Why I Blog

Emily at Emily's Garden wrote a post today that I thought was interesting. Why do I blog? Why do you blog?

I blog because I enjoy sharing what is going on in my yard and gardens. I have always gardened some but never enjoyed it as I do today. I call it therapy today. I like to write though I feel at a loss for words often. Blogging is fun as I get to visit other parts of the world and see what is popular or growing there.

Blogging also makes me accountable as I make lists and come up with new ideas. I need to be accountable as I tend to be on the lazy side.

Anyway that is why I blog.

Words to Live By

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. Abraham Lincoln.

I felt that this quote by Mr Lincoln spoke volumes then and so it is today. We are living in difficult times - times like we have never seen before and hope to never see again. If we do not learn from this all will be for naught. We must rise up and do everything possible to improve our own lives and purpose. Mr. Lincoln says we must rise to the occasion and so it is we rise.

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Our lives can be likened to the tight bud as change is sometimes difficult. Change comes when the old doesn't work anymore. Sometimes it is painful but worth the risk. As the bud turns into a blossom so it is with us. It is newness.

May each one of you embrace the change and roll with it and as the bud opens up so do we.

Have a nice day to all of my blogger friends. Becca

Gardening and Other Stuff

I had a good and productive weekend. How do you like my new bench compliments of my cousin who has recently moved in with me. Buddy makes a good supervisor even though he is looking the other way. He's watching.An antique wash basin stand compliments of the previous tenants.

My peaches are turning and falling to the ground before they mature. I had this problem last year and thought OK the trees need some fertilize and pruning. Done. The tree and the fruit look better than last year even though the fruit is not maturing. They are not ripe to eat. Anybody with any ideas - please speak up.

The appearance of my Johnsons Blue Geranium. Can't wait to see this baby bloom.

First appearance of cannas.

Seeds dropped by the Troy and Karma (cousins grandkids) a week ago. These seeds came from National Home Garden Club and is a mixture.

Everyone needs a garden frog. And he is doing a marvelous job in this bed.

Looks like velvet - royal purple. You can almost see these babies growing.

Ranucula planted in March. It doesn't seem to be growing like I think it should. No buds yet. Is this a finicky plant?

These petunias are putting on a very colorful show. They seem to be giving it all everyday. You can watch them grow.

I will be eating squash - I'm guessing 3-4 wks. They are not blooming yet - but once they start it'll be no time to mature. The other plants in the garden are doing remarkably well. Everything in the yard is requiring the garden hose over the past 7-9 days and there is no prediction of rain anytime soon either.

Pop said that I need to break up the dirt around the plants and pull it back in around the stems. I'm planning to get this done this coming weekend. And you can see that I have grass coming up between the rows. This is the first time for a garden in this spot so grass is to be expected. I need to pull as much as my poor body can handle this weekend.

The blueberry bush is loaded. These should mature in the next 3 weeks or so. I can almost taste the blueberry cobbler. Oh and I'll remove all of the calories and fat before eating.

My sweet little Buddy. He takes such a good picture.

We had a stranger show up on Saturday and Buddy struck up a friendship. This bull dog had escaped from her yard and was returned to her parents as soon as they came back home. Isn't she pretty. Buddy didn't care that she was more that twice his size - I really don't think Buddy knew.

On a final note I have been waiting for my magnolia's to bloom and yes they are blooming but only on the top areas of the tree. Same thing last year. I have no idea why only the tops of the trees bloom.

Anyway - Happy Gardening to all of my blogger friends and have a nice day.

The Renee Award

"The Renee Award"

It is one of the most meaningful awards in blog world because it honors someone who is incredibly inspirational in her intelligent and witty writing. And by doing so, this award celebrates women's smart, strong and inspirational spirit! It honors women who spread joy and love like an Acorn......a small package growing into a tall and sturdy oak tree which gives more acorns.............. I am so honored to receive this award from my dear bloggy friend

Carol at The Writers Porch - Link: http://thewritersporch.blogspot.com/

I am therefore honored to pass it on to some bloggy friends I think fit the bill for receiving it also!

