Dragon's Orchid Garden

Three weeks of drought end with three days of rain.  We had two and a half inches on Monday, a lot of clouds and sprinkles Tuesday, and today we have ominous skies, gusty winds, swirling clouds, thunder, lightning, and more heavy rain.  The forecast tomorrow is for up to 70 mph gusts, thunder storms, and we have a tornado watch.  I guess I shouldn't have done that rain dance. Most Native Floridians I know complain about this kind of extended rainy weather.  I adore it.  I can do without tornadoes and hail, though, thankyouverymuch.  This is good for the garden.  It was thirsty. I have tomorrow and Friday off.  Tomorrow's forecast bodes well for a day of watching the extended version of Lord of the Rings and knitting like a maniac trying to finish the gift for my dear mother-in-law.  Dora Lee turns 80 on April 2nd. Happy birthday, Mom.  Dora is an amazing woman who runs a drinking establishment in northwestern Florida.  She t...

Spring in Florida is marked by rampant growth in our garden. Everything is popping up or in bud or coming back from what we thought was dead after several hard freezes this winter. The only thing we need now is rain. It has been dry for almost 3 weeks. Rain is due to move in sometime after midnight tonight and I am very happy about that. I miss the sound of it. Wayne and I have had the urge to change things. Renewing the outdoor living room by putting down a rug, new cushions for the rocking chairs and a "grass" (recycled plastic bag) umbrella for the picnic table. Wayne was so enthused by the urge for change that he moved all of the furniture in our bedroom while I was at work last Saturday. When I came home, he seemed a little sheepish. Why? He thought I wouldn't like it. What's not to like about a guy who moves furniture so he can banish dust bunnies that aggravate his significant other's allergies? The bed is now east/west in the room instead of ...

This is the lovely Kayla wearing the hat I made for her. Posing with her is her handsome boyfriend, Chris, who is in the US Navy and was given leave to attend Kayla's senior prom. From family and friends I'll add that my friend Jimi (Kayla's grandmother) took this picture. Thank you, Jimi. Now, if only I could get my sister and my son to send me pictures of them wearing the knitted items I slaved over...

I took my Panasonic Lumix and tripod out to the yard tonight to try to get a great picture of the moon at apogee . It was just rising over the trees and is the closest it has been to earth as a full moon in 18 years. I used at least 5 different settings, but found I miss my old manual 35 mm for this. The one thing I did not do is find the manual focus. That would have done it maybe. I still think the picture is kind of nice, with the focus on my house and the lights inside. I did a better job when the moon was in eclipse . From Blogger Pictures Mara , I took your advice even before I read it! I'm fascinated with astronomy, especially moons. Twice a year we host a Star Party at my library. I am honored to host the St. Petersburg Astronomy Club volunteers who bring their big BIG telescopes out for everyone to look through. Our next Star Party will be in November (damn you, Daylight Savings Time!).

It's finally warm weather and we're cleaning up the yard.  There are a gazillion oak leaves and 500 bazillion acorns everywhere. From Blogger Pictures It seems there is a tool for picking up all of those acorns.  I knew someone must have invented a nut-picker-upper .  The folks at the local home improvement store had never heard of such a thing.  "Sounds like a good idea", they said.  Our acorns are small, and the description on Amazon doesn't say exactly what size nuts it picks up.  We may continue to rake and shovel them. Of course, the leaves go into the compost bin.  Acorns will sprout and grow, so we can't put those in the compost . We've had a compost bin for years. We keep adding kitchen scraps to it and leaves and turning it and at one time it was 1/2 full, and now it's just a couple of inches of not really great stuff to use on the garden. We discovered that we are doing a couple of things incorrectly. The bin was a bit large for t...

With the return of warm weather, I am out taking pictures of flowers.  It is late afternoon and the sun is shining just so through the purple spotted phalaeonopsis, setting it aglow. From Sunlight through Orchids