Yellow primrose looks like egg yolks dropped across the lawn just before dusk. Their bright yellow color is an echo of the sun.

Pink primrose are open during the day. The are often in large clusters along the highways in the Hill Country of Texas. In my yard and in the park they are more like a scattered bit of decorative wrapping tissue waving in the wind.

I’m not certain of the correct name, so I call them wild violets. They are such a gorgeous purple, just little jewels at the ends of thick blades of grass-like fronds.

Update!!! Kat over at the Armies reading group tells me these are, in fact, Spiderworts!!!! I am very happy to have the right name! Now if that one last type of wildflower comes up this year, I’m going to post it and see if I can find out the name of it!!!

Last, but not least–the winecup. What a delightful flower. The color is so intense, and only a few cups grow together. When driving, you see a quick spot of brilliant color that makes you want to go back–what could possibly be such a rich, reddish purple? These beauties seem to mostly spread by creeping, but the flowers are about a foot apart and grow perhaps six inches high. They are a wonderful spot of color anywhere, but stand out in fields of bluebonnets and paintbrush.

I was going to do wildflowers because quite a few have popped up, but I haven’t put up the ones in my garden either! I hope the tomato plants do as well as the flowers this year, because I’ve had a great crop of colors. There’s probably six to ten tomatoes out there, but the largest is about the size of a golf ball–excepting the single grape tomato that is about, oh, not even pea-sized yet!

The cucumbers are just starting and so are the zuchini. Of those the zuchini grows the fastest. I expect the first one might be ready by the end of the week.

It rained last night–and both rain barrels are full! This will keep me going for at least the week. After they are empty, we might raise them just another six inches or so. The higher they are, the better they drain.

I usually have quite a field of wild flowers in the back, but this year, the flowers are a bit scant. There are more Indian Paintbrush flowers than bluebonnets this year. The rain came at a good time for the paintbrush, but wasn’t plentiful enough for the bluebonnets. Still, they are a pretty landscape and I enjoy them!

In Texas, these bright orange flowers are known as Texas Paintbrush. Of course!

This week’s Reads

This week’s reads are actually “Listens.” I drove to Houston this weekend and took along some podcasts. Two were quite good and made the trip go faster–both happen to be from Clonepod (I had some other podcasts from another station, but they weren’t remarkable enough to mention). These two spun along, working their magic:

I Have A Daughter by Catherine Edmunds is a bit of a love story–and a deep wish that we could always protect our children.

The Poisoned Chalice by Brian Stableford is an interesting little elf tale. It’s an adventure, but it’s also got a lot of “consequences” in it. I enjoyed this one a lot.

I have a mother-in-law file that includes stories about mom. Some are about mom and dad. This one is about dad.

I recently planned a trip to DC–taking my parents from NM and my husband and I from Austin and spending a few days touring the museums. Dad loves museums, but with his eye condition, he’s a lot slower getting around than he used to be. This means I have to plan trips where he can do things at his own pace. He hates getting on a plane, however. Or being in public where he might run into someone. Or…well he has a lot of excuses for any activity that is outside his immediate comfort zone.

But I plan the trips and he goes anyway. This morning, on the phone, I asked him if he was excited about the upcoming trip to DC.

“I’m not going there.”

“Yes you are.”

“Nooo, I’m not.”

As if he hasn’t been bragging left and right about this trip. Mom has already mentioned that he’s told all the neighbors and half the relatives.

A little while later in the conversation he asked, “How many days are YOU going to be in DC?”

Eye roll. “You’re going to be there 3 days.”

“I heard about this really great tour bus ride,” he said.

“What is it called?”

“Red (the neighbor) told me about it. It sounds like it would be neat.”

“What’s it called?”

“It’s a tour bus. It goes to a lake and monuments and all the places.”

ARGH. I’m sure there is only one such tour bus ride. Should be easy to find. NO PROBLEM.