Betsy at Joyful Reflections:

http://betsyfromtennessee.blogspot.com/

Dirt Princess at Trials and Tribulations of a Southern Gardener: http://northmobilegardensociety.blogspot.com/

Debbie at Debbie's Garden:

http://debbiesdailygarden.blogspot.com/

Darla at Family and Flowers:

http://familyandflowers.blogspot.com/

Cathy at Cobblestone Farms:

http://cobblestonefarms.blogspot.com/

Ladies you all make blogging for me a funny, enjoyable and delightful learning experience! Enjoy and pass her on!

Dirty Buddy

"Uh-Oh - Momma I wasn't digging. No I did not dig the hole. Oh the stuff on my face - I fell on the ground. What hole - Momma"
"Oh that hole - I saw a squirrel playing there."

Check out the rainbow. Click to enlarge. I am heading south on I-65 to I-10. The sun was shining and raining with a rainbow.

What I did this weekend...

I had a nice weekend working in the yard. I managed to plant these babies in pots. These can stay where they are or later incorporated into a bed. I love to put potted plants in the beds along with the in the ground flowers. These clay pots are old and have been here for many years and still mostly in tact.

After the potted plants I set out to the front yard. These are the pretties that you'll see in my completed photo.

Its always nice to have helpers in the gardens. Last week my cousin moved in with me. We have always hung out together and have a blast most of the time cracking funnies. Anyway these are two of her grandchildren who came for an overnight stay. Karma and Troy worked hard and did everything I asked them to do and did it so well.

The ground as we have just begun the tedious work of removing the sod and shaking the good soil off.

Troy wanted to help with the sod using a trowel - but my shovel had it under control.

Karma is a charm. She loves to pose for the camera. They both helped putting the plants in the ground and spreading the seeds. Actually the seeds mostly ended up in the same spot but who cares. The kids had a good time and now have the opportunity to see their plants grow. By the way I had intended on using the ground cover sheet you see but it just didn't want to cooperate in the wind so I gave it up. Maybe I'll get some mulch for this bed. All of the blank spots are filled with some of the bulbs from the dollar buys I got at the local Walmart last week.

This is my next project. Where you see the bags of soil will be the next bed.

As yet I haven't put up the fencing around the vegetable garden. I have not seen any new deer prints but they'll be back. Maybe I'll get around to the fencing this weekend. All of the garden is doing very well. Sunday looked like the bottom was going to fall out all day but never did. I just lounged all day. Felt good too.

We have not had any rain to speak of for over a week now so everything is requiring a garden hose for now.

Happy Gardening to you fellow bloggers. I just love this blog world - don't you.

My Bargains

My usual place to go during my lunch breaks is the local Walmart store. And being a gardener I just had to make a quick jaunt to the garden center to see what was new. I'm so glad I did. Look what I bought. All of these bulbs were a $1 each. Reg price was $5 and the Bleeding Heart was regular $10. So you see why I was so excited. All of the bins were picked over real bad with many empty containers so I quickly grabbed all I could handle.

This plant I have never heard of but it looks very interesting. Liatris. Anyone ever seen it?


I just had a fit over this beautiful daylily. Night Beason.

And this one - Strawberry Fields Forever Daylily. I love the color of this one. It looks peach on the package.

This is the assortment. Bleeding Heart. Rudbekia, Phlox, Daylilies, Cannas.

Here are some plants I bought. I thought $2.25 was not a bad price for this size container. The rust color marigold is different. The small dahlia is pretty with its peach and orange blooms.

I couldn't let you go without sharing another picture of the gorgeous azalea. Still I haven't been able to find out what kind this is - but these beautiful blooms look like a rose. This bush has buds and flowers all over it.

Had to get another shot of the flower garden filling out some now. They are all full of buds after giving them some Bloom Burst this past weekend.

My little Buddy was just too tired for anymore work. He said he was busy all day guarding the place.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend. Many will be having some nice weather - but I heard that some may be experiencing snow and rain. Rain is expected here over the weekend so I'll be busy trying to dodge showers. Hope I can get this stuff planted this weekend. Oh and also put up some rig for the deer to stay out of garden areas.

What I Found in The Garden

I found the squash are doing remarkably well. They have grown at least 3" since I put them in the ground. That is a deer print to the left.



Doesn't this baby look good. Peas poking out to the sun. I love to see the baby just as it breaks the surface - and rolls the dirt back. It took 7 days for most to make show and I think that is pretty good.

The butter beans are popping up. All of the seeds that I planted on April 5th have broken the surface.

If you enlarge this photo you can clearly see the green popping out all over the garden. I expect next week I'll be showing the seeds that I planted this past weekend.

