Ever so much rain in the desert makes for garden dreams.
Vines in the front flower garden go up trees, blooming in blues.
I love seeing blue in the garden, do you?
Way up high they go.
As big drops plopped, I took advantage of less garden chores.
Finished up some custom pieces and plunged back into other bauble makings.
I am going to start taking pics for my jewelry shop soon.
There are so many different pieces and colors…
Pearls and rubies and peridot and citrine.
Antique elements galore.
So excited to share soon.
I got a little slowed down due to a little garden accident.
I was running through the garden chasing Miles when a pointy rock sticking up from the dirt grabbed me.
I took a bad spill.
It's a lovely lovely sight I tell ya, ha!
I am all scabbed and bruised on one side, with a hobbling double twisted bruised foot on the other side.
Which is why I lost my pace the last couple days.
Curses!
🙂
Even if I have to hobble, I can't stay out of the garden.
I went out yesterday and took some pics for ya.
I grabbed a basket because I knew there would be good things to harvest.
Sometimes I wonder, what would it look like here if we got rain all the time?
A couple days of huge downpours and you would not believe how things grow.
With the heat and sun and rain, it's like a jungle out here.
I love that we got some random hurricane rain.
What a huge huge gift.
Vines threaten to gobble up Beethoven.
There are roses come up again.
It will be hot here until, probably Halloween day.
Not summer hot, but late spring hot.
Just enough to cool off at night, warm up in the day, and make the garden think it's spring again.
Growing up in these parts, Halloween can get really tricky.
The desert does the strangest things in Autumn.
It gets very cool at night (sometimes downright cold) and very hot during the day.
So costumes can be very very tricky things to decide on.
Once I was a mouse in a full furry commercial grade costume I borrowed from my aunt.
Like the kind you jump into and zip.
I almost fainted from the heat.
I'll just be my witchy self this year.
Running through gobs of flowers as butterflies flutter everywhere.
And they do.
Soooo many butterflies.
And caterpillars.
The ground is getting bushy green from the rain.
I have mowed the entire acreage twice this summer, which is a HUGE job.
I think I might have to do it again.
Why don't I get help, you wonder?
Well, I do have Lovee, but he has endless chores too.
To be honest, I am afraid that someone who doesn't know my garden will mow the wrong things.
And, I am weirdly not into having strangers tending my garden, you know what I mean?
Below you see the partial sides of the vegetable gardens.
In case you are wondering what you are looking at 🙂
The front entrance is starting to become covered with pumpkin vines.
Pumpkin vines everywhere.
My domed veggie garden has pretty much become a pumpkin house.
The inside is so full of vines you really can't get in.
It is surrounded by white sage especially in the front (this is the side), nettle, a few zinnias and more vines.
I just love seeing those pumpkin vines go.
After a harrowing exhausting summer, the vine explosion makes all the hard work worth it.
There are some HUGE pumpkins hanging around.
Yay!
These two are biggies.
Hope the vine can hold them.
I stopped pruning wild zinnias that took over parts of the veggie garden.
They got so thick.
Any time of day out there, you will be greeted by dozens of butterflies.
I have 3 beds full of my yearly basil and now zinnias.
All self seeded.
Including the tomatillos.
Yep, all self seeded.
I knew it would all self seed, so I just worked the dirt around this year, and watered.
Waiting to see what would happen.
It's a tomatillo jungle.
They are in every bed (there are 8)
And in the domed garden too.
I have been making the most delicious green salsa's with them.
They are a bit crispy crunchy inside and wonderfully tart.
Time to think about the winter veggie garden too.
Oh, you should see all the wild arugula growing all over the garden from the rains.
As rambling vines dance with cactus.
Sometimes fuchsia and blue even meet for a date.
As I wrap up the jewels.
Amethyst, yumm.
And get ready to make another batch of green tomatillo salsa.
I just pop a couple yellow and green chilies, a sweet onion, some fresh garlic and the tomatillos into a pot of water.
I bring them to a boil then simmer 10-15 minutes.
Until everything is soft.