* * *

I sent dad a bedspread for an early father’s day present (he’s been asking for a new one. I got him a handwoven wool one from Spain.) When I asked if he liked it:

“It’s nice, but I don’t know if I like it yet. Lots of blue.” For dad, there are no simple questions. Liking a bedspread involves how well it fits on the bed. How well he likes it over time. Is it warm enough? Is it too warm?

“Did you notice the other side is the opposite colors–brown/blue?” I asked.

“No, they are the same.”

“No, they are not.”

“I’m gonna check.” Pause. “Yup, they are the same.” Pause. “Blue and brown and…” pause… “There’s blue on both sides, but there’s more white on this side. Or maybe brown.”

Yeah, maybe.

Sorry folks, this one is a tad blurry!

You’ll also notice, if you look closely, that it is NOT a red rose. Oh, but it is supposed to be! I specifically went in search of a rose like Grandma’s, comparing descriptions on the internet and even seeing some bloomed. Finally I settled on a Gypsy Rose. A nice bright red, big bloom and great smell.

I watched it grow. I watched the blooms form. Strangely they were kind of pinkish orange…sigh. The plant was mismarked! I was *very* disappointed, but the rosebush was planted. Worse, I had also bought a Miss All American Beauty–for the only other location that I could use for a rosebush. No more room for rosebushes.

This pretty orange rose smells very nice and lasts very well as a cut rose. Sadly, the bush is a *climbing* rose bush, which means I must spend more of my gardening time pruning it. At least the All American turned out to be a bush type, rather than a climbing type.

Rain Barrels Yup, you guessed it. Still needing a little bit of adjustment. Today I planned on emptying them, using the last of the water for the garden. Two things went awry. The water in the main barrel was beginning to smell–very, very bad. I think the oak pollen was happily rotting away. Secondly, after I propped them sideways, not all the water would actually drain. No way was I leaving that smelly water in there! So we had to disconnect the two barrels and empty the water out the overflow. The problem with this is that the connection was intended to be permanent–using tie-wraps. Looks like we need something that I can take on and off because I’ll definitely want to empty the barrels completely, especially during times of the year when there is potential for mold, smell and any other nasties that I haven’t thought of yet.

If anyone is looking for us, we’ll be at Wal-Mart and the auto store checking out hose clamp type things to find something that can be taken on and off.

A few years ago I was visiting a friend of mine here in Austin. She had a beautiful garden–several rosebushes with lots of colors. I’d always wanted a true red rose with a great smell. My grandmother used to grow them, and I helped her take care of them. I loved the big blooms, and I could stand there smelling them for hours while I watered. My friend had a bush that reminded me of grandma’s. She said she could produce a bush from a cutting.

A few months later, she brought me my rosebush. I couldn’t wait to get it in the ground. Then I waited and waited for it to bloom. When the blooms started, they were suspiciously…light. White really. Would they darken? Hmm. I certainly didn’t remember roses starting out so…white. And the thing was getting tall. Very tall, much like a climbing rosebush that grandma had, a rosebush that my father hated because he was constantly having to trim it…

The tips were sort of red. Well, pinkish really…

My friend was growing a starters for three people. I ended up with a white/pink climbing rosebush! *Groan* Almost like grandma, but the wrong memory! I have roses…that I am constantly pruning back to keep the driveway clear!

It didn’t end there either. I only became more determined to get a nice red rose. My friend had moved, leaving her bushes behind…so I had to look elsewhere…Check back for more in the next couple of weeks as more rosebushes bloom!

Rain Barrel Update When last we checked in, we had one full rain barrel. The overflow barrel had just a little runoff, but we noticed a problem. The full barrel had sunk into the ground by an inch or two because of the water weight. It was now below the barrel where the runoff was to go! Since the one barrel was still mostly empty, we lowered it slightly so that if it rains again, the runnoff will “run downhill” into the barrel. Each barrel is 70 gallons. I used about a quarter of that to water my veggies this morning. So each barrel is a good for three to four waterings (I’ll use more water the further it gets from rain days). Two-tenths of an inch filled the one barrel–a half inch should come darn close to filling them both!

