All This Rain Has Made the Flowers Grow

With all of the rain we have been getting in Lexington our grass has been growing wildly out of control.  Even though our grass becomes jungle-like within days of mowing, I'm still happy to see rain falling from the sky.  This is because of all of the other plants that are happy when the rain comes. 

 

Our flowers have had a banner year in the garden.  Everything is growing and blooming; roses, lilies, hollyhocks, begonias, larkspur, geraniums, inpatients, petunias, cone flowers, and the list goes on and on... My strawberries have even been giving me big, beautiful red fruit in adundance.

 

The riot of color with a lush green background has this wonderful calming effect on me, especially when a small breeze makes the tall stalks gently sway as if conducting the garden orchestra. 

 

So when my life seems to be constantly on "GO", I am able to "stop and smell the roses" I appreciate that my view is one like this and that the rain has brought me so many flowers.

 

Not So Patiently Waiting for Breakfast

 

Breakfast couldn't come soon enough for these three mischievous amigos. You can tell that they are starving by their round bellies. :)

Strawberry Nibbles

Finally, after years of growing and tending to strawberry plants I have strawberries that actually take two bites to eat!!!! Yippeee!! Usually I get the tiny, misshaped nibbles before the bugs…or sometimes, the dogs, get them. All it is a taste sensation – a good taste sensation. But now I actually have real big strawberries.

I have been guarding them from everything…including myself. I want these suckers to ripen perfectly and then enjoy them as they were meant to be enjoyed…straight from the plant. Yum!

It all started when I bought a couple of strawberry plants at the store because the picture offered me possibilities of harvesting my own strawberries, and the bounty could be used to make jams, cakes, pies, etc. Yeah right…it takes more than two plants and at least a couple of years. So I kept purchasing plants and buying the offered strawberry hanging baskets, all in hopes of having a bountiful strawberry harvest.

My plants have been through a lot; me knocking them over, the dogs chewing on the leaves, squirrels trying to hide their nuts in the pots and the weather. But they have hung on through it all. Starting this spring I got quite a few little nibbles, where I could get the sweet taste of the strawberry while I was outside. But that is all. Then about a week ago I noticed one of my later bloomers had a huge strawberry growing on it. At first I thought it was an optical illusion. On closer inspection it was a real strawberry that was at last 4 times bigger than anything else I’ve harvested.

While keeping a close eye on it I noticed that another large strawberry was developing…JACKPOT!!!! I might get to make strawberry jam. Or not, I don’t think two strawberries will make me a lot of jam.

Hopefully the rest of the plants in this container will bless me with big strawberries, if not though, I will appreciate their sweetness in a small nibble. For now I get to look forward to two big juicy strawberries. I can’t wait!!!

UPDATE:  I ate the large strawberry this morning, and it was...wait for it...Perfectly Sweet.  Everything I imagined. Yum!

Dog Days of Summer

The heat is here!

Denny and Nana have the right idea...

Where's the nearest Pool?