I use a fork and knife to open the cooked chilies and scrape out the seeds (too hot), plus cut off the stems.
I then pop everything into a blender, adding a little of the water if needed.
Then pour into a bowl, salt to taste, a little squeeze of a lime.
Presto!
Delicioso.
Eat.
I do the same for making red salsa.
(tomatoes, chilies, onions, garlic)
Although, I do put a couple caps full of vinegar in mine.
And some lime.
You can't go wrong, and it is soooo yumm.
Then let it cool, refrigerate and eat for about a week.
We eat ours quicker though.
The other day I had made red salsa, and I wanted to make a pizza.
But we didn't have any pizza sauce or tomato sauce.
So I took my red salsa, added a little sugar and olive oil, and can I just say…
It was the bet pizza sauce ever.
Best pizza we ever had, to date.
Well, now I am just veering and rambling.
Which I am so good at in person.
I am a talker.
It's a problem, I know.
I am hermity too, it's some weird medley.
Once you get me talking…
My 1st grade teacher used to tell me that I was a social butterfly, she told my parents that all I went to school for was to socialize. I was always in trouble.
Then she would scream at me in class and say that if I didn't stop talking she was going to hang me by my ears and shake me until my guts fell out.
I don't think I was really talking that much to tell you the truth.
She also said a lot of politically incorrect things.
Those were the bizarre days of yore, haha!
When the principal walked around with a wooden paddle.
Or would take off his belt and shake it at a bad kid.
Remember those times?
HA!
Okay, I'm leaving now…
Happy weekend!
Love, V
Greetings from cold, cloudy, & rainy Chicago! It has been so gloomy! They say the sun may come out tomorrow!!! I have my fingers & toes crossed! I’m hoping the highs in the 50s & lows in the 40s doesn’t hang around for long! It’s too early for that nonsense! I didn’t get a chance to comment on the last post but I love your picture! It’s wonderful! I can’t wait to see what other goodies you have in waiting!
Take care of yourself & I hope you heal up soon!!!!!!!
Laura!!!! It is soooo good to see you! OH MY, I can not believe how cool it is there already. Those are winter temps here. I’ll send up some warmth 😉 I can see now why people move to warmer places. I never understood it as I used to love snow as a kid, but as I get older I just want warmth. Isn’t it funny how that happens? Stay warm!! Love, V
Ha! I remember paddling in school…..though i never got paddled…honestly…We moved around alot…ALOT….All along the east coast and when i lived in the Northern states there was no paddling in schools but Southern states did say from NC on south paddled…odd…..When my daughter went to school i wouldn’t allow her to be paddled….I had it put in her records ‘no paddling’…I told them if she does something bad enough that requires paddling you call me and i’ll do it! I guess she didn’t want me coming up there so she must have been good…i never got called. :)Love seeing those pumpkin vines V……you make me want some! Hugs! deb
Your garden looks like something out of a fairytale version of Better Homes & Gardens. So beautiful.
Hello from Michigan….It is 47 degrees out today and won’t get much warmer today. Maybe 42 tomorrow morning. I miss the warmth of the sun already…Oh well…Indian summer should be here soon. It is when the weather gets unseasonably warm for a few days…Like one day it might be 52 and the next it would be 75. Crazy Michigan weather!
I hope your scraps and bruises feel better. One must be careful.
Hope you have a great week-end. Very lovely photos.
Your gardens look just gorgeous, Vanessa! It does sound like a lot of work, but it seems you really enjoy it. I hope you are okay after your tumble. We have had a cooler week here, with some foggy mornings. I’m sure we will get that last heat hurrah before Fall settles in, so I’m not getting comfortable with the cooler weather yet.
I love your rambling–through your garden and your stream of conciousness rambling–Arizona had some monumental rain last week. Hope you heal soon.
Dearest Miss V!
Please be careful of rocks and things in your garden! It is no fun taking spills like that!!!
We are so very jealous of your beautiful tomatillo garden!!!! We are fiends for salsa verde! We love it on so many things! We gobble it up on fish tacos, in quesadillas, even use it as a fresher version of a salad dressing!
