a random post about nothing at all...

you ever had one of those days when living in a cardboard box under the highway actually sounded like it might be a good idea? 

I mean, I always assumed that the homeless were under the overpass because they had no other options... It's starting to dawn on me that at least a few of them may be under there because they needed to get away from this batshit crazy world we live in.  

Well, I had that feeling today.  For a few minutes at least.  Then it dawned on me... I couldn't live in a cardboard box.  I'd have to have plywood.  Which entails finding some plywood, some 2 by 4's and some nails... and then it all started to look like an actual project, and I have to many projects already, so there we are.

we're on the 28th day straight of over 100 degrees outside, with absolutely no rain, and that's probably got a lot to do with my grumpiness.  Because, somehow, even with no rain, we're still getting high humidity.  Don't know where it's coming from.  There is a tropical disturbance on the coast, that might give us some relief when it makes landfall... the church guys are praying for it.  I don't quite know how I feel about praying up a tropical storm over Corpus Christi... but on the other hand the beach bums should be prepared for hurricanes so they're on their own. 

Now, this is a blog about gardening, right? 

Got nothing. 

How about a cut rate decorating tip... go to your local thrift store and get cheap florist vases that are either colored or painted glass... gather them in a group in the middle of a table, put a tea light in each, and they suddenly turn into really cool 'lanterns'   They're deep enough to protect the flame if you put them outside for garden parties too... not that there's any garden parties happening in this heat

sunflowers in the morning....

So... I know it's not the prettiest pic around, but I've found, as I've gotten older that pretty doesn't always matter to me anymore.  I really really like these wild sunflowers... 

I don't know for sure how they origionally seeded in my yard, but these are the wild variety of sunflower that grows in fields throughout Texas... not so much in cow pastures, as cattle seem to delight in the seedlings in the spring. 

Usually, In the spring, I have hundreds of these seedlings along a wooden fence and I fastidiously clean them out to one or two plants.  This year, I got delayed, and they were 3 to 4 feet tall before I got to them.  A few got crowded out naturally, but the rest came up and were blooming before I even had a chance to think about thinning them, and the flowers were so cheerful perched above the velvety green leaves

 that I left them thinking they weren't doing any harm. 

Now they're going to seed, the leaves are browning, and they're decidedly ugly, weedy looking things anywhere from 4 to 8 feet tall... and I would definitely be out there with machete in hand if it weren't for one thing...

Every morning, I sit and watch cardinals, song sparrows, purple finches (they call them purple, the males have a raspberry red head and a decent little chirping song) and the mourning doves come and have their breakfast.  I've even seen house wrens and mockingbirds come down and search out insects, and particularly the ants that seem to colonize the stems.  It's really quite fascinating to watch them. 

I used to put out bird seed.  But the Grackles and English Sparrows would attack the feeders.  These two species don't seem to be bothering my sunflowers. 

So yes, the sunflowers, at this particular stage of their life, look ugly and weedy.  But I'm leaving them.  I enjoy them too much...

Cactus flowers...

finally... something plant related!

and a cactus plant at that... although, it is one of my old faves... and by checking my stats... I can also see that it's one of the most popular posts I' ve ever made too....

Hildy... aka Cereus hidmannianus... will be opening her blooms tonight... 

and I still haven't got a camera.  will have to see what we can do with a porch light, a flashlight and a cell phone... but we're gonna give it the ole college try...

WORE OUT

I swear, there are times when I go to work just to get some relaxation! 

Of course, as soon as I swore to myself that I was going to get back to blogging more, and had even gone so far as to make a separate blog for my devotionals... (see last post)  the blasted modem on my computer decided to develop schizophrenia.  It would connect, then it would disconnect, then it would connect again... basically flipping on and off like a demented strobe.  Quite maddening. 

I was really looking forward to the July 4th weekend... I had been invited to a party for the fourth that promised to be fun, and it's traditionally a good weekend at the flea market... I dared to hope for a little fun. 

Then a friends father passed away. 

The funeral would be on Sunday... they had the choice of Sunday or Independence Day... if they wanted anybody to show up, it had to be Sunday.  It was also in a small town in east Texas, about a hundred miles away. 

Now, this particular friend, his wife and his daughters had been a huge support for me when my Mother passed, and there was no way in hell that I was not gonna be there for them.

It was not the most pleasant experience, well, it WAS a funeral, but it was definitely an interesting one in a kind of lugubrious way, and I'm actually working on writing it up into a short story, so I'm not going to go into great detail now... but I will say this.

I have mourned among the rednecks.  And then, I ate catfish...

The Saturday before was pretty standard at the flea market... only a few minor squabbles.

