It rained!  I can feel the whole field and garden sighing relief.

This morning there was a thick fog, and out of it moseyed a big fat possum!  It looked like a giant siamese rat stalking around, but totally harmless and beneficial.  I wonder if it has babies in there.  I wasn’t able to photograph it, unfortunately.  It’s welcome back anytime.

I did snap some soggy foggy flower scenes, the best kind.  I also picked some fat and happy zucchini and pole beans.

Now of course it’s a hot wet sauna out there, but that’s the south.

I just had to add a post about what’s happening out in the “prairie” area.  The white flowers are mountain mint.  They are always covered with a fascinating assortment of pollinator bees, wasps, and other beneficial insects.  I love to stop and watch them work.

Also blooming, despite weeks of drought, are all these drifts of wildflowers.  Many are from native seeds I broadcast throughout the field last fall, finally germinating.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment, even if I’m not here to see the culmination.  For now, I’m just hoping for some rain relief.

Also exciting, I saw my first hummingbird of the season hovering over the cutting garden, which is really exploding with flowers.  As usual, I couldn’t catch it in the act, but I know all the work I did is paying off.

The process of winding down here is moving along.  E continues to repair, restore, and improve the interior/exterior.  This house had some issues, but at least we’re leaving it much better than we found it.

The landscaping still needs some tweaking, but I’m working on it.  It’s mostly cosmetic at this point.  I suspect this will be my gardening finale, other than keeping future temporary rentals minimally maintained.  Just practical reality, I guess.  Ownership is really just borrowship, after all.  Then someone else has to clean up after you.

Here is your daily dose, including a tiny baby eggplant!  Which for me is a big deal, considering the “soil” I’m up against.  See it now, before the varmints get it.  Peppers are doing well, though, and if those tomatoes ever turn red, they’ll be good, too.

Not only has one little passionflower plant taken over the whole sun perennial bed, blooming continually, but–gasp–a passionfruit is forming!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a passionfruit, let alone grown one.  Hey, it’s a big event for someone with no life!

In even more boring news, there were three zucchinis in the garden today! I guess I found a variety that can grow in toxic cement!  Yes, this is what I live for!

The new gladioli and stokes aster are in full bloom, as are many more zinnias and others.  It’s like a Pride pageant which continues well after Pride Month is over.  We’ll go out with a bang.

It’s hot–not hot like the Pacific NW historic heatwave, but hot enough to stay indoors and continue to be a shredding machine.  I can almost see the bottom of the pile now.  It’s been like traveling back in time to literally the last millennium, before electronic files or ID theft were a thing.  What was I thinking?!  I’ve learned my lesson on hoarding paper trails.  Never again.

New flowers are starting to bloom, like the gladioli I planted along the side fence, a nasturtium, and stoke’s aster just opening.  Others, like zinnias, coneflowers, black-eyed susans, St. John’s Wort, bee balm, and phlox, continue to get better, attracting many more bees and pollinators.  The “prairie” (not shown here) is filling up with wildflowers and fascinating beneficial insect life.

Early each morning at sunrise I walk around the garden and marvel at each new wave of brilliant flowering and growth.

As I loosen my hold on this creation, I begin to see it as someone else moving in might, if they have the patience and sense of discovery to wait and see what’s here.  At least that’s what I would do.  Even if they’re just lazy and unmotivated to mow it all down, that would work.

For now, I’m just taking it all in, and not a whole lot else.  To some, it might look like a crazy profusion, but to me it’s letting nature breathe, with minimal management.  This property was always going to be too much for us to transform, and watching development encroach and threaten to devour it, I can see the logic and timeliness of getting out now.

Still, I feel fortunate to have had a place to experiment and gain more botanical experience, even through failures.  Mostly, I learned that most things are beyond my ability to control, so just adapt to conditions and work with, not against, reality.  Or move on.

Today in veg news we have purple pod pole beans, sweet banana peppers, the last of the snap peas, and some collards and kale.  Also another zucchini on the way, and a mystery squash/melon (?).  So many volunteers came back from seed in the compost, I can’t even identify them all.

As for flowers, it’s a Pride rainbow out there.  I never lack for bouquets.  I just sit back and watch the parade.  The light lavender Monarda (bee balm) did really well this year, which the bees and I appreciate.

Disclaimer: This is not a Blog.  This is a Blahg.

Let’s be clear, there’s a difference.  Really.  I am blahging ironically.  It’s actually just a lot of blah blah about oldster gardening with the occasional political rant or personal reflection.  Fortunately for my one and 3/4 or so readers, the rant segments have decreased proportionately to trump’s decline.  Let’s hope it continues that way.

Sometimes bland and boring interludes can be good for mental health.  Just to clarify.  Thanks for not snoring too loudly.

And now back to our regular flowers and a cat.

I’ve packed up all my books (the majority of my possessions), revealing the intriguing cat-case (bookcase for cats), which Misu immediately claimed as her new throne.  Once books are packed, it starts to hit home for me that this is no longer home.  Maybe it never was.

Each day brings new flowers.  The gladioli are starting to bloom, and the cutting garden presents new surprises daily.  The front perennial bed is truly a cottage garden as intended, and the main veg bed-turned-flower garden makes the house look like it’s in a wildflower meadow.  Peppers are starting to ripen.  I’m glad I got to see all this before I’m gone.

Here is your daily flower frenzy.  Lots of bees and pollinators are at work.

You knew I’d be back with more flowers, now that I’m back up.  So much has happened just since the rainstorm last night.  I can feel the collective sigh of relief.  The “prairie” is starting to look like one.

Not least is our first zucchini of the season, a Rosita.  I swear it wasn’t there yesterday!  Note the really cool black and orange wasp on the mountain mint.