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"Possibility and promise greet me each day as I walk out into my garden. My vigor is renewed when I breathe in the earthiness and feel the dirt between my fingers. My garden is a peaceful spot to refresh my soul." Meems






Welcome to my Central Florida Garden Blog where we garden combining Florida natives, Florida-Friendly plants, and tropicals.

Monday, September 10, 2007

neglected garden

i know i promised to post more on our vacation and i will -- but first things first. after ten days of neglect, like any dedicated gardener, the most important thing to tend to today was my garden. somehow in the short time we were gone, everything seemed to grow out of proportion and spill over its bounds. so i set about to tidy the most obvious areas - i will be doing more of this each day for a while of necessity- i refilled bird feeders & bird baths, sprayed for weeds, pulled weeds, dead-headed, watered and made plans in my head for fall projects. thanks to my kind neighbor who watered my potted plants in my absence --all my container gardens survived.

the first sighting of a fallen acorn actually occurred last week the day before we left. it caught me by surprise as i stopped to pick it up and examine it as if maybe i was seeing things. it, of course, was real and this week there are so many more on the ground-- a sure sign if there ever was one-- that change is in the air. is it my imagination or are the shadows beginning to fall just a little differently as the sun shifts position? i know it is difficult to believe with the dreadful high temperatures still lollygagging about but i could sense it --- early this morning as the breeze greeted me with a tad bit- and i use the term loosely- cooler air.


you may remember this orchid plant from another post in which i bemoaned the fact that i don't know much about orchids and have never been too successful at promoting re-bloom on the kind i buy for decoration in my house. to my delight, today, i discovered it has two stems of buds and blooms -- i thought it worthy of another photo.

this little fella is (maybe) an inch tall. it is so teeny that it was hard to tell its markings until i uploaded the photo. i believe its identity is a cassius blue. it was very fast and moved constantly but i waited a couple of minutes while snapping some flowers this morning and it landed right next to me. i will share later a similar photo of another tiny butterfly i captured while hiking on whiteside mountain.
a sampling of what i found still blooming...

plumbago


penta

palmetto dates (covered with ants)

caladiums & impatiens

7 comments:

  1. Oooohhh!!! Nice job capturing the Blue! I wish I'd had more time down there to get out and hunt butterflies. One thing I noticed right away... plumbago was everywhere! Your pictures are lovely!

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  2. Are you gonna stick with the camera now that you've had more practice? I'm thinking cooler air MIGHT be near...my son and I take walks after dinner now and don't faint from the heat. Still sweating though...won't miss that.

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  3. sophie: thanks so much. i must admit i was tickled about this snap- i guess because it was so fast and tiny-- and then-- it posed for me... which gave me plenty of time. i might need your assistance identifying the one i captured in NC - it really was a very light shade of blue.

    mlm: not certain about the camera -i'm still practicing - i have until friday to decide. thanks for asking. we floridians know there isn't much chance of cooler days for a while but the mornings and evenings are giving us ever so slight a repreive.

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  4. is it just me, or does that up-close plumbago pic look like hydrangea? a little?

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  5. Meems, if you are still having doubts about the camera, you might want to think about the new Fuji coming out in a couple weeks. The one you have might, of course, turn out to be the perfect one for you. For me, if it's anywhere near as good as it sounds, the Fuji is going to blow the others right out of the water.

    Have a JESUS-filled day! ^i^

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  6. mlm: i thought the same thing when i shot the plumbago up close.

    sophie: which one is that coming out in a couple of weeks? i'm still contemplating what to do about the camera. my leaning is to go for the canon rebel... any thoughts?

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  7. I've read a lot of good things about the Rebel and seen some great results. Check out http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos350d/page28.asp
    I'm still waiting for a review of the new Fuji. It's the Finepix s8000fd. Its 18x zoom is what first got my attention. I have a 12x now, not quite enough for those birds that insist on keeping as much distance as possible between us. Plus it has twice the mp's I have now. All for about the same price I paid for this one.

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Have a blessed day,
Meems


September 2010

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Tropical Pathway