And your lovely morning glories are making my heart ache for some of my own. Although, I suspect our growing season on our little porch is behind us for the year. We are having nights in the 40’s and only into the high 30’s by next week!! Eeek! Where did the warmth go already??? We have to turn our furnace on in the mornings already!!!
Wishing you a lovely weekend!
Betty
I love blue and green at the moment! I love your garden, it’s so hard to imagine things being that green in the desert, but then again, Australia is often hot and dry and we still have some green things! Maybe our plants have a lot in common!
I love seeing photos of your garden, it is an utterly magic place to me! Since my dog-in-law (boyfriend’s parent’s dog) passed, I really love seeing the pics of your lovely dogs too!
<3
Thanks goodnessss I never got paddled. I was terrified of the school
principal. You would see the rotten boys coming out of there crying.
And I thought, if those tough rotten boys are crying, the principals office
must be a really really bad place…. hahaha!
🙂
Miss Linda, I just cant get over how chilly it is there. It will be
in the 90s here for a long time still…. Stay warm!!
Thank you friend!! The rain did really help me out and plump it
up. I love just going and strolling around. It is very wild too, it
needs some proper conservative tending, but I dont think that will ever
happen. I am a bit to….. lets say, lackadaisical in my tidy groomed
garden taste 😉 I try, but it gets wild so fast. Not like my
neighbors down the road who pull out even one tiny weed, heee
heee!
It was such awesome rain. Wish it happened a few times through
summer, but once was good, Ill take once too 🙂
Laura, the desert is a funny place. You see, when you get into the
higher elevations like I am in, the desert gets much greener, and the huge
mountains that I see from my garden (I live on a ridge at the base of them) is a
forest on top. So, I think that is why it can get so green here. And
some wateringwith lots of big trees that make shade helps. Oh, I am
so sorry about your dog in law. My pups leave me no space in bed.
They squash up to me and I cant move, hahaha!
I love fog. I just love when the weather has some form of mystery
going on with it 🙂 Thank you for the tumble wishes. I have had a
few hard nights sleeping from the pain and discomfort, but getting better.
Since it rained so much, there was this pointy rock sticking up from the ground
that I could not see, and I stepped on it just perfect in flip flop wedges and
down I went…. eeeeks! I feel like autumn doesnt last long enough, I
always feel like I fret over how fast it goes. Maybe its because we get a
very small autumn here? 3
Miss Betty, I just cant get over everyones coolness already. It
seems unfathomable for our hot zone here. September and October is one of
the prettiest garden times here. Its like a fresh spring after the
horrifying summer heat. Which I do love, but it gets exhausting after a
while, ya know? xoxox
Thank you so much for saying you’re hermity but you love to talk…that’s me, too! Glad I’m not the only one! 🙂 When I get out of the house I can chatter chatter chatter…then it’s like I wear myself out & need to retreat back into my nest & hermit myself away again for days. lol!
I’m envious of your cool bits of weather, too, and your vines. 🙂
Sara, same here!! Oh my how funny!!!!
Oh nooooo about the bad fall and glad you are doing ok, despite the scrapes and bruises. Poor thing! {{HUGS}}
I was quiet now as a child but there was one friend who gave me such delight that whenever we were together we’d laugh and talk. One day during class the teacher told us repeatedly to “BE QUIET” (or else) and of course we kept giggling. Not even laughing at anything funny either, but being awful and naughty, so I deserved it when she pulled me out into the hall and gave my behind *WHAT FOR* with the wooden paddle. Oh lawd, I cried, and it was embarrassing too. LOL.
Your mourning glories remind me so much of my childhood, as I would nuzzle my nose into a flower in our garden and I would ‘sniff’ in the delicate fragrance which would tickle my nose. Your Cinderella pumpkins are so huge right now, I can just imagine what they are going to be like when they are fully ripe.
Well, it is suppose to be 106 degrees for a few days next week, and maybe ALL week, so our Autumn only shows up at night as the temps are gradually falling as the sun is setting sooner. I feel the same way you do about Autumn…it doesn’t last long enough. There is just this feeling one gets with the cooler evenings and the shorter days. I am an Autumn person at heart. It is when I get the most desire to paint and create during this season.
