And a glorious one it has been so far. This morning as I was hanging out some laundry I noticed that some ants nests were swarming, which means that the ants were landing on any vertical surface, which initially was me. I retreated inside the gazebo for a while at which point I noticed that the lizards had taken up post on the gazebo and were eating every single ant that landed on the screening, there were tons of them, and between them I would imagine that they ate hundreds of ants. Add to that the dragonflies which were merrily taking the ants out of the air and I would guess that the entire flying ant problem was done in about two hours. Don't you just love it when you rely on Mother Nature to solve a problem and it works? A funny point was when one of the lizards was trying to eat an ant THROUGH the screening at which point she realized that she needed to be on the other side and quickly VERY QUICKLY got over to the other side to eat the ant.

The tree frogs have been barking all day, which is what they tend to do during the day, one will commence his bark at one side of the garden and in short order you will realize that there are dozens of them in your garden as they begin to bark at each other. My husband asked me this afternoon, "when are they going to start singing" as despite his complaints he loves to hear them sing while he sleeps. I told him that during the day they bark, but at night their bark turns into song, where they sing in perfect chords, as he is so fond of listening to. This evening as the two of us were eating dinner the frogs were barking which we could hear through the open door, as the sun slowly set and the sky became black their barks turned into song and I looked at my husband "they're singing" I said, and he turned to me and smiled, no doubt relishing the sound as we sleep with the bedroom window open tonight.

When I first moved into this house it was like a veritable wasteland, foundation plantings, a lone tree in the front yard and vast expanses of grass that made the entire thing look like the parking lot at Burger King. Now some folks might actually like the "Burger King Parking Lot" look but I am certainly not one of them, so my first task when I arrived here was to ensure that trees, and as many of them as possible got a chance to grow. It is strange that just recently a huge swathe of forest has recently been cleared close to me but they have left lone trees every "lot" area, no doubt a new sub-division is coming. In any event, my first task, was to define the line between me and my neighbor, so I purchased dead sticks from a budget nursery that insisted on sending me catalogs galore..... As it was the dead sticks turned out to be quite health Lombardy Poplar seedlings and once I had planted them they grew, and grew and grew and despite all the hurricanes we have had they have stayed steadfast and have now done exactly what I wanted them to do, define the line between me and my neighbor (the fact that their roots send up suckers from hell can be forgiven considering their beauty)....



When I first moved in the view from the front yard to the back was a clear shot, you could have driven a Mac truck from the front of my yard to the creek at the bottom and not hit anything to stop it, that was not my idea of fun, in fact that was my idea of a nightmare. I am an environmental sort you see, so rather than use the drier I will hang my clothes outside to dry. So it was with a great deal of trepidation that I would hang my underwear on the line know that they could be seen by every Tom, Dick and Harry that happened to wander past. So it was DH and I (okay me, DH just doing the heavy work) planted four by fours in the ground and attached trellis to them, thereby masking the back from the front. I planted honeysuckle and a Don Juan Rose at the base of said trellis and hoped for the best. As it was several (hmmmmm I think six) hurricanes made short work of the top of the trellis and a rather determined Chow-mix dog took care of the bottom. Still, what the trellis did achieve is to keep the area from being mowed on a regular basis which meant that saplings could thrive, so now I have several maples, a couple of Japanese privet and a choke cherry tree growing there, serving as support for several autumn sweet clematis and the steadfast Don Juan rose which believe it or not is still growing and blooming, albeit 60 feet up where I cannot see it. So guess what, now my skivvies are free to blow in the breeze and no one can see them.



And finally between my house and garage was a triangle shaped island that when I moved in was inhabited by a lone Japanese Maple and a sea of white rocks. The white rocks did my head in to be honest and had to go, so soon I was looking for something to do with a pile of white rocks, 12 years later I am still looking for things to do with a pile of white rocks, and as luck would have it, I have not been lost in the woods lately and needing to leave a trail for myself, what are the odds of that. In any event, I planted Azalea, moved from under the living room window, let some Japanese Privet grow and transplanted some honeysuckle.... in the ground below there are hosta and bugle weed as well as many spring bulbs and a beautiful pink crepe myrtle. It is so much prettier than a sea of white rocks....



