Bougainvillaea Update

I keep seeing that picture of the Bougainvillaea further down the page and I wanted to show you how much it's grown. I pruned her pretty severely last Spring and she has just gone crazy. She needs to be pruned again, but I don't want to cut off her flowers.

I added another matching Bougainvillaea in a pot on the other side of the steps. It's huge but no blooms. There were blooms when I bought it, so I know they are the same color, but she dropped them when we transplanted her.

I can't wait till they are both blooming at the same time. I'm hoping I can get them trained up and over the doorway. Wouldn't that be magical to walk through?

Front yard

We've  made a nice spot to sit in the front yard. It's not shady in this picture, but in  the morning it's a nice shady spot to take a break from weeding.

My plan is to paint the bench slats each a different color like a rainbow and write an affirmative phrase on each. Always so much to do and not enough time to fit it all in.

I'd like to paint that chair too, but it's plastic and I don't like the colors available in the spray on plastic paint. I want to paint it Purple or Fuchsia  but the H.D, only has primary colors.

We added some vines to the trellis there on the right. A Purple Passion Flower and a Pink Allamanda. The Roses are still there but not growing very quickly so the vines are filling in the bare spaces.

The Ice Plant has filled in the front garden very well, I'll try to get a picture soon.

Early morning visitor

Happy List

I can't believe it's August already. The summer has just flown by.
It has taken me literally months to get myself back to normal after my house guest earlier this year. I'm finally feeling like myself, so here is my

 GRATITUDE LIST


Patrick (currently in the kitchen scrubbing up the dishes)
Lilly -- seizure free x 3.5 weeks
Giant Bougainvillaea we potted last weekend for the front of the house. It's pink and matches the one by the front door. In the pot it's about 6 feet tall. wheeee
Bird feeder outside the dining room windows. There's a limited variety but endlessly entertaining. The Blue Jays and Cardinals are constantly feuding and the Woodpeckers sweep in during the lulls. There's a juvenile Woodpecker that gets frightened off by the Blue Jays and hooks into the window screen and just hangs there screaming and peeping.
My presentation at work went really well. Thanks to my boss for giving me the opportunity.
Going to the Beach for the weekend.

30 Days of Lists

I finished my book for the 30 Days of Lists challenge. You can find it here . The idea is that we're all to busy to do a whole page everyday but still want to be creative. So the organizers thought everyone can manage a list. They are posting a prompt every morning in September, so everyday a journal prompt to create a list.

You can do as much or as little as you like. I imagine some days I will barely have time or energy to make the bare bones list and others will be painted, glued and glittered within an inch of their lives.

This is my first attempt at book making, and I had a lot of fun figuring out how to do it. I cut the paper out of old surveys that P was throwing out. The cover is Mat Board and fabric scraps I had laying around and a leftover quilt block.

I didn't quite get my tying right on the pages so I hope they hold together. If not there is always glue and tape. Just makes it that much more interesting. .

So the Bougainvillea finally bloomed after 2 years. She's still pretty small, and getting chewed up. I want to build a trellis around the door and train her over it so that you have walk through to get in the house.

We had a good crop of tomatoes this year, but now it's done. Still got Collards, Peppers and Basil. I've already started planning what to plant in September.

I bought a Florida Gardening book:







                                                                                                                                                                        Here's my I want list for September so far:
Garlic, Carrots, Radish, Celery, Kale. Not sure about the tomatoes, last 2 years the freeze got them before the fruit could turn red.
The front garden has filled in pretty good. I'll try to get out sometime this week and post some pictures for you.