Gone To The Beach: 07.10.2023

Monday, July 10, 2023

The First Zinnia Has Bloomed

Hello hello everyone, on a dreary late Sunday in July.

The oddly placed holiday has me confused, should have posted Friday, but I figure no one cares/ we're hot, tired/ busy, am I right?

The first zinnia bloomed just before the 4th. Planted June 1, flowers by July 1.

Every morning Mo and I hurry out to the deck for his pit stop, pre-walkies. [He has a potty station.].

We take deep breaths, check out the waves, the ocean, the ships---and in the summer, it is such a great joy to discover what is growing, what has bloomed.

I put up the umbrella and Mo naps, even though he just woke up. He is after all a Pug.

The coreopsis--volunteers in their fourth and third years, are, I think, g0rgeous. Just the happiest, free-est, most charming flowers I have ever grown.

I have classic yellow,

and now profusely, the cutie painted variety

Sadly the red lilies, 10 plus year survivors, and the cannas from last year that grew as perennials in these big old pots, have not reappeared. I miss them, both were Mothers Day gifts from my son.

But I'm very pleased with the early seeds of cosmos. Usually cosmos doesn't bloom for me til Fall, but these Dollar Store seed packets said ''early bloom''. No disappointment for 59 cents. Quite a few more, in assorted colors, have bloomed since I took these photos just a day or two ago.

In this corner I'm babying along the supposedly blue amaryllis bulb. It was very small on arrival last winter, may need a few years. Will it actually be blue?

This is my wildflower meadow pot.

I have a sunflower! Yay. And a pretty blue thing that I have no picture of. An herb of some sort.

And lots of this plant! Is it a weed ? an herb? What.

My zinnias, pots large and small.

Just starting, crisply green at this point.

Traditional marigolds:

And this very sweet very red tiny--zinnia?

I thought it is a Lilliput Zinnia, but today I was staring at the stalks and leaves. I thought, "Very weed-like for zinnias, not typical. How odd.'' And a moment of sudden realization. These are the hilariously named Tithonia Torch, sounds like a pole dancer in a men's club!--aka Mexican ''sunflowers". HERE

The blurb says they may grow 4 feet tall! And attract pollinators: butterflies, bees, hummingbirds. How exciting. Another Dollar Store find.

I like them a lot. . Aren't they adorable, tint and cute, NOT zinnias.

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We have had iffy weather and I'm not doing a good job of getting in the afternoon sewing groove. We went pretty much overnight from chilly and windy to too warm, almost hot. But worse: HUMID. I used to argue with my ex husband that we needed to air condition for the humidity as much as for the heat. I actually don't mind hot so much, but I hate when the walls drip and the beds feel wet. Most of my furniture has drip marks, salt and humidity [bec obviously ex won the AC battle, lol.]

So Poor Mo has had a few indoor days. This was a smoke alert day. He is sulking with his dollies. And you can see the creamy white worn floor gets much darker in the wood's grooves, when damp.

The house is blue and white again, though not really tweaked into summer vibe yet. I was gifted with a fabulous new vacuum, hint hint hint. This unpleasant sight is one run over the living room rug this morning. The cleaners came just over a week ago. Mo and his pug glitter have prevailed. The new vac is very cool.