First, these that I took yesterday and didn’t get resized until today.

Not red. EDIT: I cant find the damned tag, but I think it’s Raspberry Summer.

This one is (I think) not the Tutti Frutti. EDIT: It’s Ambrosia Kudos.

I think this one is.

All seven of my Tango plants survived! Hope they all make it through winter.

Past its prime, but this is the Blue Fortune that bloomed all damned summer. Beloved of bees (still…there’s even one sleeping in it), butterflies and MLBs.

I didn’t get many blooms, and I don’t remember which is Echinacea and which is Rudbeckia, but they all grew in nicely. They were pretty scrawny when they arrived, but not anymore!

Tithonia, again missing the 5-6 feet height memo. They’re only 3′ away from the house.

Now today. I’d given up on the milkweed because I hadn’t seen many Monarchs, and it looks like shit now, but when I rescued a bunglebee from the cat water dish and took it down to a butterfly bush to dry off, I glanced over at the milkweed on my way back to the house, and saw…a Monarch ‘pillar! Eventually, I counted 19, with most being late-instar and only one so small I may raise him inside to make sure he gets enough to eat. I found one that a wasp or something had killed, but the rest look healthy, and I’m happy that’s the reason my milkweed looks like shit!

Random funny-looking beefly on Ladybird Lemon dwarf cosmos. He’s cute even if he’s not a baby butterfly.

Meh, but in good news, I got a friend delivered to me last night. His name is Alan.

This made me slightly pissed off. Retails for $10.98. “Food grade sucrose.” Yes…otherwise known as ordinary table sugar. 12.75 cups in a 5lb bag, 4:1 ratio, 51 cups of solution (actually more, since the dissolved sugar does add volume). 51*8= 408 oz. I don’t know how much a bag of sugar costs because that would involve going to a grocery store and I don’t do that, but I’ll bet it’s not $10.98! That stuff is $0.14/oz, which would mean a bag of sugar would have to cost $57.12 to be as expensive. Even the fanciest brand name doesn’t come close, and to a bird, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁ is C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁; brand doesn’t matter!

I took the day off work, and I’ll write the rest later because I forgot to take pictures, but I did take pictures of my birthday present and cake!

It’s Sunday morning, but I took these yesterday.

I actually accomplished something yesterday. I cleaned the interior of HKLRSC (long overdue), cleaned the kitchen sink (less overdue, but still needed to be done), and frosted four panels of glass; one of which I fucked up, but didn’t notice until it was fully installed and back in place. I’m not redoing it now; I’m not happy with the way the frost came out on these ones, but that window is right behind the chimney anyway, and nobody ever comes inside our house, so who’s going to see it?

This is the Summer something-or-other agastache that was supposed to be red. That’s a very interesting shade of red!

Golden Glow butterfly bush. It is sprawl-y, but I won’t know until next year whether that’s just the way it grew potted or whether that’s its growth habit. If it’s the latter, I’ll have to move it. Blooms are pretty either way!

This one Gaillardia arrived kind of droopy and I wasn’t sure it would live, but it eventually grew huge. I thought it would never bloom, but there is one bud on it, so I guess it just took its time getting established. The lantana (this one and the other) did okay, but I really wasn’t impressed. Too bad they won’t come back next year.

In news I’ve waited 40 years to report, I have seen a live Baltimore oriole! I went outside and P said he’d seen a red and black bird at the hummingbird feeder that the woodpecker uses. He said, “a cardinal or something”. I asked if the bird could have been orange, then showed him pictures of the male Baltimore oriole. He said that looked like the bird. Just as I was grumbling about my having waited so long to see one and his being the one who actually got to see it, the bird came back. I ended up seeing him three separate times, but didn’t even try to get close enough for a picture, and when I had my binoculars, he was nowhere to be found. He’s migrating south, so I may never see him again, but nonetheless, I ordered an oriole feeder because both he and the woodpecker make the hummingbird feeder drip, and…”That’s how you get ants.” I’ll pay attention to orioles next spring on Journey North, too; perhaps I can convince one or two to stay the summer!

The pretty white bell-shaped flowers that reminded me of digitalis or penstamon but were neither are sesame flowers. Annuals, unfortunately, but at least I know what they are so I can plant them again. Whether bees and hummingbirds like them, I don’t know, but I sure do!

Fall crocus. Seems weird to see crocus when it’s 90-plus degrees, but they’re pretty. I’m going to move them next spring, though; they’re in an ugly spot that does nothing for such lovely little flowers.

A couple from yesterday, the rest from today (Tuesday).

Midnight Marvel

Seems like the green stems have white flowers and the red some shade of pink.

Today. I don’t know what this is; it was in the “mixed wildflowers” (AKA floor sweepings) seeds. It’s Rudbeckia of some sort, I think.
I’m

More floor sweepings, or a weed. Penstamon-ish.

Nobody has to tell native yellow honeysuckle to climb!

Small (very) but tastes good!

Used my card and got 5% off, which doesn’t even cover the tax, but it’s better than nothing. Delivering tomorrow.

Bee, waiting under a pretty umbrella for the raindrops to dry up.

They didn’t get very big, but they did bloom! Dwarf cosmos ‘Sensation’, planted at the end of July.

I just noticed these this morning (Sunday). I’ll guess they’re fall crocus, which I did not know existed until I googled flowers that look like crocus and bloom in fall!

My huge accomplishment for my holiday Friday was sanding and painting the fourth chair of my long-ago begun project. I got one coat of paint on it last night (it’s Saturday morning), and hope to do another today. I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to attempt a green “granite” tabletop, or whether I’ll make a whole new top from wood and stain it maple, but we have to go to T’s tonight anyway, so it’s not like I have to make up my mind right now. I am leaning toward making a new one because it’ll look nicer with the other tables that are cream on the bottom and maple on top. Dunno.

The only picture I took was this beauty under the patio light late last night.

Damn, VISA’s fraud department is on the ball! I was out in the yard when I got a text, asking whether I’d authorized a $1.00 charge to a cable or satellite company. I responded in the negative, and called VISA’s fraud department. The message said they would call me shortly, but I’d rather be safe, so I called. After I verified my identity, I asked the name on the charge. Videostripe.com. I said that wasn’t me, so he read back my last few charges…all definitely me. He cancelled that card and told me to destroy it and they’ll send me a new one. I checked the email alert they’d sent as well, describing the date and time of the charge, and asking whether it was valid, then looked at the timestamp on the text message. One minute had elapsed between the time someone tried to use my card and Videostripe did the $1 charge before putting through the full amount, and the time VISA texted me. I do have text and email alerts set up for suspicious activity, but $1 wouldn’t have tripped those. I’m guessing that Videostripe didn’t fit my spending profile, so it was flagged. Videostripe is kind of like Netflix, so they wouldn’t have needed a shipping address, but maybe they got my billing address wrong, or something. Anyway, it was declined and flagged. Sucks that I have to memorize another card number, but I’m very glad they caught it so fast.  The small charge is a “ping” to ensure the card is valid; if that goes through, the thief spends as much as possible until the card is maxed out or cancelled. Fuck whoever stole my card, but they got nothing for their troubles; not even a free video stream.