"It Pays to Shop Around"

O.k, sometimes she is right.......o.k. most of the time she is right!  We are getting the gardens here at Menagerie Manor in shape for my annual "Staff Party" that we have missed out having the last two years.    Several years ago MeMa returned from Hawaii with a new penchant for Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile.  So I being the adoring loving husband ordered three out of a nursery catalog.  They arrived in a few days, in little tube like containers.  MeMa did not believe me when I insisted they were her beloved Agapanthus.  A few days passed and they still did not look like much, I was out working in the garden when MeMa arrived home from a shopping trip with a very smug look on her face.  She proudly placed three of the largest pots of Agapanthus on the ground and then told me, "This is what Agapanthus look like," My paltry little weaklings cost me over forty dollars with shipping added in.  She paid nine dollars apiece for each five gallon container plants.  Actually my three little weaklings did not survive their first winter but MeMas are thriving and beautiful.  In getting ready for this party we decided to finish the bed off with two more clumps of Agapanthus so the search was on again.  I was willing to pay thirty dollars apiece at our back yard nursery but MeMa insisted I keep looking.  The next plants I found priced at 29.95 met with her disapproval as well.  Yesterday we were at a hardware store and happened to wander out to the garden department when MeMa spotted Agapanthus for $7.50 a pot....wait....oh yes, there was that smug look on her face again.

On the left is one of the first clumps just starting to bloom and on the right are the two new clumps.

Carefully Stored Tools?

As you may have guessed I take great pride in my collection of garden implements, and I have a large number of them. When used, I carefully clean and put them away and each one has its specific place. So when my heavy garden rake came up missing I was quite sure that some evil person had taken it or perhaps Lucy our resident ghost had decided that it would be great fun to start snatching things outdoors for a change of pace. The damn thing has been gone now for at least six months and Lucy never keeps things for more than a few weeks or a single month at the most.....so she is out of the equation....so back to thievery!

Oh not sooooo fast you blooming twit! Now in my defense I only have one useful eye and then there is the age thing going on here.......hmmmm. Click on the photo to enlarge if you like but just to the right of the bird house is the missing rake. Actually it would still have been missing except while out watering and feeding MeMa's Ladies.........

.........I heard a loud tapping noise only to look down at odd Gigi tapping out a tune on a wood pole thingy sticking out from behind the clematis growing on the chicken yard fabric. My garden rake is now firmly part of the chicken yard fencing, there really is no budging it. Anyone have a garden rake this old, half blind, absent minded gardener could borrow????

Sneaking Back

I could bore you all with tons of excuses as to why I have been absent but the plain and simple version is that life in general has been keeping me away. Nothing in particular just life, I'm quite sure you can all relate. I hope all of you out there in Blogger land are doing well. I did a quick walk through the garden this morning before heading off to work. So will post a few photo's and then be off.

Click on photos

I missed these Night Blooming Cyrus, but was grateful they hung on till morning

The greenhouse was filled with their perfume

.....and just outside the greenhouse door a nice clump of "Poor Man's Orchids" "Impatiens balfourii"

I planted these dwarf Hen's and Chicks last year and was quite pleased to see they bloomed a wonderful rose color. I think MeMas "ladies" enjoyed them as well.

Clematis Jackmanii, a vigorous bloomer

One of MeMa's favorite roses, "Mr. Lincoln"

One of my favorite roses,  "Mme Alfred Carriere". A very fragrant climber bred in  France in 1879 

Giant pumpkin seedlings will hopefully produce a winner for the annual Pumpkin Parade

I harvested these French Fingerling potatoes yesterday

We have had a very good year with these delicious sugar snap peas, this is the last of them.

We have frozen so many Raspberries, consumed many a breakfast feast and turned the "Little Terrorists" loose on them weekly in a grazing frenzy.





Hydrangea 'Sensation'

Treasures of The Past

Watching the Queens Jubilee on television inspired me to rummage through the library shelves and find my Coronation Book, that is my Coronation Book of their Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

1937 Coronation Book along with a Post Card of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

I was given this most cherished book from my first employer when I lived in England, Beryl Kelland who owned and operated the Ardley Boarding Kennels near Bisester Oxfordshire. Inside the book I found some news clippings that I had stuck in.

