Dazed and Confused

It's been so dry and so hot for so long (it's not true, wanted a woman, never bargained for you-ou...), that my Okame Cherry doesn't know its asshole from its elbow.

Or more appropriately (and less crassly) whether it's spring or fall.

It has blooms sprinkled throughout the top. In mid-September.



Normally this tree has beautiful, light pink flowers in very early spring. In fact, mine is an earlier bloomer than other cherry tree varieties.

Why the blooms?

This tree has basically been tortured. Fried under the scorching sun for 6 months, deprived of water, bits of it have been consistently falling off. I tried to sneak it water once in awhile, but it wasn't enough.

Suddenly, the reverse happens.

The tree thinks,'Shit! (because my tree swears just as much as I do) Did we skip winter?' and squeezes out a few flowers, trying to get with the program.

My magnolias do this a lot as well. Maybe it has nothing to do with torture.

*whispers* I think my trees are all smoking crack.

OR, there could also be some rational, scientific explanation. I just prefer to anthropomorphize my trees. And use big words.

I've also been getting these creepy dragonflies all this week.

Usually I think dragonflies are kind of pretty, but these ones are sort of nasty and seedy looking...like they'd take all your money and stab you in a dark alley and leave you for dead.

This is the best picture I could get of one...


Speaking of being dazed and confused, I feel that way myself. Can you tell? This post is all over the place.

I've done a couple of overnight shifts at work (I was supposed to do four, but we got everything done early because we're awesome!). I swear have to keep checking what day it is.

*squints* Oh look, it's September 13th...it's my stepdaughter's 15th birthday. That makes me feel old. Ooooooooooooold. When I met Chuck, she was 8.

Freaks my shit out.



She wanted 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' for her birthday. And being the cool stepmum that I am, I bought it for her.

That girl loves a drag queen as much as I do. She's awesome.

In The Room the Women Come and Go, Talking of Michelangelo

I used to think that fall was my favourite season. These days, nothing does it for me like spring.

J. Alfred Prufrock had his life measured out in afternoons and coffeespoons. Mine is measured out by full moons and cherry blooms.



I think my Okame Cherry tree is coming along nicely. The blooms on it are a little different looking this year. They're quite a lot bigger and droop a little.



I'm hoping this year will be a little easier on it. Last year it was so damn hot right from the end of April to the end of September. I watered the shit out of it, and it still was struggling.



Hopefully it's a little more settled this year, with a stronger root system. I took those pictures yesterday about 30 seconds before the sky opened up and started pouring buckets.

Thankfully I was inside at the time, because I hate getting wet. Getting rained on feels so disgusting to me...like I'm a cat that just got dropped unceremoniously into a full bathtub. I don't understand people that love being in the rain. Don't get me wrong, I think rain is necessary, I just don't want to be under it when it's happening. Bleah.

Today it's nice and sunny. I'm sorry I missed a lot of the morning, I slept in late. We had inventory at work last night, which I always dread. I didn't get home till about 2:30AM. But now it's over for another year. As will be my cherry blossoms, very soon.

The Social Pages Say I've Got The Biggest Balls Of All

Cotton balls, that is. Any other balls I may possess are strictly metaphorical in nature.




I've been documenting the growth of the cotton plants in the farmer's field behind my house. You can see past photos here and here.

This is what the field looks like right now. I love all the orangey-reds in the leaves.








Now for some pics from my yard...

A cardinal stopping by for a snack.


My honeysuckle is still popping out blooms. Hence, the hummingbirds are still around. That's a month later than they stayed last year. Saw one yesterday.


My mum plants are ENORMOUS. I have two in the back garden, this is one of them.



I really like the way the buds look when they're about to burst open :)



The back garden looks pretty much the same as when I showed it to you last month. Someone should really take that dead lily stalk out of there.

*looks over shoulder*

Really. Will someone please get that? Anyone?

*sigh*



And here's a truly scary sight, just in time for Halloween...



I'm such a lazy ass. But no one can see this atrocity but me. And that's only if I choose to open the blinds in my bedroom.

My okame cherry has filled back out with all that rain. Just in time for it to re-drop the leaves for the winter. *sigh* Love that dark, satiny bark though.



I wish my neighbour's boat wasn't in every shot of that tree. I'm just going to start telling people that it's my boat.

