Southern pm

It was a still and sunny AM, perfect for sweeping up bamboo leaves and other flotsam. Need to keep drain areas open.

When I left for my visit on Cumberland, I stuffed the begonias in the guest shower to dry them out. WRONG. The cool air inside combined with the already damp soil was deadly. I think the cool might of smacked them into dormancy? In any case, I lost half of my army. The tough boys still with me are back in protected spots with a medium amount of sun.

It's 5:30PM  and a thunderhead seems to be advancing from the west-- and the air has picked up quite a bit. It's gonna rain somewhere around here.

I've got too many unused pots. I need to make a run over to storage I guess. Unsightly.

The bleeding heart is growing pretty smartly, I have a few of blooms (white with a red center).

There is a large begonia, I've been calling ricinifolia-- who knows, I thought it was Caribbean queen or something. I saw a huge bed at Fairchild. I need to go back and take pics. So silly not to take one's camera to the greatest tropical botanic garden in the world.

Anyway, this begonia is growing in the large pot with the orange tree. It's strong grower. One end of the plant's thick rhizome is getting ready to climb out of the pot. There are several other ends with strong new leaves coming out of it. But the plant ain't ready to show in the local fair. It's leaves are torn from the wind, there is a little rot on some. It shows the wear of hot, humid, breezy weather. That's what plants look like in the summer. Having everything in a container, they all seem like 'specimens'. There is a spotlight on each because it's not growing in a bed or in the natural environment. I have to respect that. That will come with time. It's been not quite a year since we've moved in.

Still look like I was in a air-bag event because of the poison ivy. It's been kind of a miserable week-- the first few days, I couldn't sleep through the night because of the itch. I had socks on my hands and wore long pants/ shirt to bed. WHAT HAPPENED?? It's getting better. My face no longer looks like I lost.

More later-- as Jack Van Bibber used to say. He first told me about Vita Sackville-West. We used to play poker on his rooftop at the corner of Christopher and west side highway. My first Lobster Thermadore.. He was a brilliant cook. He wrote a book, "Fast Feasts". The title was ridiculous as every meal in the book would take a day for the normal person, and even then the genoise was likely to curdle on any but the saavy-ist stirrer.