How does your garden grow, alphabet-wise?

Quince (Japonica)

 How about an alphabet of plants blooming in my yard? To fill in further, I'll list plants that have already bloomed or are non-blooming. Then I’ll leave spaces where . . . well, you’ll see.

A = althea, abelia; B = (several types of) begonias; C = canna; D = dianthus; E = echinacea (coneflower); F = freesia; G = gardenia; H = hosta; I = (English) ivy; J = (flowering) jew; K = Kerria; L = lilies: (day, Easter), lantana; M = mullein pinks (aka lamb’s ear), mandevilla, mums; N = (would nut grass count?); O = oxalis; P = (none) --oh, the pear tree; Q = quince (japonica); R = (Knockout) roses; S = (none)--uh, sassafras; T = (none); U = (none); V = verbena; W = wisteria; X (none); Y = yarrow; Z = zinnia.

Kerria

Zero help online to find plants of the missing letters: K, P, S, T, U, X, so I went to the Webster's New World Portable Large Print Dictionary (a gift of my BFF) to see if I could find something I needed or wanted to plant to flesh out both the garden and the alphabet.

K shows kale (ugh), kidney beans (I have no vegetable garden), kohlrabi cabbage (ditto), kudzu (aarrgghh, no!Carolina moon vine is bad enough!), kumquat (er, no fruit trees but the pear. . . aha! there's the P: pear blossoms, and soon, fruit.)

S shows safflower, sage, salvia, sassafras (ah! I have lots of sassafras!Add sassafras to list). Now to T: tamarind? taro?--no, tropical plants that wouldn't grow here; tangerines? See last comment; tansy--what I called yarrow for the longest time; turnip--aha! one plant's growing from who-knows-how in front of the shed porch. Dare I dig it up to add to the ones friend Lydia brought me? [I did, and there was nothing but root. No "fruit."]

U: underbrush? There's plenty of that in the south yard; X sent me to Kid Billy's high school graduation gift, The American Heritage College Dictionary. Zilch. I mean, nothing. Perhaps a reader can give me a plant name beginning with X. I'll dance at your (next) wedding if you do. Until then . .

How does YOUR garden grow, alphabet-wise?

　

Lantana and zinnias

It's a good thing morning comes before noon

Oh my goodness! Wednesday noon came and went while I was on the phone with a long-time friend. In fact, we talked an hour and six minutes about families, what’s-happened-lately, what’s-to-come-later––the kinds of conversations old friends have who have been absent one from the other for fifteen years.

[Lunch: turkey burger on a bagel, with cheese and an onion slice, AND a small ear of corn, plus celery sticks and lemonade.]

Whee! It's noon already, and I'm through reading the paper, including the cryptoquote and the crossword. Is that a record? A near-record? Even with a drop-in visit by Anne B. on her way home from Thursday morning's Bible study and before she went over to Wanda's ("wherever she lives") to play Mexican Train Dominoes "with the girls"?

[Does climate change affect El Nino? The El Nino period is dissipating, but the frequency of heavy rains will likely continue, according to an Associated Press article.]

It can't be noon already!

Why not? It's Friday and you've already been to the bank (which opens at nine), the pharmacy, Office Depot, Home Depot, and then a long visit with your brother Bill and wife Janice. It was exactly noon when you pulled into your own driveway. Then you unloaded the potting soil, took the three mandevilla plants to the shed to repot so you'd have a matching one on the other end of the shed porch. And the gorgeous maroon-blossomed clematis lost its petals in the repotting. You decided to wait on unloading the five bags of marble chips till later.

[Tornado siren going off north of here, unless it’s being broadcast from a nearby worker’s truck. The Salem siren is silent.]

Geez! Is it noon already?

Yes, it is. Remember, you didn't get out of bed till nearly nine this Saturday morning. You had to relocate the modem closer to wall outlets that worked, after discovering last night that all the outlets on the living room-office wall were kaput. You even took the flashlight out to the electrical panel to see if a fuse had blown. Saw nothing but two spare fuses on "Off."

And then brother Guy asked if he could "swing by." He did, and took a look at the same electrical panel, but found––way down one row––that a fuse labeled "living room" had indeed blown.

Whew! Good eye, Guy!

[Muhammad Ali died at age 74. His "I Am the Greatest" sobriquet can perhaps now be bought by Donald Trump for his use in the continuing campaign.]

Is it noon already?

Yes, silly! It's Sunday and church is over at noon. Duh! Oh. Right. Then it’s about nap time, isn’t it? Just so you wake up before choir rehearsal at six.

Is it noon on Monday? Yes, ‘tis noon. You stayed up till all hours reading more of Watership Down, remember. Why in the world is a book about rabbits so enticing?

[What are those black wasp-like insects with shiny wings? Dirt daubers? One's bugging me.]

June is Bustin' Out all Over, the song says

Couchwood bed, early last year

Early in June, I thought to look up the national holidays for this already-sixth month in what used to be "the new year." Instead, I found June full of "month-long" celebrations or active thought andactivity times; times to stop and think, stop and do; go and do, etc.

1. Adopt a Shelter Cat Month - no thank you, I have two cats already; don't need or want another one.

2. Audio Book Month - Again, no thanks. I have a Kindle, and a library of hold-in-your-hands books; don't need to hear any more than what's already in my head or the birds or the construction sounds from the next lot over.

3. Cancer From the Sun Month - The amount of sun I get sitting in the swing in the mornings or from working in the yard during the day will not be a problem. Next.

They got more outré by the line (Celibacy Awareness Month?), so I tried another site and found the actual days that holidays fell on.

June 1st – Statehood Day - In Kentucky and Tennessee, in the United States, a celebration held on June 1 each year touting the states' admissions as the 15th and 16th states.

 June 6th – Jefferson Davis Birthday also known as Jefferson Davis Day, commemorates the birthday of a Confederate leader during the American Civil War in the 1860s. It is a state holiday in Alabama on the first Monday of June each year.

June 6th - D-Day - The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, and contributed to the Allied victory on the Western Front.

 June 6th or 7th – Ramadan begins - A crescent moon can be seen over palm trees at sunset in Manama, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan in Bahrain. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Every day during this month Muslims around the world spend the daylight hours in a complete fast.

June 10th – Kamehameha Day observed; June 11th – Kamehameha Day, honors Kamehameha the Great, the monarch who united and established the Kingdom of Hawaii.

June 12th – Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The Ten Commandments are read in synagogues, just as they were in the desert on Mt. Sinai over 3,300 years ago.

June 14th – Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on that day in 1777.

 Next time, I’ll find out about the special days for the remainder of June, some of which are: June 17th – Bunker Hill Day; the 19th – Fathers’ Day, Juneteenth and Emancipation Day; the 20th – June Solstice.

Here are two quotes I taped to the desk lamp: "Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." – Franz Kafka, and "Beauty is not caused. It is." – Emily Dickinson

 

Brother Guy's begonia--last year

 

Son Eric's hanging baskets - last year