Last year my crepe myrtle leaves turned a fiery red-orange, and stayed that way for about a month before dropping the leaves. This year, most of the leaves are dropping without turning colour.



My poor butterfly bush got uprooted during the storms. It's only half uprooted though, so it's still growing. But it doesn't want to behave when I try and pull it back this way.



Toad lilies are going all out.



Some of the ageratum I had planted in the spring survived the temps of the summer, and bounced back.



More mums.



Some petunias. Man, I love the smell of those things. And they do really well as long as I water them every couple of days. No fuss.



And my holly bush is now covered in bright red berries!



I love it, it just looks so Christmassy!

Oh shit, I just said the C-word!

Oh shit!I just said shit!

I'm sorry!

Not really.

What a mood I'm in today, eh?

I might as well include the pics of the storms we had. I'm never going to get around to writing a blog about it.

I will say that it made my life hell at work, because I spent an entire shift trying to find enough garbage cans to catch all the leaks in the store. And that night I couldn't get home from work, because the flooding was so bad in my area that the police blocked off every route in, including all four lanes of the highway. Had to sleep on a generous co-worker's couch. Sucked. SUCKED.

The ibises loved it. Bastards.





How come pics of rain never turn out to look as bad as the weather actually is?





My neighbour's 10 year old apple tree was uprooted completely. It's still sitting in the neighbour's driveway because they don't know what to do with it. (they're just renting the house)




My house is at least up on a little higher ground than some in the area. These are pics my friend Jennifer (who lives just down the road) took at her house. Much more dramatic looking...





Her house looks like it's got a moat.



The weather THIS week has been bitchin'. Sunny. Comfortably warm. Nice cool breeze. Best. Vacation. Ever. And I still have 5 days!

Okame Chameleon

"Okame, kameh, kameh, kameh, kameh, chameleuuuuuuuuuuun...."

Don't you miss the days when Boy George was normal?



Much cheerier than 'I Beat My Sex Slave Up And Now I Do Community Service' George.



Although, he still can rock a dust mask and work gloves like nobody's business!

All right, let's get to it. Gentlemen?

*cue fanfare*


I am now the proud owner of an Okame Cherry tree!


Mr. A is the most wonderful man on earth for buying it for me. Although I worry that he didn't buy this wonderful present simply out of the goodness of his heart. Maybe he just couldn't take the 'mope face' anymore.

Nobody mopes like Kyna mopes!


I am happy to say that I dug most of the massive planting hole myself. Mr. A would probably have insisted on doing it all for me, but he was busy fixing my car. Jack-of-All-Trades, he is! :)

This pic shows you how terrible our soil is here. Clay and sand make a colossal concrete-like substance. A pickaxe would have been a more appropriate tool for this mess. And this picture doesn't even show the finished hole-size...



I have sore shoulders and a couple of nasty blisters for my efforts. And I'm walking around in a cloud of dirt like Pig-Pen from Peanuts.



Even though this type of cherry does okay in clay, I did tote home a bag of soil, and a bag of cow peat to make the growing situation better. All of the work was worth it...this is the most beautiful tree ever! And it's just starting to bloom. Okame Cherries are one of the first trees to start flowering for the spring.






The flowers will only last a little while, but they're awesome. And Okames tend to have a longer flowering period of any Cherry. They'll get me through the last part of winter at least. And even when the tree has no leaves in the colder parts of the year, the bark is still pretty to look at. Satiny brown and shiny...


I wish I could have had it a little closer to the house, but we have a huge septic tank field in the backyard. It had to be a little ways out. I was originally going to put it in the front yard, but we decided we wanted to be able to see it more often. We sit on the back porch as an everyday afternoon ritual. Usually with a brew-ski :)




I've wanted a cherry tree since I started gardening in this house, and thanks to Mr. A, there it is! I'd do a dance (I always do a little dance when I'm happy), but I'm way too exhausted. All I can manage is a weak arm-flapping and pitiful butt-wiggling. The joy is on the inside!



The only thing I worry about is lichen growing on it. Our neighbours have three apple trees, and the trunks look like they're wearing green beards. Bleah. I had to wait till the neigbour left, so I could run into their yard and take a picture without looking like a lunatic. I probably looked like one anyway ;)


I love you Okame Cherry. George Washington, eat your heart out!


Hmmm....another George. Are there too many Georges in this post? No? Good, then I'm going to add a few more.






And my favourite...


You're welcome, Ladies. ;)