--a turkey feather and an Osage orange--were gifts from my husband yesterday. He walked up to the front porch holding one in each hand and handed them to me as things I might want to use in the windowsill. You bet! And his gift was much, much more appreciated than many dozens of roses would have been!

John saw a flock of about 18 turkeys crossing our property yesterday, by the way. I saw three this morning.

August 10, 2012 -- celosia

A perfectly beautiful day. Relatively cool, a little breezy, and overcast most of the day. A gift for August, especially since it rained last night. I gardened almost all day, and that gardening involved pulling out lots of celosia so other plants could breathe. I hate pulling out anything that's blooming, but it was necessary today. In this bottle are two pretty celosia plumes that would have otherwise wound up in e compost heap.

August 9, 2012 -- garden phlox

This just a wee pitcher full of pale pink garden phlox and scented geranium leaves. Both of these are things I snipped off as part of cleaning up part of the garden today. The phlox needed to be cut back to get it to rebloom and the scented geranium was sprawling all over the place. Some of the scented geramium leaves on the stems I cut were fried around the edges, but I pulled them off, leaving just these nice ones.

This smells really good, not just because of the scented geranium leaves, but because of the sweet-smelling phlox.

August 8, 2012 --- black and orange

I couldn't resist displaying this beautiful orange pepper some way. Best way seemed to be to jam it onto the top of a black vase.

So then I was into black and orange, so I went looking for another black vase (turned out to be a gin bottle), which I filled with black peppers and some black-eyed Susans. This made me notice how black the centers of black-eyed Susans really are.