This is the row of yellow crook neck squash doing very well. My mouth is already watering for squash, green onion and butter. Hmmm

Yep this is the deer checking to see what may be coming up for dinner. I think the contraption that I am going to put together for the "fencing" will have to go up. I have in my head what I am going to do. After I get it up I'll post pictures and let you know how well it is working.

I counted 3 set of deer prints. I appeared to be a lightweight while the others were a medium and a large.

Hope you all have a nice day working in the gardens on this beautiful day and we'll look for the photos.

Lighthouses

I am fascinated by lighthouses. I have a collection of lighthouses in my home.

Despite the fact that Alabama has the shortest coastline of any Gulf Coast state, it has the largest Bay - Mobile Bay. Early on during the War of 1812 the United States took control of the bay. Work began at this point in 1819 building the fort known as Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay. The first lighthouse completed in 1822 cost $9,995. The lights were finally lit on Sept 29, 1822.

In 1864 at 7:30 in the morning a fleet of ships commanded by Admiral Farragut approached the entrance into Mobile Bay. The ship The Tecumseh sank. It was at this critical time that Admiral Farragut gave the famous command "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
The first lighthouse was destroyed during the war and another was built in it's place. It was at this time a new dwelling was built for the lighthouse keeper. The keepers complained about that the military was harrassing them. On one such conflict in 1887 the chief engineer in Mobile sent a letter to the fort's ordinance sargeant notifying him that the word was that the wife of the lighthouse keeper was living in the quarter at Fort Morgan. ( A little hanky panky goin on.) A new steel skeletal tower was built in 1963 after the other was torn down.

The Mobile Point Lightouse today. This lighthouse is currently located at Fort Morgan in downtown Mobile.

Captain John Grant at the age of 25 was known as the "Father of the Gulf Coast Transportation" and single handedly improved access to Mobile Bay by dredging the Bay. The channel was dredged to to a depth of 17 feet and made way for larger vessels to enter the Mobile Bay. This prompted the construction of another light house located in the middle of the Bay and thus became The Middle Bay lighthouse. The house was prefabricated in the north, this due to the high labor cost in post-Civil-War South era. The lighthouse arrived in 1885.

During World War 1 the Keeper and his wife had a baby at the lighthouse. The mother was unable to produce enough milk to nurse the infant. Instead of the mother and child being sent to shore a small coral was created on the lighthouse and a milk cow was transported to the lighthouse.

In 1967 the Coast Guard received permission to demolish the lighthouse. Several organizations rallied together to prevent this from happening. A major restoration project ensued. With a grant of $349,400 Thompson Engineering initiated the restoration of the Middle Bay Lighthouse. At the top of the lighthouse the red flashing light was replaced by a six foot pole with a solar powered red light.

It has been proposed that the lighthouse be moved to Battleship Park for visitors to tour. Battleship Park is home to the USS Alabama and the USS Drum which are already attractions and bring in about 300,000 visitors each year.

Middle Bay Lighthouse today.

Dauphin Island is home to the Sand Island Lighthouse. During the early 1800's when the structure was built in occupied 400 acres. Today it is down to less than an acre. In 1837 Congress allotted $10000 for improvements to the lighthouse. By 1848 it had become apparent the the island was losing ground. In 1863 John W. Glenn, a confederate leader, placed 70 tons of gun powder under the tower and lit the fuse. A temporary lighthouse was built and then 9 years later a permanent structure was built and put on operation in 1870. By 1888 only 10 feet of sand separated the lighthouse from the Gulf. Rather than abandon the lighthouse jetties were built in the gulf and 1600 tons of granite were placed around the tower. In 1906 a powerful hurricane hit the gulf coast and a telegram was sent describing the damage: "Sand Island light out. Island washed away. Dwelling gone. Keepers not to be found." Keepers were forced to live in the base of the tower until a new dwelling was built in 1925. In 1973 the structure burned down.

Due to regulations the ownership of the lighthouse had to be transferred from the federal government to Alabama Historical Commission. The Alabama Historical Comm regected an offer of the lighthouse saying that it would cost too much to restore. That is when the town of Dauphin Island stepped up to obtain ownership in 2003.

Sand Island lighthouse today.

I have not toured any of these lighthouses personally due to the fact they are only accessible by boat. That does not change my fascination with lighthouses.