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Paynes Prairie
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. This one is from early 2009. Enjoy! This past weekend we ventured up to Gainesville to meet Marc and Eliana since they had made it back to Florida. Chris and I had been wanting to go up to Payne’s Prairie for awhile and so we asked them if they would like to meet us and check it out. Our main reason was that we wanted to see some whooping cranes. Whoopers are highly endangered birds, with only…
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Day 1: Tomato Season 2008-2009
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Enjoy! This is what the yard looked like, finally, after around six or so hours of working on it yesterday. Chris started before I did, working to right the ylang-ylang tree that has been battling itself these past two weeks, as it kept falling over. It originally was in a too small pot and a gust of wind during a rain storm blew it over, damaging one of the roots that had went into the ground from…
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Florida Trail: Seminole Reservation to I-75
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Chris and I did this hike in January 2009 prior to thinking about hiking the Appalachian Trail (or even the Florida Trail)—this was on my list of things to do during my 28th year. On New Years Day our friend David and his kids dropped Chris and I off at our north entrance to where we were going to hike southbound through the Seminole Big Cypress Reservation, enter Big Cypress National Preserve, stay for a night and…
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A Ghost Orchid Time Lapse
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Enjoy! In 2007 Chris found Little Slough an area in south Florida with 607 ghost orchids. We spent several summers documenting the orchids and enjoying our slough. Chris put together this time lapse a few summers ago. Enjoy!
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How to Pollinate a Passiflora Vine
I’m taking this week to move into a new house so new writing is scarce. I thought I would find some long-lost posts from before I moved my blog to its current format. Enjoy! The vine grew along our fence in Florida and we loved having a couple of varieties of passiflora. As you can see in the last photo we harvested quite a bit, too! I’m hoping I will be able to grow some at our new place along with the other edibles we hope to keep! Have you grown passionvine?
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The Exploding Melon Bed
I should have taken a photo of this bed a couple of days ago before I trimmed up the vine on the left hand side, closest to the beans. It’s already impossible to walk between the bed and the eggplants on the right, but I really didn’t want to have both sides overtaken. The melon in this bed is the Bidwell Casaba melon—and apparently tastes like orange sherbet. Two weeks ago we had several afternoons of thunderstorms which provided a much needed drenching for the beds. In turn the beds responded by exploding in new growth. This one has just kept on going. The vines of the melon aren’t the…
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Fig Love
Chris came in last night for the closing of our house today. We made dinner then went to find a nonexistent ice cream shop (thanks Google Maps) before heading to the garden. The heat has been brutal this week, 100* many of the days; the beans can’t handle it and neither can a few other plants. Sometimes between moving we’ll have to find some time to do maintenance on our beds. I was busy watering the garden and Chris had been putting hoses on various beds and then piddling around. I went back up to the front of the garden and found him deep into picking figs off the Celeste…
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Rambling at Kleb Woods
It had been far too long since I’d spent any considerable amount of time outside, so last Sunday I decided to brave the 100* heat and go for a walk at Kleb Woods. I almost left to go at 1pm but waited an hour, thinking I would postpone until later in the evening, but I needed out and so at 2pm I left for the woods. Chris and I had been here back in the Fall on a weekend. It was busier then and the hummingbirds were around, sipping nectar from the feeders and the flowers in the hummingbird garden. This time the heat of the day brought stillness over…
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The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center | Part I
So way back in March when we went to Austin we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Sunday morning before driving home. And yes, here it is late June and I am just now posting photos from them! I can’t believe I have been so unattentive to my photo processing and writing about our adventures. Nonetheless here is round 1 of our trip: Lady Bird herself on the rain barrel. Not to be confused with this Ladybird. Lace cactus, Echinocereus caespitosus Horse rush Horse crippler cactus Echinocactus texensis Gregg dalea, Dalea greggii Foxglove, Penstemon cobaea Columbine Trumpet creeper Blackfoot Daisy, Melampodium leucanthum Antelopehorn (butterfly weed) Asclepias asperula And…
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Summer in Photos: Week 2 & 3 | June
June 12: Checking email and reading blogs June 14: Our anniversary, watering the flower beds of our landlords while they are out of town. June 16: A hornworm we picked off the tomatoes June 19: Zoe showing off a couple of strawberries she and PawPaw picked. June 20: Planning new things to plant! June 21: Butternut squash seeds ready to go in the ground! June 22: Charentais melon, ripe and ready June 23: Spotted two red headed woodpecker right out my back door.