My little tire garden today.

I just got outside to water and take a few pictures of my garden at start of our best gardening season ((Oct.-April). It is alive with color right now. You can see all the zinnias, which are blooming their fool heads off right now, the roses, some succulent shots, and how full the Black Knight has gotten and covered in blooms! The puffs are at each branching along each stem.....you can trim them and still have millions of blooms! Incredible. I love them all so much! My mum is shaggy right now, but is covered in more buds, so hope to see more flowers soon.  The one picture of two tiny flowers were weeds just handed to me by Emily, my 4 year old granddaughter, and of course i needed a shot of them!  The one picture of a restaurant we visited in Okeechobee, Florida, was called Cowboys. It was pretty cool. Our steaks were not all that great, but I feel they are doing a lot of things right, as it was packed on a Monday night.....clearly the place to be for food in this town!

My sweet variegated gasteria

I was passing by my succulent area from outside the screenroom, and looking in, I re-discovered my love for variegated plants! My Gasteria has a newish looking solid yellow bit growth in it, which I could only see from the backside of the plant! I suppose I should pay them more attention, even when it is so hard to spend much time out there in this heat!  I will make it up to them in a few months!!!  I promise.

Here are a back and front view of this outstanding specimen! I paid a bit more for it a few years ago, but felt in my heart then, as i do now, such happiness just gazing at it's beauty!

Thankyou quiet little sweet gasteria!!!

Succulent cuties!

Today I spied some changes in the succulent tires! One thing is that the Rattail Cactus my blogging friend, Claude had sent me, has finally put out a sideshoot! I am thrilled. It has been out in full sun for about 6 months already, but I am sad to say I have not gotten it planted into a larger pot yet. I need to get it into a hanging dish, and keep it in full sun...just need to get off my lazy (yet overly busy, if that is understandable) butt, and do it!
I am psyched, Claude!!!!!

Well, we'll just call this one BIG DADDY, and leave it at that!!!!!! Whew!

Here are a couple of cuties basking in the sun between a bunch of low growing Kalenchoe tubifloras, and Silver Squill...they look great together, don't they????? Yeah, baby!

And a few more pretties together! They love the winter sun!

My Kalenchoe (Mother of Thousands, or Millions, hehehe) is growing it's long stalk up to the sky to flower again...not much to see yet, but I took a few pics up close, and got this one. What a monster plant! Kinda scary/freaky looking!

Then my grandson and I went to PiZap, online photo editer, and had a little fun experimenting around, but ending up just adding some sunflowers for eyeballs. We decided that this guy is a BIG talker...and he's a little silly now!!! Hehehehe.

Hope you all have wonderful weekends wherever you are in the world!
xoxo- Julie

Happy Cactus Monday

On Cactus Monday, I thought I would just show you an interesting conglomeration of succulents with a cactus in the middle, and a few weeds thrown in just for fun!

And how pretty these Donkey Ears (Kalanchoe Gastonis Bonnieri) are getting!

Happy Monday!

Happy Cactus Monday!

Good day everyone! Happy Monday! I have no idea what the name of this succulent is...I have had it for years, and it grows slowly for me, but has gotten a lot larger and is so pretty. Happy in shade, hanging out with the other sux in the screenroom.

I am so looking forward to cooler air, when I can get out there and work with my plants. I do walk out daily to check on the progress of the okra blooms....they are all still buds...but since I re-fertilized, the leaves are a lovely dark green. The buds are growing larger, and I keep thinking "any day now"!!!

I am thinking I may be visiting IKEA today...that will be fun!

My new job's hours are keeping me sort of like a zombie all week! Working until 2am, and not getting home till 2:30am...then having a snack and...BAM...I still cannot fall asleep till nearly 4am on those three days (Thurs-Fr-Sat) each week.....and now it is Monday and I am all screwed up with my sleeping!!!

The California and Colorado fires are so disturbing!!! Just terrible. You know how much I love my California...it hurts me to see places burn up. That gas line explosion was just aweful.

The latest art around here is litle Emily with a new little chalkboard...she loves it! Drawing, scribbling, carrying it with her all around the house! What a darling little girl! I'm not MADLY in love! Oh no...not at all...yeah right!!!

Not much else happening...oh there is one little thing...a new tiny little art studio opened up right next to the art store here...I peeked in the window yesterday (closed on Sundays), and three artists works were on display! I must go over soon to check it out! One thing the owner/artist is doing is "Stamp Art" where she actually paints a real stamp on a large canvas...the ones that have a "cancelled stamp" on them are really pretty!

Add note: I just woke up and it is 11:15pm on Monday night, only to discover that I had started this post yesterday and I fell asleep and never hit the PUBLISH button. I am messed up with my sleep now. Exhausted. Oh dear... Well...at least it is still 45 more minutes until the clock rolls over to Tuesday and I can still say Happy Cactus Monday everyone!!!
Julie

Baby Cat, and my new sux all potted up!

My male cat, Baby (named by my daughter after Baby Spice...poor guy)! I am afraid I have only posted 3 times previously about Baby in this particular blog. If you are interested in seeing these, you can find them HERE!

Now I got over to Lowes for my cactus soil this evening and got all my new sux (Thanks Mandy) into their new homes. They will be moved around, I'm sure of that, over time, but for now...here they are! Can't wait to see how big those Donkey Ears (Kalanchoe gastonis-bonnieri) get!!!!!!

A surprise in the mail, and Gloriosa City!!!

I got a box in the mail today!!!!! It was a nice surprise, in the middle of baking a loaf of bread (my latest obsession)! Mandy from A Few Of My Favorite Things sent it to me, with some of her sweet succulents! Her Donkey Ears, some beautiful Haworthia, some Flippin Flapjack Kalenchoes, and some of the cutest Sedum I've ever seen...almost all rooted too! Thanks, Mandy...I really appreciate them! I really wanted to see the Donkey Ears...can't wait to see what happens with them! I will get them planted up tomorrow!!!

Now, in random order, I present my Mom's Gloriosa Lilies, which have grown all in and around her front garden! Just wanted to share a few pics of all this lovliness! You have this to look forward to Claude!!!






xoxo- Julie

Succulent hayday...a few shots in random order from my screenroom.

Something possessed me to take a few pics today of some of my little cuties...I have taken to giving them people names because I am too lazy to keep memorizing all those botanical names...I am so bad. I do hope you can enjoy just having a look at them. Of course, if anyone needs a botanical name, just let me know, and I'm sure I can find it for you! If you want to see anything closer-up, just click on it. Why are succulents so appealing/artistic? They are just plain old happiness generators! ENJOY!!!