Wednesday in Pictures

My day started with outdoor chores and a decision to pot up individual Aloe Vera plants from a large overflowing pot. It took quite a while to gather the small pots, fill them with soil and do the transplant. I ended up with 39 pots. Oh my, what was I thinking? What in the world am I going to do with all these plants?

Following all this activity, I was hungry and decided to concoct something for lunch. I ended up making a salad of sorts, composed of black beans, corn, black olives, onion, mango, pickled red peppers, tomato, avocado, vinegar, and a bit of sugar, salt, black pepper, chili pepper and Italian seasoning. Oh, it was wonderful. Fortunately, it made into a large bowl so I look forward to leftovers!

Bon Appetit!

Here are just a few flower pictures during these waning days of summer:

Garlic chives. I have tons of these and use all summer long as a garnish for baked potatoes. Better than regular chives if you like the taste of garlic.  I also chop and freeze for winter use.

 Night-blooming cereus -- another white, fragrant and night-blooming flower. The foliage is cactus-like in nature -- very unruly -- and you wonder why you endure the ugliness of the plant, that is, until it blooms! It is magnificant! My original and much larger plant had seven blooms one year, but I lost it when there was an early and unexpected frost. My current plant is still relatively small and produced only one bloom this year.

This bloom was about 10 inches across.

The bud unfolds after dark and remains open until midday (similar in nature to the Moon Flower I posted about a few days ago). 

And here's the bloom at mid-day after all its magnificence has past.

Because of its errant nature, I planted the Night Blooming Cereus in a hanging basket and bring it into the sun room for the winter.  The plant does best in filtered shade, which is why I have it on a tree limb. It's neat that in this photo the shadow of the foliage and bloom are on the tree!

Peacock Lily, another fragrant plant.

White petunia

Hydrangea. This photo reminds me of a cluster of violets. Love the colors!

Lantana. Butterflies love this one.

Plume plant. This is not the correct name (I once knew it but have now forgotten. It was grown by my grandmother in a pot on her front porch (this is not a cutting passed down from her plant, however).

As you know, I have developed a recent interest in the mushrooms that spring up on the damp soil in our woods, and have been photographing as many different varieties as I can find. Below are some recent shots:

Growing in a flower pot

It really is a mushroom, not a golf ball!

And finally, I give you Valerie, a most difficult dog to photograph! (Kris, on the other hand, is easy to photograph, as he's always underfoot and posing for the camera).  Shown here with a leaf in her mouth (she likes to bring one inside as a present to her "Mommy." So sweet! Of course, she drops it immediately at my feet AFTER we come inside.