The Young and the Restless - MESSAGE BOARDS

I wish there was some way of getting news. I suppose I could track down the cousin who owns the Australian Tiffani but hesitate to invade her privacy.

So, I guess we will just have to wait til Wombat is up & about & can use her computer. Maybe we will hear something by Sunday.

I guess we had a little weather drama last night.I found a cooler out in the front yard & Sasha's metal food bowl disappeared entirely. A lot of the glads are down or leaning. I might has well pick them & fill the house with them. Snails will eat them lying down. The only trouble is you have to pinch the finished blooms every day & I already have a dozen of them in the house. There are at least two dozen more.
The rain washed a lot of spent blooms off the day lilies & boy oh boy do I have seed pods. I thought my pollinations were not working but there are 11 pods on Steely Blue Eyes. It is a huge clump but I had better give them all some Miracle Grow. Making seeds takes a lot out of them. There is even a pod on Ruby Spider, a large flamboyant scarlet with a large yellow eye zone. I have been trying to breed it for years. The pod may abort but it is nice & green now. And there are 3 flowers on it. One looked different and it is. It has NINE petals instead of the usual 6. There are several pods on Blue Bird Sky which is an extra tall lavender & pale yellow UFO (I like the name & the fact that I do not have to bend over to enjoy it). Since they bloomed so early, I hope some of the pods are mature before we leave for our vacations or they will pop open & be lost.
Yesterday, Prince Vlad bloomed. Bright burnt orange with red veins & a black heart. (lol. I named it. It was a seedling I bought but the breeder does not care. He just asked that I give him credit if I register it.)
I need to take some pictures so I can send Wombat an image of the day lily I name after her. I had a digital camera but my daughter carried it off & lost it. I guess I will have to try to catch the lighting and the bloom compatible at the same time & use my battered old Nikon.

Hello all ... I'm doing a strong visual of Carmel beginning her long healing process. I hope she knows we are holding her hand, & surrounding her with friendship.

Blue, what would we do without our fearless leader? Thanks for sharing bits of your daily life with us. It's such a good way to start the day. A big cyber hug to all our Kritter friends; may you be blessed today.

Another tidbit of garden news. There is one stalk of small glads that is bright yellow with the jazziest little red lip. I don't remember seeing it before. Maybe it is a mutation. Also, 2 stalks in the bed out front that are dark, dark solid purple. Off I go with my sun hat, shades, a plate to put the pollinators on & a bucket of Miracle Glo.
Grammy, sweet of you to say, but I am perhaps fearless in the sense that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread".
Country Mom, if you are out there, I am worrying about you too. Blessings on us all today and every day. Annal, I hope you are resting up & getting strong for your trip to London.
Gramma Pam, I will be thinking about you too.

Good night all. Pleasant dreams.

Good morning. Here is a hot pot of Brazilian Minas Gerais coffee, some home made apple jacks (mmmm), a pitcher of peach tea, and canteloupe slices. Have a good day.
The pollen was damp yesterday and would not stick to the pistils so I missed a day of pollinating. I need to get to it early today b/c the pattern seems to be showers in the afternoon, then rain all night. Sasha nearly drove me crazy last night. He wanted to crawl up into my lap while I was doing genealogy work on the computer. He smells bad b/c I can't wash him & he bites. Why does he think I would want him in my lap. I was afraid he would try to crawl in the bed with me but the thunder finally quit & he settled down.
As soon as the rains stop, I think I am going to scrape up some money & take him to a grooming shop & tell them to muzzle him & clip him close. That may how he got lost to begin with though. When he showed up in the neighborhood someone had shaved everything except his head & legs. Maybe he went crazee & escaped from the groomer.

I just saw a big dragonfly, blue and black. I hope he is over here to hunt mosquitos. There is a large pond across the road.
Scads of gorgeous daylilies today. Most of the ones with the intricate gold ruffled edges are blooming today, including a rose-gold one with lots of gold metallic in the ruffled edges. It is a seedling tht I call "Sweet Virgin Queen Betsy". Most of the lavender/white/blues have ornate edges with a lot of silver metallic in the ruffles & they are a-bloom today too. Some new ones today that had not bloomed yet. I have a gorgeous row of mid-bloom ones named after my mother, aunts, etc. Most of them are pastels: pinks, lavenders, pale apricot-all showey & lovely. I have "kids" from most of them too. The one I call Valentin's Red is blooming today & it is a big bright red of course. Ruby Spider still has its one little pod. Druid's Chant (purple & lavender) & a seedling off it tht I call Druid's Child. Another Prince Vlad. All the ones with the bluest hearts.
There is a big rich rose colored one w gold accents that I call Tamara (after V's sister) and it has a good "growth habit" (meaning it has made a huge clump-some of my most expensive daylilies are still 2 or 3 measley little fans as they were when I bought them) & is a good pod parent. I breed all the fancy stuff to it & it sets seeds for me by the hundreds. It is also nearly waist high so it helps the "shorties" out. For years some of the prettiest new daylilies were very low to the ground. I hate that! I like them up where we can see it each other better. I still use the short ones but always to a tall pod parent. Eventually I will be growing five foot beauties (I hope).
Have a good day. Lots of lively threads on the boards but it's hard to stay out of trouble if I go out there & joke around.

I know some of you must think I am a total loon to be so koo-koo over daylilies. That would be true if there were only "landscaping" daylilies (Stella d'oro, etc) but if you have not seen the avant garde varieties, please humor me & go to www.daylilydiary.com (this is aka Charlotte's Daylily Diary) & click on 3 of my favorite hybridizers: Mary & Phil Gaskins; James Gossard; and Ludlow Lambertson. You will see some beautiful stuff.

We have so many mocking birds. They have their nests in the camellias, which are dense enough to provide shelter. Each pair has one strip of lawn that they "own" & they fight over territory. After I mow, they are all over the grass looking for bugs & seeds.
Yesterday I saw a male blue bird in my yard too. They eat mostly insects so don't always stay the winter unless it is a very mild one but they have some nesting boxes across the street near the pond & I think they stayed over this year. The males are the ones with the bright blue coats & the reddish vests. The females have more subdued coloring but are pretty too in a more modest fashion. God never made a prettier creation than the blue bird. They usually raise two batches. The kids from the first batch help their parents raise & feed the second batch. I guess it is good training for them b/c they will have their own nests the next year but it looks so sweet to see them together as a family.
I started to pick a Darla Anita yesterday and there was a young green preying mantis on it so I left that one. They used to lay their egg cases in the garden & at the end of the summer I would cut them off & tie the twig with it attached to a camellia or a peach limb. Now, even though they come to the garden to hunt bugs, they lay the egg cases in the peach trees & in the camellias where they will be safe from the tiller. They must have a homing instinct like fish & birds.

Wonderful news!!!! Carmel is already out of the hospital. She says she is one sick, sore, bedraggled little wombat but she came thru it ok. They did not take the whole lung. It sounds like they took a section, plus a lot of lymph nodes to check for any mets. That is still quite a surgery but she says she came thru it ok. I think the drains are out. She says the animals are okay. She had hoped to get out in 5 days but she got out in 3.
Woo Hoo!!!!!
Don't look for her to post for a while. She needs to rest & regroup. I am so relieved tht she came thru it so well. God does answer prayers.