Watering via gravity is more work. I can’t use my leaker hose effectively, not even the new nylon one that I bought. I’d hope the nylon one would leak more water, but it doesn’t leak fast enough. I’ll probably be able to use it to water the lawn. I can leave the nylon hose hooked up for several hours or overnight when I want to water the lawn and drain the last of the barrels.

These flowers were in the yard when we moved in–along with bunchs of other native wildflowers such as blue-eyed grass, evening primrose, and the Texax dandelion (which isn’t a dandelion, but a rather large, pretty yellow flower). I added bluebonnets and paintbrush, which are also native to the area. But this little pinkish flower has remained a mystery. I don’t know its name, and so far I haven’t seen it elsewhere. It grows well in partial shade to almost full sun. It doesn’t need much water and it blooms about now every spring. I’ve dug up some of the plants and moved them around to various areas that needed coverage. I enjoy the blooms a lot. If anyone has any idea what they are called, let me know!

(The grass-like fronds are the leaves that belong to the flower. The stalks/leaves look vaguely like bermuda grass in that the fronds are flat and before it flowers, it kind of waves in the wind like an over grown wild bermuda grass.)

Update: A blog reader sent me an email identifying the flowers as Moss Phlox! I think she’s right. I had seen phlox in gardening sections before, but none that looked quite like mine–I didn’t realize there were many different kinds and colors, all with slight variations. Maybe we have this one solved!!

Rain Barrel Update
We finally got about a quarter of an inch of rain–and guess what that equals??? ONE full rain barrel! It didn’t quite make it to the overflow into the second barrel, so the second one only got about an inch or two of water from roof runoff. What does this mean? I’ve got 70 gallons of water for my garden! Of course…the garden got rain too so I won’t actually *need* the water for two or three days, but it’s there!

I got a new type of leaker hose to try out. It’s supposed to work better with very low pressure water (water coming out due to gravity certainly counts). We’ll see how it goes!

Read of the Week comes from GalleyCat this week. Bob Miller–of the publishing world–has moved to Harper Collins to start a new unit. Apparently he is going to attempt a few new things in publishing–no advances, but split profits with authors; no returns from bookstores (an idea that should have been implemented, at least in part, long ago. At the very least a better return policy would be nice, one where it isn’t so easy for booksellers to return a book one week and re-order it the very next); do more with online and ebooks.

There’s some interesting ideas, including some info about Stephen King–apparently he has already embraced the idea of forgoing a large advance in favor of a larger split of the profits. Hopefully Galleycat will follow up on how some of these ideas turn out.

It’s April 2008 already. Don’t ask me where the time goes!

The lilies are looking great and there are more colors to come. Even without any planning on my part (I just pick flowers I like) I’ve managed to have flowers coming in as others are going out. It’s been a great flow and I’ve really enjoyed the spring this year.

Best read of the week:

What if you went missing? Would anyone find you? What if your body was found? Could anyone identify you? Sometimes the authorities don’t have the manpower to do everything. That’s why this story about a bunch of volunteers that try to help was such a great read.

Garden Update
The currant tomatoes are, uh, well, getting big. Okay, they are the size of small peas–which means they will turn red soon! That’s the good news. The bad news? I’m starting to see dreaded Spider Mites. Time to get out there and spray whatever works best. I actually use a special spray for spider mites. No, it is not organic. I’ve tried organic for these pests, believe me–lady bugs, organic herb oils, neem, etc. The neem oil works best, but it can burn the plants. It would probably be my second choice, but I’m lucky. I still have some of Green Light’s stuff that is specific to spider mites. I don’t think it kills anything except mites (it might kill spiders too.) At any rate, I’ve never found anything that works better. I spray twice at this time of the year and then I’m done. The only plants that have tomatoes at all are the currant tomatoes–which means that none of my fruit will get any of this nasty stuff on them.

In past years when I tried to use soap and water or neem oil–I’m out there spraying for a lot longer, fighting a lot harder, and sometimes the whole year. Frankly I wasn’t up for it this year. I did it completely organic last year, and I was wiping spider mites off the leaves every single day just to keep up.