In any event, my garden no longer looks like the parking lot at Burger King, and this evening while taking my usual evening turn around the garden I just marveled at the Poplars, about 40 feet tall right now, which started as sticks, which provide a home and perch for the birds, which shield my property from the wind and which soften the edges of an otherwise harsh, sharp pointed environment. I just love to watch things grow.

Friends are funny things, you either have them or you don't. In my life I have had several short lived friends but a couple of long lived friends. Lynn, my best friend in the whole world, I met when I was 11 and we both went to the first year of Greaves Secondary School together. We remain friends to this day, which is pretty impressive considering we are talking 35 years later, we have been through alot Lynn and I, marriages, divorces, careers, you name it and yet when I go home to England and we meet up it is like we have never been apart. My other best friend in the entire world is Ann, who became my friend in Hong Kong when I was serving in the Navy. We were inseparable then, and through e-mail are still now. As for my friends now I have my on-line friends, some of whom I have met in person one other that I have not but they are still considered my greatest friends because they support me no matter what, Toots (Linde) Judy, and Mapleman (Chuck) my friends from the gardening board have held up my butt while I have been hanging on by my fingernails on more occasions than I care to tell. Is it not wonderful that there are such people out there who are willing to be your friends... and willing to support you no matter what, and willing to encourage you in your latest endeavors.... thanks, to all of my friends, for just simply that, being my friend.

The real estate market in my area right now is, not to put too fine a point on it, red hot, particularly for single family homes valued at 200,000 or less. (they are very few and far between). The real estate market news reports that single family houses are on the market for less than 10 days and the selling price is generally 10% above listing price due to folks "outbidding" each other for the available homes. So bearing all that in mind a local real estate company (I will not name but they have a reputation for being able to sell a "dog" with lots of problems) have a TV ad right now "our guarantee" in other words if they do not get an offer for your house within 29 days you can fire them.... ROTFLMAO considering that most houses go from listing to offer withing 10 days what kind of guarantee is that? And then you can fire them? Wait a minute, I would figure that you can do that at any point you choose, ten days or no, right now you could sell a bean can so long as it had three bedrooms and two bathrooms and it was on the market for less than 200K.... in fact I have a nice garage I can sell you..... turn it into a studio with a bedroom, bathroom and combined living room/kitchen and I bet I could get a good price for it... only trouble is where would I store all my junk?

If you recall that I began a new rose bed by using the lasagna method this spring to accommodate 10 Jackson and Perkins boxed roses that for some reason Lowes was giving away for $1.00 a piece, of course I bought 12 and had to find somewhere to put them, so I created the new bed. Some of the more robust roses put on buds quite quickly and yesterday Artistry was about ready to pop, I took some shots so that I could continue my "Anticipation and Reward" series, I thought it would take a couple of days at least before I could photograph the blooms..... here is anticipation. complete with aphid, organic gardening has its drawbacks sometimes



and this evening when I got home Artistry had burst into joyous bloom, two of them, and they smelled like heaven.... you will notice the bloom also has an aphid, what can I say.....



is there anything more rewarding or more joyous than planting a stick attached to some roots and seeing this happen? I simply cannot imagine what it is (okay perhaps having a child and seeing it grow, but I haven't done that). As far as I am concerned it is one of the greatest wonders in life to plant a tiny seed, no bigger than a grain of rice, only to see it turn into a plant 6 feet tall and such as wide covered in flowers that butterflies love. I can't change the world, I can't change politics, I can't change governments but in my little acre I can do one thing, I can plant wisely to encourage and nurture wildlife and in my little way make my little acre a more beautiful portion of the planet. I have a neighbor who every morning and evening walks her dog past my garden, one day she stopped and smiled, "your yard is so pretty" she said, smiling.... I have done my job, I made someone smile.