Monday, August 4, 2014

Summer day

A holiday here, so I have some time to leave my coffee and take some pictures to show you the view just outside my doors. The front porch, which looks onto a large tree-enclosed park.


But let's not go out there today, instead here are my potted plants. Basil, petunias, pansies, a sweet tomato, and some tall plant I haven't been able to identify. It resembles Perovskia atriplicifolia, but it doesn't have a sage-like fragrance. Bees LOVE it which is why I tolerate its vagrancy.



This little lobelia in its Mexican pot weathered winter with me in an eastern window.

I'm making life easier by living with the wild plants instead of cultivating a lot of foreign plants. I let some box elders (aka Manitoba maple) grow up along the entrance to the front porch. There's also a morning glory and red millet, a rambling rose, and a huge catnip plant cultivated by the cats Molly and Mister.


The back is very private. There is a little fountain which makes soothing music. A perfect place to read or daydream.


The adirondack chair faces a hedge of wild elderberry, which birds love, and spruce.


Down below is a little frog pond that Jackson splashes his paws in.


The back door has more box elder and elderberry at the steps.


Beyond the house, just steps away is my bachelors' pad. The little two year old boys hang out here with their old uncle Kuzko (the white wooly llama). This little boy is beckoning me over to show me the state of the water tub.


Here they are gathered around. You can see the black nose with the green moustache -- time for another eight pails of water.



Big old Kuzko came to see if I had any treats for him. 


Near the back driveway I let this bunch of foxtail grow near the rainbarrel. In the spring it's a feathery light green grass, and now it's a bunch of waving plumes.  Behind it is some wild fireweed I'm encouraging. Hops grow up the drainpipe. All this vegetation covers the east window in the house, which helps to keep the room cool in the summer.


When I came in, I found Daisy and Jackson napping on the chintz.