It feels like it has been way longer than a week since I wrote my last post. Its been a really long, super busy week. Thankfully, I am taking the day to relax and get laundry done…a chance to recuperate a bit before running at the week, again.
The gardens are really getting going this week. There are Dahlias blooming, Echinacea blooms popping all over each of my Echinacea plants, the Blazing Stars are beginning to bloom…its just beautiful and really exciting. My garden has even provided me with a bonus surprise…my Lupine is going to bloom!!!!
My Lupine preparing blooms, this first year!!
I’ve always been told that Lupine doesn’t bloom its first year. After doing some research when I saw that my Lupine is going to bloom, I found out that it does, indeed, bloom its first year, though may not the next, or could bloom each year, but only last about 3 years. Other people have reported having Lupine that is 5 years old. I guess I will just have to see what mine do.
Since I wasn’t expecting the Lupine to bloom this year at all, it is a super awesome surprise. I can hardly wait to see what color they are as I can’t remember what I chose for seeds. Lupine is something that usually blooms around May, but since I planted my seeds this year, in the Spring, I will get to enjoy these beauties during the summer, while the Hollyhock they are planted in front of are still blooming. Should be quite stunning, I think.
Something is decimating my sunflower heads!! I’m not sure if it is the crows or possibly a
Shredded Autumn Beauty head
squirrel, but I’m really not happy about it, as one would imagine. The biggest and most beautiful of my sunflower blooms this year have been the Autumn Beauties, and, of course, these are the ones that are being attacked. Whatever it is that is getting them is going after the seeds that are not quite developed, yet. So far, only the sunflowers in the Stump Garden are being attacked.
I’m not really sure what to do to protect my sunflowers from being beheaded by whatever is getting them. Since I’m home today, I will keep an eye out to see if I can see who is doing it since that may provide me with ideas on how to take care of the situation. I’ll also do some research to see what I can find.
I’ve had a few spiders take up residence in my sunflowers over the last few months. One of them actually started out on my Yarrow – a white Goldenrod Crab Spider – but migrated to the closest sunflower. The other spiders that I have seen the most have also been Goldenrod Crab Spiders in various sizes. They have definitely provided some really neat sites to be seen:
Goldenrod Crab Spider with a bee it captured
Not sure about the spider type, but it got one of the earwigs I’ve seen around the gardens
I don’t really like spiders, have an irrational fear of them, but I have to admit watching the spiders in my gardens has really been fun.
Goldenrod Crab spiders are considered a wandering spider, which means they don’t create webs but sit in wait on the flowers for something delicious to land, grabbing hold of its victim with its front legs and quickly delivering a paralyzing bite. Fairly efficient, in my opinion. I have to admit I’m not happy about the fact that it will catch bees, but the fact that it is also getting undesirable bugs makes the spider intriguing at least. One of the super neat things about this spider is the fact that it can alter its color, between white and yellow-ish, to better match the flower it is on. Super cool.
I had a problem with the Taurus this week. It threw up all of its fluid one day, and I had no idea why. I pretty much was thinking that this could be the end of the Taurus, which was a possibility. It appears that the dipstick tube wasn’t seated correctly, vibrated out of its spot, allowing the transmission fluid to leak out. Once the transmission was super hot from driving all over taking care of this and that, pretty much all of the fluid just poured out of that opening. Of course, I had no idea at the time that this was what was happening, so tried adding more transmission fluid, which most of it didn’t make it into the transmission but on to the ground.
There seemed to be a bit a cooling issue, as well. Not the engine overheating, but the transmission. I topped off the coolant in the car and that seems to have helped that, as well. The coolant hadn’t looked that low. The overflow reservoir was almost empty, but…well, that didn’t seem like a huge issue. I ended up having to add nearly an entire container of antifreeze to the car to get it to the right level. Apparently, it was much lower than I knew. Thankfully, the Taurus has taken a trip to Seattle and back, plus some other driving, and the problem has not repeated itself. Whew!
Well, I had better get going or laundry is never going to happen. I will end up just laying on the bed with my dogs, watching some Netflix, and napping a bit. I’m exhausted from my week and staying home just sounds like heaven right now, but I know when I go to grab clothes for work tomorrow and come up empty, it will not be a great thing, so off to the laundromat I go. Have a great day, Everyone!!
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 