But the photos in the book are of this remarkable family and its a thrill to look back and see what this family has been through.

From the death of King George V to the brief reign of King Edward VII, then to the reign of King George VI,  her Majesty Queen Elizabeth's father.

Queen Elizabeth and the Heir Presumptive Princess Elizabeth





Quiet Saturday.......Hardly!

This last Saturday started out innocent enough, we had plans to attend "Little Terrorist #2" Brooklyn's fourth birthday party and that was to be the extent of it.  The party was to happen in the local park unless rain, then it would take place at their home.  Three hours prior I received a frantic call from a Supervisor with the local Transit Agency....."Hello Doc? We have a large exotic bird that showed up three days ago and no one has called you so I just thought..... well.....if you would be so kind as to come rescue it before it gets killed by one of these trains."  I was still dressed in garden grubs and was planning on doing some watering and cleaning up in the greenhouse before showering and dressing for the party.  MeMa was meeting with the Hospice people getting her father transferred from hospital back to his care center.  I asked what sort of bird he thought it was as that would play on what equipment I took with me.  He said "It has blue and white and some black stripes on it."  I asked if it was a parrot like bird to which he stammered and then said, "I don't know birds, but it walks like a chicken but it's not a chicken."  I asked if it was a pheasant, to which he asked ...."what's a pheasant?" At this point MeMa came home so I told him we would be there in twenty minutes.  I loaded one of my largest cages into my truck along with a large blanket and off we went.   On arrival the Supervisor met us and informed us that he and another employee attempted to capture the bird themselves and only frightened it up the side of an ivy covered bank that ran about a quarter mile, but they had an idea were it had disappeared.  I was less than hopeful at finding this mysterious exotic bird and the recent heavy rains did not make the thought of climbing through all that wet ivy and brush very appetizing.  I started climbing the bank getting soaked to the skin in the first few feet and crashing through the brush up to my shoulders in some locations.  MeMa stood with blanket in hand and a reassuring smile on her face to urge me on.  I stomped around hoping to send the bird out from its hiding place and was just calling it a wash and heading back down the slope when out it dashed towards the supervisors waiting on the pavement.  They all turned and ran like frightened school girls leaving MeMa standing firm and keeping it from running further.  I could see that it was a pheasant at this point but watching the fleeing men it could have been a man eating Pterodactyl.  The bird quickly ran into some brush and was quiet, so I approached the area and soon saw the frightened bird crouched unmoving deep in the undergrowth.  I slowly slid my hand in and then grabbed it by the legs hoisting it out at the same time.

With the ellusive bird in hand, my pants and shoes soaked with rain. MeMa still laughing at the memory of the two men running away from the frightened bird

Turned out to be a Lady Amherst Pheasant cock and not a Pterodactyl



And if not for the horrible location it chose to wander into I probably would have let it remain.

So while MeMa went off to the feed store for pheasant feed I installed the cage under the orchid bench in the greenhouse as it is very quiet and a good place for me to observe it without upsetting it any further.
Showered and dressed we then went to the birthday party which because of the continuing rain was held at the house which is small and the number of guests was.....large!  After hugs all round and setting Brooklyn's gift on the table with the rest of the booty I quietly slipped crossed the street as there was an Estate sale going on......SCORE!!!!

The departed was evidently a garden enthusiast. There was a greenhouse at the back of the house and the sale staff said everything in there was a marked at a dollar but they would make a deal if that was too much???? Without asking they sold me the four sprayers for one dollar for the lot which was good as I had to clean them out...... But the industrial greenhouse exhaust fan.....one dollar? I checked on line and the best I could find was $140.00  

The Spring Rose Show is this Thursday and with that in mind I started placing umbrella stands over all my hopeful entries.  The "Crazy Cat Lady" soon came out on her porch to hiss out her usual questions, so after covering what I could I retreated back into the house. Hissssss.