Getting the Most out of Your Garden Roses

The Rose Chronicles or Getting the Most out of Your Garden Blooms:
1. Look out in utter disbelief that you have woken up to such an insane amount of blooms.
2. Think, "What did I do right?"
3. Pick and cut as many blossoms as possible (before the petals fall off in less than half an hour) and surround yourself with them in as many places as your abode has to offer.
4. Look at them constantly and think, "Oh you little guys. You little magical miracles."
5. Put your nose in their soft little blossom faces as often as possible and breathe deeply. Cliché sure, but let it be said: intoxicating, right?
6. Catch all the delicate velvety petals (which will fall off in the aforementioned half an hour) and scatter over your husband while he sleeps, throw in your bath water, save for your ice cream or make jam or use for this something delicious, (as long as you don't grow them with chemicals.)
7. Let them make you fee romantic. Suffer tiny heart pangs if you have to leave them for a few days. Appreciate them as fleeting jewels, inspirations, the kindest offerings you can give to yourself as they keep on coming to you and you stop. to. smell them...

*I both blame and thank P. and Marie for David Austin.

First Harvest on Tiny Farm

uno mas rose and some good looking tomatoes etc.

more little things: two figs, some little cherry tomatoes,
green beans and a yellow cucumberer

seriously dudes, that was one big squarsh

mid-summer heat and tiny insectual assholes eating my nasturtium and biting my nicotania.
YOU WILL NOT GET MY ROSES! I'll get you critters.

man blossoms and the second yellow cucumber all gathered on my favorite plate

For weeks I thought I was destined to eat squash blossoms and herbs I don't know the latin names of all summer. Apparently and according to something I happened to read, squash blossoms for fritter-making are the male flowers. And suddenly the other day, I combed through my tiny farm garden and saw it: The biggest squash in the world (probably), growing out of some female blossom's ass! Squash is the ass of a lady flower!

Disregard that if it sounds unappetizing when I say, we shaved that blossom's ass (aka the SQUASH) thin, doused it with olive oil, a few drops of sherry vinegar and chopped garden mint, seasoned with sea salt and cracked pepper, served with thin slices of prosciutto and fig quarters.
Sliced the tomatoes, sprinkled with salt, great olive oil Vanessa just brought us back from Italy, tore some basil on top and served with some justifiably expensive French feta cheese from Whole Foods, which was the only international--read here: not local, dish of the evening. The rest was from Tiny Farm, the new name of my high-yield-for-now garden.

The Irises

Or is that Iris (plural)? My yard is blooming with these watercolory glamorous dragons.

Monday Dose: The Icelandic Poppy and Disorder

A close-up view of the "Icelandic (Arctic) Poppy"

I'm not sure whether I am more inspired by microscopic looks at things, the magnification of that thing, where you can see beyond the outside of what you think you see and get to the heart of what makes a thing a thing, deep below the surface...or this excited description of the "Icelandic (Arctic) Poppy" from UK site, "A Flower Garden of Macroscopic Delights" by Brian Johnston (Canada) (deb's new favorite site). Please read:

"Many plants have buds in which the enclosed petals are neatly packed. This is most definitely not the case with the arctic poppy! The extremely crinkled appearance of the fully open blooms (below) is due to the fact that the petals have been packed in a totally disorganized fashion within the bud, an example of which can be seen above. This crinkled appearance is however, not a detriment, but an attractive and interesting trait."
-Brian Johnson

I hereby declare this week "Disorganized and Crinkly Appearance Week" where-to-fore a disorganized and crinkly appearance for humans is no longer a detriment, but an attractive and interesting trait.
Wishing you many more inspirations for the week...

Rain at Work

Took these at my parent's house. My mom was surprised when I came back inside all wet. I love to watch Spring at work.