Saturday, September 17, 2011

Slices of Friday

Most of yesterday was spent on small tasks to get ready for the art event that we are having here today.  The morning started in the garden as it almost always does, but not in my garden this time ... I went next door to Hartwood Winery to their garden first.

I didn't go over there to photograph butterflies ... but, I had camera in hand, and the butterfly was right there ... I had to do it.


My neighbor had told me that one of his plants was infested with yellow aphids.  Since I had never seen or heard of yellow aphids, I HAD to see this for myself.  Sure enough ... yellow aphids.  A quick Google search found that these are called Oleander Aphids, and they are a pest of milkweed ... which was what they were infesting in the winery garden.  This truly proves that we CAN learn something new every day, if we are just open to it.

Icky aphid photo.


In my own garden, I found a perfect flower on Blossomtime rising above the weeds that still choke that area of the Rose Field.



I was back in that portion of the garden to FINALLY install blue wine bottles on my bottle trees that flank the entry to the Austin Garden.  I have never shown these to you, because they didn't have any bottles on them, because I hadn't removed the labels from the bottles I have been collecting for the past two years.  A couple of hours of work over the past few days, and I cleaned up my 40 bottles and I arranged them onto the welded rebar structures.  I still need more bottles, but at least I have enough now to look pretty respectable.



The sky over toward the vineyard looked for a while like we were going to have a storm, but we didn't.  Though it never came, it sure made for a pretty picture.



With my outside work taken care of, it was time to go grocery shopping ... but I made a trip to the thrift store first.  This fantastic little solid wood two-drawer chest was too good to pass up.



While I was grocery shopping, I saw this display of t-shirts in the Halloween department. 



Back at home, I was putting away groceries while Dorothy slept on the church pew in our dining room.  At least it LOOKED like she was asleep, curled up there on the baby quilt.  Looking closer, I realized that she was playing 'possum and one of her eyes was wide open.



We have an hour and a half to get the final preparations in place for today's art event.  Let's hope that lots of artists, and art lovers, come today to support canine cancer research.  Speaking of canine cancer, I heard from my friend Kim that her dog TJ went for his quarterly chest x-ray on Thursday.  (TJ is 16 months post amputation for osteosarcoma.)  One of the most common places for osteosarcoma to metastisize is to the lungs.  His lungs are clear, his attitude is great, and he will be here today to greet our guests.

I'd better hush and go get things ready.

11 comments:

  1. YAY TJ... and how about that kitty playing possum! Too cute. The storm clouds over the grapevines is just wonderful! My sister lives in Calif. and they have lots of wineries in her area as well. Time to pay her a visit perhaps? Enjoy your day!!

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  2. Busy busy! You got some great photos, I love the 'playing possum' and I think that rose photo is one of the best ever! Hope you event is a huge success.
    hugs, Linda

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  3. Connie, you gave me a great lesson. Carry a camera with me at all times everywhere! How many 'slices' of my day do I not notice simply because I'm not ready to record them. Congrats to TJ for his wonderful report, and isn't Dorothy cute on her trip to lala land.

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  4. What a beautiful butterfly. But those aphids! Scary! I've never seen so many! And they look even more scary in yellow! Your Blossomtime rose is so pretty. I just love the different shades of color in a rose bloom.

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  5. The aphids don't look all that icky in your photo. They just look interesting. It's when I think about them that they are icky.

    I have a thing for clouds and those are both beautiful and ominous. We had some today, but they passed on by and left nothing behind in the way of rain. Even had some brief thunder.

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  6. How many years did it take you to drink all that wine to get those blue bottles? I hope the art event was spectaclar. Love the vinyard photo.

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  7. Love the bottle tree, the roses, your cute kitty -- the aphids, not so much. We have those too. The aphids, I mean. Yucky!!

    Thanks for sharing your mantis story. Hilarious! :)

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  8. I was itching to pinch those aphids right off that plant! Love the picture of your kitty.

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  9. Good news on TJ's exam.

    Beautiful rose and kitty photos!

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  10. Connie, my milkweed gets decimated every year by those ugly yellow aphids. I usually use my fingers to get them off (Yuck) but a day or two later they are again covered. I do get some monarchs, but usually the poor plants are destroyed by the time they are here. One year I had a few Monarch cats that I hope were able to survive.

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  11. Wow, what a talented team you two make. The greyhound painting was so much better that the photo.
    I had to check out your blog after I saw 800 roses on your bio. What an achievement.
    And the bottle, the bottle tree is the most impressive I have seen to date. What kind of bottle they are?

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