>Water, water, everywhere!

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This is a photo of Mansfield Dam, which has four floodgates open right now to lower the levels in the lakes above it. So we had to o see it the other night since this is the highest Lake Travis has been in over a decade. They have a boating ban on Lake Travis through July 4 because the water is so high and there is so much debris from flooding under the surface. Travis rose 5 feet over a 36 hour period last week!

And the mosquitoes are horrific. You can not set foot outside without bug spray. Those awful Asian Tiger mosquitoes…so big I can see the stripes on their bodies. Yuck!

>Yellowjackets

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Gardening has been curtailed for the last week as we discovered and have been dealing with a nest of yellow jackets just beyond our fence. Note to self, weed wacking around a yellow jackets nest does not make them happy, as both John and I found out.

On the veggie garden front, the first official cucumber of the season has been picked and eaten. Here are some of them just getting their start in the garden about 2 weeks ago.

>June 6, 2007

>What a gorgeous way to start the day to unexpectedly run into this canna bloom on my walk around the yard. My cannas are adopted, passalongs, whatever. I have some from a dear friend who was thinning his and had them stacked in the driveway when I visited. I mentioned them and he told me they were easy, just throw them in the ground, and would I like some. So off on my canna adventure I embarked. I have bought a few red ones along the way. I have also mixed in some ginger lilies from my father’s garden.

So, after seeing this bloom, I was inspired to visit my canna orphanage along the driveway, where I stuck all the cannas I dug up from my old house, because I couldn’t stomach leaving them for someone who would not appreciate them. First orphaned in the vegetable garden to grow a season, then dug up and left in a gardening cart for 3 months, then finally settled into an orphanage plot next to the driveway, they have steadily continued to grow despite the shoddy treatment. But I discovered on my visit that some of my “friends” have been munching on them. So I dug up about half and moved them inside the fence to join this beauty and give me more joy. Who knows what color they will be?

>June 5, 2007

>Lots of bright colors- really it is not what I am good at. I’m more of a muted, fall color type-of-gal. So when these zinnias, courtesy of the previous owner, started popping up in fuchsias and oranges, I thought “yuck”. I just wasn’t sure what to expect. But either out of curiosity or laziness, I let them bloom. And oh my, what a show they are putting on for me. Like they are pulling out all the stops, begging me “Yes, you can love us. Let us come back year after year.” And I think they have me convinced.

Here is my parade of colors.

>June 1, 2007

>A small friend joined me in the front yard this afternoon as I was gardening. I think this is the same little one I have seen snoozing by my vegetable garden. I wonder where his mama is as the times I have seen him, no doe is near.