Wordy Wednesday

Oh my, a week has gone and I have shifted from Wordless to Wordy Wednesday. But this is just a lapse, I think.

On the gardening front: my rows of lettuce, we cannot keep up with. I am delivering lettuces (I planted many kinds) to friends. If you are within delivering distance, kindly let me know, because these rows are inclined to bolt in the heat. Bolt, as in go to seed, not bolt, as in the silly ponies when a horsefly gets them BAD.

Speaking of flies, they are BAD. Daughter #1 mucked the big stall and spread lime and fresh shavings, in addition to hanging two of those NASTY fly things that attract flies, and then they cannot find their ways out, and so it is up to me to toss the NASTY things in a couple of weeks or so. I think it beats pesticides, though.

Back to the gardening news: my tomatoes look dandy. In fact, I have volunteer tomato plants as well as planned-for ones. So my already-uneven rows of tomatoes have taken on a bit more of a meander. And in-between some of these, MUCH to that Spouse 0' Mine's consternation (because he is a BioSystems engineer, {read:agri- and horticulture} and this CLEARLY is not engineered, at least by man or woman), I have fennel bulbs popping up and thriving. This, I explained to him and will to you, too, is because it was a really, REALLY windy in rural Kansas, that day that I planted fennel. And so it is all over the place.

But that's ok! Because this is a Darwinian garden. Good things will thrive.

And let's reflect once again on the horseradish I planted 2 years ago. Which was tilled under by that Spouse o' Mine last year when I was in, I don't know where...Breckenridge? He called me to ask where my garden was going to be, and I replied, Where it has always been. And he proceeded to till the DAYLIGHTS out of my garden, and put grass seed down. After 26 years of marriage, we STILL get our signals crossed. That, and we are simply not garden-compatible. (Could the Marriage-counseling pastor, 26 years ago NOT have asked us about our gardening inclinations? I ask you.) Well, my word, I digress. The tilled-up horseradish from two years ago is popping up everywhere in my garden. EVERYWHERE. It's like kudzu. At least the leaves taste good in salad, and we both know that because we have had quite a season of fresh horseradish leaves in our salads!

Birds in the spring: I hung 4 beautiful ivies out on our "old porch" this spring, and now is the time to transplant the ivy into my shade garden. But, alas, a nice little bird couple made a nest in one of the ferns, so now I waiting for the tiny cheep-cheep-cheep sounds to mature and then be gone completely, before I move the ferns. I have even been leary of watering that fern.

And the hummingbirds are keeping me entertained in our grotto! They perch high in our old trees, and then swoop in for a feed or a fight.

Other bird news, not good, not good at all, is that all 14 of my little Indian Runner ducklings have gone missing. They are gone, gone for good. Whether they were stolen or scared off or whatever, we never found any remains, and that just makes us wonder. Predatory animals leaves bits behind. But out of 14 ducklings, there was nothing. I told that Spouse o' Mine, I am out of the duck business. And very sad to say that: I just killed a big old grasshopper tonight; the very reason we kept ducks in the first place.

Human maternal news is such that Daughter #1 moved back from Atlanta this weekend, and Daughter #2 moved to Virginia this weekend. The College Boy comes home in two weeks. He is happily anticipating driving home by himself, and has already made his itinerary to: Drop down from Washington state, take Highway 101 to see the Redwood forest, drive through Death Valley, the Grand Canyon, and home to the Flint Hills. What a fun adventure!

Cherry season is going on right now, so the orchard growers are busy and so are we.
And that's a good thing.