Thursday, July 9, 2020

From the camera roll this week...

The zinnias in front of our school are blooming again this year. They reseeded themselves!


George and Ginger playing with one of the toys Parsnip sent! They play like wild beasts every single night after supper. 

Did anyone else see the beautiful July full moon last weekend? It was almost as bright as the sun when it first appeared in the East.
Heirloom and Hybrid tomatoes at the farm stand.


More vegetables from the farm stand being transformed into dinner.
Banana Pudding: a delicious, cool dessert in the summertime.



A friend sent me small banana tree shoots he dug up from around his pond. They're growing like crazy in the large pots I put them in. They're bound for the sheltered South-facing wall in the back yard, next to our Pomegranate tree. You can also see the large leaves on the fig cuttings I'm growing out in this photo. By next spring I'll have a good size Brown Turkey fig tree to plant in the back yard, too.

My orchids are still happy on the back porch.

The ficus tree is also growing well on the porch. It's going to be difficult fitting it back in the house this winter!

Our five Crepe Myrtle trees are finally blooming!



37 comments:

  1. no crape myrtle blooms here yet; next month, I guess.
    the zinnias are lovely colors.
    I WANT SOME BANANANANA PUDDING!
    tuesday night, the moon came up orange at 11p; the most gorgeous thing I have seen all week.
    we have been eating fresh strawberry shortcakes this week.

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    Replies
    1. Mmmm...strawberry shortcakes! Yum! Our strawberries are long gone. April and May are the months for strawberries this far south. In July we're getting peaches and watermelons and occasionally you'll see (hideously expensive) blackberries at the market.

      Make some banana pudding, woman! It's easy. I use instant pudding (banana crème flavor) layered with the wafers and sliced bananas. Gregg loves it so much I have to make huge batches of it, and even so it's gone in a couple of days.

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  2. So many pretty photos. I love to see happy dogs playing. Yes, I saw the full moon and it was beautiful.

    Love,
    Janie

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    Replies
    1. My moon photos weren't very good. I only have my phone camera and that's far from ideal. But yes, the moon was lovely!

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  3. The crepe myrtles are lovely. Maybe you could get or build a four wheeled base for the ficus tree.

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    Replies
    1. We have one already! A little square base on wheels to roll it around when it's inside the house. The problem is going to be how much it's stretched out and grown this summer. I'm not sure it's going to fit back in the place where we had it inside.

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  4. You have taken a wonderful collection of colorful summer pictures! The dogs are really having fun with their new toy. You have made me hungry for banana pudding with bananas and vanilla wafers! I have not had that in years and I love it. Perfect comfort food! You must have a green thumb by the looks of all you have growing. That ficus is gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Georgie loves those toys and he will BEG Ginger to play with him!

      We're so glad that he's around to keep her active now that she's getting older.

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    2. Franklin begs Penelope to play with him although he's the senior dog.

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  5. Gorgeous, all of them! So, you'll have your very own bananas to pick, along with figs and pomegranates... how lovely and exotic that sounds to me.
    Will your ficus tree have to come in for winter? I didn't think it gets all that cold and frosty in your area, but then I suppose you never really know what the weather is going to do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, one bundle of banana shoots is supposed to be ornamental, and the other bundle is supposed to be an edible variety, but I have no idea which is which or even how true that is. A friend got them from a friend for me and didn't have many details. I'm hoping they can survive our winter. We're zone 8 here, and while 9 months out of the year tropicals can do just fine, we DO occasionally have temperatures well below freezing throughout the winter. I'm hoping that a sheltered, sunny, South-facing corner of the backyard will give them enough protection to survive. The pomegranate is over there and it's growing like gangbusters! Although it's pretty big now I've never gotten a single fruit from it yet, but this past spring it did flower for the first time. I plan to plant a second pomegranate close by in hopes it will encourage fruiting. The fig tree should be fine through the winter as long as I grow it out with a good root system before planting it in the ground. I'm almost sure to have figs one day, and as far as the poms and bananas, that remains to be seen....