Your tomatillo salsa sounds divine.
Take good care of yourself, my dear!
lots of hugs
Miss Teresa
In fifth grade, some conservation group came to school and taught us to shoot guns!!!
I got a badge 😀 with a duck on it.
Get well soon, Curiosa!
Oh my you had some nasty sounding teachers! I suppose by the mid nineties when I started kindergarten the rules become stricter for child abuse in schools lol! I had one creepsicle teacher in grade 8 who used to look down the girls tops though! WEIRDO! Tell me, do you get Autumn colours on your plants down in Arizona or does everything stay green the whole year? Beautiful no matter what as always!
Wow, sounds like we had the same exact teacher! Bizarro!
Oh, yes, there was no PC in those days – people were people and some were bad and said bad things.
I love your garden and your jewels. Somehow they all look just beautiful together and make each other more beautiful. Have a wonderful day. Diane
OH no oh no! You got the wooden paddle??!! Eeeeeks! Oh, poor little you, how rotten. Don’t you hate getting trouble when you are pretty much good? I am so afraid to do anything bad or wrong, but if and when I do, I always get busted! 😉
I hope you get some of the crazy rain headed my way with the hurricane Miss Teresa!! Love your morning glory memories!! <3
Oh, that is just insane in the membrane!!
OH the creepy guy teacher, eeeeek! Yes we do get autumn here, but it is a warm autumn, not an icy one. Although, I will say this, some years we do get a rare very cold autumn. But not cold to people who know what cold really is, hahaha!
Let’s see, in my garden the fruitless mulberry, pecan, peach, quince, apricot and mesquite trees lose their leaves. Oh, and the crepe myrtle… I know I am forgetting some others… the pomegranate bush… can’t think of what else… So, I will have a change of leaves, just a bit later than most 😉
(and i have a bunch that don’t lose leaves, yay!)
Hahahaha!!
No pc filter days were interesting 🙂
The crops are the jewels of the garden! Your garden do look very lush now and so beautiful.
Oh, my goodness, are you okay?! I was away for the weekend (no cell coverage and spotty internet), and when I come back I find that your garden path jumped up and bit you – OUCH!! (Maybe that’s where the old saying comes from…?) 🙁
Reading about everyone’s school days reminded me of my 5th grade teacher, who I haven’t thought about in years: she was an older woman who had been an Army nurse (I think in Korea), and she was terrifying – she was very big, tall and strong (at least she looked really tall to me at the time), and she wanted absolute order in her classroom. She would get furious when children even slightly mis-behaved – literally dragging kids out of the classroom by their collars, tipping students out of their chairs, picking desks up and throwing them a little way (seriously). When I think back on all the things she did, I’m amazed… Just wild.
But enough about her – 🙂 – back to nicer things: I really like that pic of your wonderful jewellery-makings – yay! Is that a citrine with the rusty old key?
Hope you are on the mend, and feeling better! (Be sure to have plenty of nice warm baths and good hot tea.)
Vanessa I so enjoyed the tour through your garden ðŸ˜
Then I got sad and mad all over again lol
I’ll explain….you inspired me to have my own little pumpkin patch 🎃
I was so excited to see the big vines and leaves and two tiny pumpkinsðŸ‘ðŸ‘ðŸ‘
Until my husband picked my two babies and mowed it all down 😈
He said they were dying and I know better.
So now it’s war lol I will return the favor by tending to his pepper plants hahaha(evil laugh) 😈
So thank you much for sharing your garden ðŸ‘✨✨✨😊 mab next year I will have a garden that
Doesn’t get plowed down to show to you ðŸ‘✨✨✨✨✨🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃💛 gina
Your garden is gorgeous!
Hope you are healed now.
Love, love blue in the garden.
On pinterest I have a file of
blue flowers, just love them.
Also falling in love with zinnias
this year.
I’m so impressed all that self-seeded. I’m always so scared nothing will show up.
And that teacher should have been fired.