Hot!

Holy cow is it hot out there! Wee too early for 100 plus temps, but we've got them, and they don't seem to be going away. Thankfully I have shade a-plenty under our back porch and our mesquite tree which continues to consume the south side of the house. I must have been smoking some really good stuff when I planted some of these things, our water bill is going to be brutal this month. In actuality though, I hope it's not so bad since I had to cut down the two thirstiest trees in the yard, the ficus that were damaged by our freeze in January (which seems like such a distant memory when it's 102 degrees out).

Below are a few recent pictures, including:

The orange jubilee on the south side of the house, damaged by the freeze, now a jungle again and blooming heavily, despite the heat. You just can't kill these things.

On the back porch, my lamb's ear is somehow still alive, and in the foreground, the dutchman's pipe, which still smells like rotting garbage, mmmm.

Here is an upclose picture of a bloom on this bizarre little plant. It smells worse then the leaves, if that's possible.

Under the mesquite, one of my favorite plants, the turk's cap, which is blooming also. This plant struggled the last few summers, but I think now that the mesquite is throwing a heavier shade, it will do just fine this year, as long as it stays wet.

Finally, two different versions of love-lies-bleeding. The first which came up from a seed off last years plant, dwarfing my bush river willow tree that's in the same pot. Directly below that is a purple variety of the same plant.

These seeds apparently re-germinate even in these arid conditions. Besides the one plant that showed up in this pot below, I have three more growing on the opposite side of the house. Every part of the plant is edible, from the leaves to the seeds.