      I'll probably have to bring the ficus back inside this winter. I think it's too delicate to stay on the porch in cold weather. The problem is fitting it back inside, as it's growing like mad out there right now! :)

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  6. I vaguely remember beautiful photos of dogs and flowers. I don't know where I saw them though. BANANA PUDDING!!!

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    Replies
    1. Yes!!! Make some banana pudding for you and SG! It's super easy and so yummy. That is, make it IF vanilla wafers are available in Spain. I have no idea about that!

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  7. The crepe myrtles are blooming here too. Aren't they pretty?
    I just love all these pictures, Jennifer!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ms. Moon! Crepe Myrtles really are beautiful! When we were waiting for them to bloom for us the first year we lived here, I'll admit I was hoping for the bright red flowers. But the light pink (really sort of light lavender) that we ended up with make us happy!

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  8. Great pictures that speak eloquently of your life in Florence. However, I was disturbed to learn that you are planning to plant a brown turkey in your garden. Frankly, this seems cruel to me. Turkeys are living creatures just like Marco, Ginger and George.
    P.S. Banana Pudding is my cousin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Banana Pudding is his cousin! hahaha!!

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    2. Neil, unlike Marco, Ginger, and George, the turkey is going to have to EARN its keep! It's either figs....or the axe. Bwah haha haha!!!

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  9. Your plants look wonderful. I love the tropicals and even though it is a pain to bring them inside during the winter, it is worth it. However, your area is much warmer and your plants can probably handle winter much better.



    Crepe Myrtles are a favorite of mine. They should bloom here in a week or two. I am seeing some buds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're zone 8 here and although we do get freezing weather sometimes, it never lasts too long. Tropicals are still very, very iffy and if they're planted outdoors you need to find a very sheltered, warm spot for them (and you still might lose them to a cold snap).

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  10. Your plants all look great! Your ficus tree certainly looks better than ours, LOL. I LOVE banana pudding -- I haven't made it in years. Maybe it's time?

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    Replies
    1. We've had that ficus tree for many years now, Steve. It was fairly neglected at our last house when we still had the little sparrow Chip. She lived in it in a spare bedroom and after she died and we moved I was determined to make it healthy again. It's been doing really, really well on the back porch! Such good light.

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  11. LOVE the pictures! I planted zinnias this year and they have done really well, and they look great too. Stay healthy and safe...you are living in a hotbed of Covid right now, (as if you didn't know!)

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    Replies
    1. New infection rates (per capita) in South Carolina are now THIRD IN THE WORLD. It's unbelievable. And idiots here still argue about wearing masks!

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  12. Oh what I would give for some proper homegrown toms!!!

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    Replies
    1. Well, these are from the farm stand. I used to grow heirloom tomatoes from seed but South Carolina is a tough place for that. Our humidity is so high that oftentimes the flowers fail to set fruit and just dry up and fall off. :( I planning to put in some raised beds for next year and I'm going to give tomato growing another try!

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  13. Nice flowers. I put zinnias in this year & they're just starting to bloom. And you have fresh okra! Is tasty or what!

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    Replies
    1. I love fresh okra! I steamed it on top of the peas. Lots of people even in the south hate okra cooked that way, which I understand (it's a texture thing) but I grew up eating it like that. I like fried okra, too, but never make it. Too much trouble.

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  14. You've captured the most important things in life, girl! πŸ‘ŒπŸ»

    Flowers, dogs, fruit, food, the moon, plants... πŸ§‘πŸ’›πŸ’šπŸ’™

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for stopping by and commenting! Welcome!

      Delete
  15. What a lovely blog today, just what I needed. Everything is looking so green and lush. It has been so hot and dry here that many of my plants the leaves are burning off.
    So happy the Platypus is enjoying play time. Platypus is one of our favorite animals. Daughter wrote a book/fable about them in Junior High. I hope I can find the book or maybe we lost it in the fire ? ? ?
    Be safe Be well, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
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