The party with the church guys was more fun than most people would probably think... I mean... for most of us, myself included, a room full of Christians is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think party, but we're a fun group.  And when one of said Christians if trying to figure out the best way to make mojitos, it helps.  We couldn't let his various experiments go to waste, now could we?

But... I'm tired.  Way too tired.  I need some sleep...   

The devotionals...

I had mentioned before that I was writing some devotionals for my church... a few of you asked if you could see them. 

I wasn't entirely happy with the idea of posting them here tho... so I've made another blog so you can look at them if you're interested in such things...

Haven't quite finished with the design of it... very much a work in progress... and there's only one on there so far... but HERE IT IS

flea market stuff...

Well just one flea market stuff...

Got a wonderful vintage TV lamp... from the 50's... perfect condition.

bad pic... the boat is actually brighter yellow... and there's a place in the top for a plant... most of these I saw growing up had a plastic ivy in them... the light, which shines from inside, is red...

Can't find the maker, but it's in perfect condition, and I've priced it at 45 bucks.


Anyway... hadn't posted for a while, so I had to post SOMETHING and there we are.

Well, here's a surprise...

Last year, out of the kindness of her heart, Julie, that wonderful lady over at A Succulent Life, sent me a Gloriosa Lily...

I am ashamed to say that I thought I killed it. I neglected to dig it up in the winter as I'm supposed to in this zone. I'm a bad plant parent. I am a bad plant recipient. I should be taken out and beaten soundly. But, I thought to myself, there's a very thick layer of straw mulch over that tuber... maybe by some miracle it survived our record breaking cold weather this winter.

This spring, nothing.

But, evidently, the thick layer of mulch was enough. Imagine my surprise when this morning I walked out and saw this dangling over my head in the carport...


There's still not a shoot showing by the ground though. What happened, is that evidently, the lily sprouted and sent it's shoot up inside the hollow metal pole that holds up the carport... and after it reached the top, it grew out and began blooming...

Determined little thing, ain't it?

a bright shiney morning...

Don't get all excited... I don't have a new camera yet... can't justify the expense because of other stuff going on in my life. This is a really crappy cell phone pic.

yep... the peanut cactus, 'rose quartz' is blooming it's fool head off after the HUGE storms last night... here in my part of Texas, we just caught the tag end of the things... through the midwest... well parts of Oklahoma came might near to being scraped off the map as far as I could

tell.

But these cheered me up a little this morning, and quite frankly I needed it... not gonna go into details at the moment, but let me say this...

My Grandmother, who was a very wise woman, always said... "The good Lord don't give you any burden you can't carry. But there are times when I've wished He didn't have such faith in me." Let's just say... I know what the hell she was talking about and leave it at that, OK?

driving...

I forgot my phone at home today... by the time I figured it out, I was 20 miles away and in the middle of a delivery... not possible to go get it.

At first... there was a sense of panic. What if there's an emergency? What if I have a flat tire? What if something happens to a friend and they can't get ahold of me? The last is a legitimate concern. A couple of them are prone to assuming that anyone out of phone range is obviously lying in a crumpled broke pile in a ditch bleeding to death.

And what if I needed to call someone for work... Occasionally, on a delivery, I have to get in touch with someone for assistance. OK... about twice a month... but still, it happens...

But then, inexplicably, I felt a sense of calm come over me. I heard a voice in the back of my head say... "YOU"LL BE FINE"

Got a flat tire? Change it.
Someone can't get a hold of me? They'll call later.
I need to call someone for work? Find a pay phone or better yet... let the dispatcher call them.

I relaxed.

And I enjoyed it.

There's something amazingly and wonderfully liberating about not being at the planets beck and call. It's totally amazing how much the phone bleeping at you interferes with your day.

I drove around. I made my deliveries. I joked with warehouse guys, without having to worry about returning a text. I sang a whole bunch of songs I remembered. (This is actually almost a psychological breakthrough... I have major childhood traumas around singing... don't ask...) I had a great day.

It's true, when I walked into QT and they had 5 liter boxes of wine on sale for a buck... I'd gone in with the idea of buying a lotto ticket, but quite frankly, the odds are better on a box of wine... I really did want to send a message to a church guy. But I can text him later. Or maybe I'll have a glass or three of wine and not worry about it. Hard telling...

And when I had an hour without a delivery, I pulled out a pen and a piece of paper and started writing down an idea that had occured to me for a church devotional. (I sent in a couple during lent and they asked me to keep em coming... oh well...)

Don't get me wrong... I'm not going to start leaving the phone at home. There are legitimate reasons why I might need it on the road. But... I may be turning it off for long stretches of time.