Thursday, July 27, 2006, 19:42
A Glor-y-ous Morning
When I went outside with Pixie this morning, I turned around and saw it clinging to the bird feeder post.
A Morning Glory.
One single Morning Glory blooming.
I figured I'd better take a picture of it, in case I don't get any more.
The Morning Glory growing in the tub by the bird feeder post is the only Morning Glory I have that stands any chance of blooming. The others dried up and burned to a crisp.
This particular Morning Glory is growing in a tub with some purple petunias. The petunias ain't doin' so great. I think it's too hot and dry for the petunias (which are usually tough plants). By rights, it ought to be too hot and dry for the Morning Glory, too, but it is managing to grow and to climb the bird feeder post.
I think the only thing that is saving the Morning Glory is that the plant is in the shade until around noon.
I don't know what excuse the petunias could give for looking so sickly, seeing as they are in shade until noon, too.
While I was taking the picture of the Morning Glory, Charlie came to help -- or rather, to stay close by to supervise.
Charlie looks much brighter and is getting around easier than he was a week ago when the infection in his hips was first diagnosed.
As I walked back to the house with the camera, my red tom cat, Gilligan, decided he'd had enough of being outside in the heat and humidity and that he wanted to come back inside the house and go lie on the cool basement floor.
I should have gone with Gilligan. It's just too hot and sticky outside to do much of anything.
I also have to say that one terribly disheartening thing happened last night.
Randy and I went out to pick some of the longer grass that is right around the edge of the garden for Kajun and Isabelle. It is the only place that the grass is even growing a little bit. It is the only place from which Kajun and Isabelle might get a little something green to eat. Their pastures are all dried up and brown and crispy. And as we picked some grass, we pulled a few weeds at the edge of the garden, too.
And we discovered that after an inch of rain Monday night -- the ground was powder dry around the roots of the weeds.
An inch of rain -- and the soil on top is not even damp yet after two days.
Which tells me that for us to recover from the drought, we are going to have to get many long, slow, rainy days.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Wednesday, July 26, 2006, 19:22
A New Hobby
Sophie has a new hobby.
She has discovered that the hummingbirds are coming to the hummingbird feeder by the kitchen window.
Sometimes she sits on the sink to watch them.
Sometimes she sits on the refrigerator to watch them.
And just now today, she has discovered she can get on the very top of the kitchen cabinets and can watch them from up there.
I tried to get a picture of Sophie on top of the cabinets, but it didn't work. She saw me, and wanted to get down -- but didn't know *how* to get down.
I climbed up on a chair to get her off the top of the cabinets. She wasn't sure she wanted to be hauled off the top that way. Consequently, I have a lovely scratch and puncture mark on my left arm, a dandy puncture wound on my right arm, and scratches on my stomach where her hind claws dug into my skin through my tee-shirt.
After this, if Sophie gets on top of the cabinet and decides she doesn't know how to get down, she's going to have to figure it out for herself.
Rain -- Or Lack There-of The cloudbursts that were predicted for yesterday didn't make it this far. I think there were thunderstorms all around us, but all we got out of it was a trace. I don't know if I would even go so far as to call it a tenth of an inch. So while Eau Claire (east of here) has gotten about six inches of rain in the last two days -- we have gotten an inch. Somehow it just doesn't seem quite fair. . .
LeAnn R. Ralph
