Gizzy in Heaven!

Gizzy in Heaven!
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Of sunflowers, birds and Gizzy's new toys!

Happy First Day of Summer to the rest of the world because I feel we've started summer here about a month ago, but I'm determined to enjoy it no matter what because I refuse to wish my life away!



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Earlier today, Gizzy and I took a little stroll around the apartment to see how the plants are doing. Most of my big sunflowers from earlier have bloomed away and are hanging their heads. We're just waiting for them to turn to seed so the birds can have a go at it.


Most of the white Crepe Myrtle is done blooming and the red or pink variety is going strong.


For some reason they are not attracting as many bees as the white blossoms, but it might be because the white ones open earlier and the bees have been waiting to attack them more eagerly...just guessing, of course!

I planted several varieties of sunflowers, so I have different kinds growing that have not bloomed yet. I'm particularly impressed with these two giants that I had to stake down for the big storms as I did not want them broken (I think I would have cried)...look at all those leaves on these flowers. They are shooting out from the stems as if they might bloom on several places, not just on top:



Gizzy looks like a little bug next to them:


I don't recall the names of them because I had my seeds all mixed up and one packet had mixed sunflower seeds in them. So far, I've had sunflowers not much bigger than a daisy and others as big as a small tree. It's been really fun to see the different colors from bright yellow to rust. Many of the smaller ones have several blossoms on top.



No matter what the size, there are bees all over these sunflowers.

(see the bee at 1 o clock? - ok, 5 after 12)



But the prettiest flower in the garden has got to be the unique and rare Gizzy-flower as they are extinct. There's only one in the whole world and I'm lucky enough to call it mine.

After we perused the perimeter, we sat out back to watch the birds on my neighbor's bird feeding station. That is always very entertaining. Even Gizzy gets into it sometimes. Sadly, I don't have a very strong zoom lens on my camera, but I think you get the idea of what transpired here:

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal


Mr. C looking majestic all dressed in red.and Mrs. C in brown on the other feeder to the right towards the top.


Here Mr. C is getting the food


...then flies to the ground


where he's feeding Mrs. C who flew down earlier waiting for him.


Then he's going back for more to repeat the process of feeding his mate.

This went on for a good long while and it was very entertaining to watch.


Turns out Mr. C is a very good husband


and not just a pretty face!

Speaking of pretty face, here's my boy sitting out back watching me take a photo of him.


I also wanted to show you my cantaloupe that is growing in the flower bed. I just dug out the seeds from a musk melon one day and put them straight away in the soil and now, it's a big vine that's been climbing over the kohlrabi and lemon bush and producing yellow blossoms, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be harvesting some cantaloupe this year...


I also have some Kohlrabi growing along the border of this flower/rose bed, but I have no idea when/if they will make it. I just make sure everything's watered and fertilized regularly and the rest is out of my hands.

When we came back inside, we played with his new toys his auntie Sandy from the Banks Lake Outpost gave him:


I experimented with the special effects feature of the Picasa photo editing program. Gizzy sitting on the table, surrounded by his unicorn, pilgrim and purple blob stuffed toys.


The unicorn is nice, but he prefers the purple blob. You can really sink your teeth into that one:





(and we'll spare the pilgrim till Thanksgiving!)

That's about it for today. I wish you all a very cool summer and enjoy your week. Until next time. Stay well!

13 comments:

Lisa @ Two Bears Farm said...

Your flowers seem to be flourishing!

LOL on Gizzy and the Purple Blob. That sounds like the name of a cartoon.

Doris Sturm said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
babymotte said...

Hallo meine liebe Doris...
ohhh,vielen Dank für den Hinweis das ich meinen Kommentar auch in Deutsch hinterlassen darf...
Ich habe nach 30 Jahren über das www. meinen Freund aus der Schule wiedergefunden,hach...das ist so schön...seine Eltern sind damals nach Texas ausgewandert...er schreibt auch noch in seiner Muttersprache ♥♥♥
Schöne Bilder zeigst Du uns da wieder...
Lasse liebste Grüße hier...Heike

Ginny Hartzler said...

Lots of very pretty pictures to see here! I love seeing all the sunflowers, the tall one must have been hard to stake.

Chatty Crone said...

Boy your garden is still going strong even in all that heat! I'm glad you are not wishing your life by quickly. The birds are so much fun to watch aren't they - those are some nice feeders. And Gizzy is sure cute as usual and I like his new toys!

~Niki~ said...

love those pics Doris!
Esp, Gizzy ;)
stay cool!
It's gonna be 113 here tomorrow! yikes!

Ann said...

your flowers are beautiful, the birds are delightful but Gizzy steals the show. He's such a handsome little devil but don't tell Duke I said that :)

gin said...

gosh, you know, it seems like just last week you had planted the sunflowers and the canteloupe. My, how time flies. Gizzy never lets us down on his lovely portraits!

Anonymous said...

The only thing that would have made your post better would have been if I could have been sitting with you and Gizzy. Your flowers are so pretty, Doris.

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

Ahhh, sweet little boy Gizzy - he is ust so cute with his little unicorn. And we just love your sunflowers. Between all the rain and heat,and now the roof and upcoming paint work, our garden is not so good this year. Better luck next year, we hope.

Hard for us to believe it is only the first day of summer too.

Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara

sprinkles said...

I love that tree with the red flowers. So pretty!

Beansieleigh said...

Hi Doris! Saw your music wideget on the side, and I'm listening to a second round of Hey Jude! LOVE that song!.. Love the beautiful pictures of Gizzy! My favorite is the 4th one up from the bottom! He really LOOKS like he is saying "Mom, I don't like this toy.. Can I PLEASE have my purple blob back?" SO CUTE!!!!!.. We're o.k. here, but as for my flowers, I'm afraid my green thumb isn't producing anything this year. Between my cat knocking down plants inside, and neighborhood kids/animals knocking down plants on my very small set of steps out back, I'm having very little luck. That's why I have to resort to crochet and plastic bottle flowers this year. I never did get around to purchasing hanging baskets like I'd hoped to... But we're doing o.k. otherwise. We keep the fans running lately, and as long as it's not TOO hot, we bring Ubu out for a nice walk nearly every day. Hope you and Gizzy enjoyed your first day of Summer! ~tina

Unknown said...

Isn't Gizzy boy the cool one..I love him. Your flowers are lovely..you know I love Grape Myrtle;s sadly none here in Indiana that I have ever seen. I need to check to see if they could grow here but most likely not due to the longer winter months and it definitely gets below freezing here more than one night.Oh well for that Lavender grows here much better than in texas..trade off.. Stay cool my friend...Hugs Birgit