Food for the palate and flowers for the eye.

I love okra in the summer time and it is so easy to grow. All it needs is a sunny location and 90 degree weather. Several years ago, before my wife and I got married, I lived in a house that had a very tiny yard, 15' X 30', and all of it in front of the house. I planted tomatoes and Okra along the front fence next to the sidewalk.. I also, crowded in several flower beds in the yard. One day a woman walked up the sidewalk and paused looking at the okra. I expected her to say something about okra the food. But instead she ask me "What is that beautiful flower" and pointed to the okra. The Okra flower is a thing of beauty, a cone about 1.5 to 2 inches across, but it comes off of the stem at the base of a very wide leaf that often hides the beauty.

champ's wild daylily

This is a share your garden picture site.
champ sent me this picture of a wild daylily.

Enjoy and thank you champ


"It was a cool summer morning in or about the ides of June when the Sun arose, slowly stirring the floral inhabitants of an undisclosed region of Pennsylvania. One of these inhabitants, to whom we will refer to as Bob, although its gender was of question, and for lack of a more appropriate moniker, sleepily began to stretch it ruddy-petaled limbs towards the radiant source of energy high above.

At about this time, a somewhat sleepy-himself gentleman whom we will refer to as 'champ', uncapitalized in the style of famed poet e.e. cummings and implying a sense of humility to cover for the laziness that was the actual reason for the lack of aforementioned capitalization, and known to many of the so-called 'blogosphere' as an ardent pursuer of truth and occasional antagonistic curmudgeon(despite his relative youthfulness), remarked on the beaty of Bob in its awakened state, and decided to retrieve a camera from inside the still darkened dwelling to attempt to capture that natural wonder in order to share with those with whom he had associated for the preceding spring and resulting summer.

Here, without further ado, is the result of that endeavor:

More Visitors

Garden Visitors

Our butterfly bush is just starting to bloom and it is living up to it's name.

Jacksmithing

Last week I went looking for a blacksmith that could custom make a shower curtain rod for our bath tub shower we were installing. We have a corner tub and there are no curtain rods made for it. My wife had a concept she wanted made. I did find a black smith, he estimated around $700 to make it. A bit more than we had in mind, we might of paid $200. So I stepped out the door mumbling to my self"how hard can it be to bend some metal and weld it together".
So I went down to Metal by the Foot and bought the stainless flat bar for the project. In 2 hours had the pieces cut and bent into the shape my wife wanted and ready for polishing. I spent part of the next day with my little orbital sander and some sand paper polishing it. Then the next day it was to a welder and more polishing with a rotary sander attachment on my drill and here you see the results.

My wife loves it, she thinks it is perfect. I'm not going to point out the minor flaws because I rather proud of it my own self. One problem though, It adds to her belief that any thing she can dream up I can make. I wonder what is next.

Jack

The new rose

buddha