SKY WATCH FRIDAY

Dot of Strolling through Georgia has come up with a lovely idea..........

I love taking photos of the sky (some I print out and use decorate my walls) and so am happy to add one of my photos to this theme day...................

SKY WATCH BLOGROLL

I'm off for a few days now.....the house sitters are on watch and fully alert....I've just time for a "CHANGES" photo...(view of the garden from the same place once a month)Have a great weekend everyone........see you next week!

CHANGES

After my "Changes" failure photo last Sunday I had another go.........

September -now

August

July

June

February

A collage of overhead views....the top two are the front garden...the bottom two the back garden. The third photo was taken at almost noon....you can see how little morning sun the back garden gets at this time of the year. In fact the lower 2/3rds of the garden towards the house now gets no sun at all.

One of the benefits of a warm, dry day yesterday was that I could my homework/studying in the garden!
So much nicer than been cooped up indoors. I've finished it all now so today I'll have time for some pottering......YIPPEE!!! .........as long as the weather holds........................

GREEN THUMB SUNDAY - FAILURES

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GREEN THUMB SUNDAY BLOGROLL

I was reading Katya's Life In The Bristolwood blog the other day and she mentioned she'd lost her Asters this year. As we enter Autumn I thought it only fair to tell you about some of the failures in my garden this year.



First the Brugmansia...I have 3 of them and not one single flower bud!!!.....I'd like to blame it on the weather but Libby seems to have had no problems with hers........she has some fabulous photos in her header and throughout her blog.





My Daylily which had flowers like this on last year.....


this year.......nothing!





Even the double Busy Lizzies seem jaded compared to the ones last year....

though looking at this photo from last year I see the slugs had their fill of the Hosta!My indoor plant Curcuma never came back this year.....these are photos from last year
My Bourgainvillea last year...............

This year...................
Although most of the Clematis have done really well.........the Dr Ruppel and Texansis have both succumbed to mildew and never had a second flush....
and Bill McKenzie started to shoot beautifully in the early Spring and then keeled over and died. How I miss the nodding yellow bells of last year.

And of course there are the Photo failures....this was supposed to be my CHANGES (view from same place each month) photo for September! Don't think I kept the camera very steady.........

I try not to get to despondant at the failures though it is upsetting when you lose something special......and there's always NEXT YEAR to look forward to.

BLOOMING BRILLIANT!

Having had some fun days out I've not caught up with last week's newly bloomed flowers....it still surprises me that there's something new to see each week!

It's also time to do another "changes" photo...these are photos taken from approximately the same position at different times of the year. The first of these two is a "NOW" photo, the other a photo from February.


and FINALLY!!!!!!...one of the Cannas in the front garden is starting to flower...this is the latest they've ever started flowering and I'd almost given up on seeing a bloom this year.....

Before I go (Manda, Nicole and I are off to Colchester to see Leanne & co)...a quick plug for Gledwoods new blog........ANIMAL CRACKERS lots of funny and cutesy animal videos...the EPISODE OF 24 ACTED BY A RABBIT is so funny!!!

and a another quickie under the label of "That's new to me".....I've eaten Okra but never grown it...not even sure if we could in England. When I dropped by Dot's blog STROLLING THROUGH GEORGIA this morning she has posted a photo of an Okra bloom......if you've never seen one please take a look...it's stunning.

THAT'S NEW TO ME 4 & 5!

In my comment box the other day Women On The Verge left the comment "I like your grasshopper photo! It reminds me of a shot I took of a Great Golden Digger Wasp on my asclepia." My curiosity was immediately aroused as I'd never heard of the insect or the plant!Thanks to Wikipedia I found the following information and photos;

Digger wasps are cosmopolitan predators that can sting and paralyze prey insects. In preparation for egg laying they construct a protected "nest" (some species dig nests in the ground, while others use pre-existing holes) and then stock it with captured insects. Typically the prey are left alive, but paralyzed by wasp toxins. The wasps lay their eggs in the provisioned nest. When the wasp larvae hatch, they feed on the paralyzed insects. A well-known species of digger wasp is the great golden digger (Sphex ichneumoneus) which is found in North America. The developing wasps spend the winter in their nest. When the new generation of adults emerge, they contain the genetically-programmed behaviors that are required to carry out another season of nest building. During the summer, a female might build as many as half a dozen nests, each with several compartments for her eggs. The building and provisioning of the nests takes place in a stereotypical, step-by-step fashion.

Asclepia L., the milkweed,is a herbaceous that contains over 140 known species and is classified as part of the dogbane family. Milkweeds are an important nectar source for bees and other nectar seeking insects, and a larval food source for monarch butterflies and their relatives, as well as a variety of other herbivorous insects specialized to feed on the plants despite their chemical defenses. Milkweed is named for its milky juice and some species are known to be toxic. Strangely enough though Carolus Linnaeus named the genus after Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, because of the many folk-medicinal uses for the milkweed plants.

As I read this information I thought "this reminds me so much of Euphorbia" and sure enough when I looked at the botanical "class"(Magnoliopsida) and "division" they were same....a bit like having the same great grandparents but developing your own characteristics.

I'm not exactly sure which form of Ascepia W.o.t.V had but this is a photo of one that truly proves what a nectar bar it is.

Speaking of insects....I took a photo of this bee in our garden yesterday afternoon....I'm not sure if it is trying to build a nest, the hole is really small and in the concrete post of the fence....I think it more likely it was sheltering from the weather....................and with black skies like this looming I'm not surprised!
I did say at the beginning of June that I'd take regular photos of the garden from one particular angle just to see how it changes......

FEBRUARY
JUNE 2ND
JULY 4TH

Despite the unseasonal weather everything is still growing and I hear from the weatherman that things may be set to improve!!

CHANGES

A little while ago Gledwood suggested in my comment box that I take some photos from the same angle throughout the year to see how things change; so this morning after I'd taken a few photos I thought I'd have a look through the archives and see if I had any taken from a similar aspect.......I came across one taken at the beginning of February....things have certainly changed a bit in 4 months!