Local Bees

Finally saw a bee in the area.  I figured there would be some bees or something that pollinates since this area used to be mostly farming.  I didn't see him at first since he was so small but here he is.  Nice to see we aren't entirely pollinated by wasps, which are also a common pollinator.

The big sunflower is still forming seeds.  The head has drooped entirely and the petals are brown and mostly fallen off.  Just waiting for the stem to start turning colors, which indicates the seeds are about done forming and ready for harvest.

Something I still think it amazing is the color in the petals of the sunflower.  This specific flower has been blooming for about a week now and the colors are still this bright and vibrant.  And as I said about the other flower, the petals will lose their colors and drain out completely once they are done.  Reminds me of red glass.  A lot of red glass turns quickly in the sun and fades but there are some recipes that keep the deep red color.  Every pottery and glass company either has to inherit the recipe from previous generations or reinvent the red.  I have yet to find a readily available recipe for this. 

More Day Lilies

This is the second planting of day lilies from last year.  They are in the ground which is pretty hard due to the high clay content of the area.  Even in the bed which was intended to grow things besides grass, it's having a hard time with it.  So much of what I have has to be grown in pots still until I can afford to spend the cash and time to upgrade the areas.  I think time is more rare still since I live so far out now.  

Timing is a tricky situation.  You have to know when to go places.  Not if they're open or not but how traffic will be in the direction you're wanting to go.  There's usually only a heavy traffic flow in one direction. Unfortunately if you're going and coming back along the same route you want it clear, so avoiding rush hours.

On a happier note we got some more unique day lilies last week from some friends.  I was admiring their lilies and they told me to dig up a clump.  It ended up being about eight plants after dividing the roots.

These specific lilies have a double flower. That is to say a flower nested in a flower, the petals at least.  So it has twice the petals of a normal day lily.  I will have to wait until next year to see if I can cross pollinate them though, unless I can get them to flower again.  Some of the previous lily plants we've had would bloom more than once a year but they would have to have the same blooming times for them to cross pollinate. 

Daylilies

I have grown daylilies for a long time.  It's been a while but I'm happy to have these pretty little guys in the front now.  I almost gave up on them since they didn't do so well in the pots they came in and almost died.  Fortunately though, I wet them, put them in new pots, and new they live in this nice large pot. We got back from our cruise and these new flowers welcomed us back.

The cruise was awesome!  I always wanted to go across an ocean on a cruise and finally got the chance. We had a whole 12 days on the open ocean although my wife was able to stay busy giving presentations about every other day.  She also participated in the passenger play on the last day of the cruise.

Crossing the date line was different though.  We got the same day to redo.  I know it wasn't actually the same day but it was still neat.  Not a lot of sun on the cruise but that wasn't too bad really.  There was plenty do do on board.  The crew did their best to make the trip enjoyable and memorable.  The guy on the piano particularly was awesome.  He had a huge range of songs he knew.  Probably our favorite place to go in the evening to wind down.

After it all though I still wanted to sleep in my own bed.  Nothing quite like being home.  Next time I really want to have some friends with us though.  6 cruises so far and so far it's just been us two.