Good afternoon dearest sneakers. It is a cold misty afternoon. And as you might guess, I am yearning for Mr. Sol to show his face. Not yet, sweetheart! Soon I will be complaining about the relentless sun and heat. I have a very narrow comfort zone. I want near perfect, just like In Camelot.

First let me say I am somewhat dismayed that our Dr. Fauci has declared the pandemic over. Really? Here in Oregon our Covid cases have risen 50% for three weeks in a row. This is serious. There are times when I feel like John and I are the only ones still wearing masks and I see people scurrying around as usual as before. What gives here? Shouldn’t we be continuing caution until the new more active vaccines are available? Oh well, just me climbing back on my soapbox again!

John’s original eye doc has moved so we must make an appointment with the replacement doc and make a schedule. It is okay with John. He was only marginally happy with the first doc. John hates even the thought of this procedure but he will be fine. He will certainly enjoy better eyesight.

Lin, Jackie, Barbie and Anne you are quite a team of gardeners. If you all lived near each other, I know you could grow enough veggies to feed us all. I don’t think nature cooperates here on the north coast. We do have an amazing crop of vicious blackberries. And once picked, if you can get them before the deer, they really are delicious.

Getting sweet Katie another doggie bed. One of her’s is shabby and no longer very fluffy.
Love and hugs,
Pamtsy☘️🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

Hi Friends,

Time has a way of getting past me and before you know it I have lots to read. Back to that point again.

Back to another beautiful spring day. We are anticipating 80 today, but I don't think we will make it. Scattered clouds tend to cool things off a bit, but possible 90s next week. Not ready for that.

With the HVAC installed and the refrigerator fixed we hopefully will go a while with things being ok here. This refrigerator has had more problems and it is only 5 yrs old. Thinking about renewing our service contact because of our past experiences with the refrigerator. Enough is enough....

We have new neighbors next door. Delightful to hear that they moved from where I grew up, so we have a lot in common. Though they came from NY they moved to my home city 20 yrs ago. I left there in 1970. Hopefully they will be here for a while as they are our age. Our immediate neighbors are gradually passing on or down to one person in the household now. Miss them....

Along with new neighbors comes the getting to know them. They love a variety of music too, BUT we live in small homes with small yards and houses close by that butt up to us. It didn't take long for them to put outside speakers in their backyard. He is in the backyard relaxing a lot of the day with his music on loud. Never good to have too much of a good/bad thing. I tried to relax out there the other day, but had to put in my earbuds so I could listen to what I enjoy. Even then at times his music creeped in. Two days inside for us because we can't hardly tolerate it anymore. Plus he has commercials !! We have spoken to him about it, but ..... We had a delightful conversation last Sat in their backyard then the next am we got a phone call. They both tested positive with Covid she worse than him. So we are in the wait and see stage, but thankfully we were outside when there. So far so good so we are saving out tests for now. We both are pretty healthy.

Enjoyed an evening watching our 12 yr old granddaughter in her school play performing 101 Dalmations. It was very well done. She played a boy, so dressed in lads clothes. As they have done before they used her to do a solo part and she did so well. She is very used to performing in front of people between gymnastics, cheer and softball pitcher. She is just a natural and grandma (me) was pleased. She and I had fun when she was 3 singing together on her kareoke machine. I could tell then she had this potential voice. It has never been encouraged by her parents, so I love it when I see this part of her. Me....I was in church choirs and school choirs from 2nd to 10th grades. Definitely one of my loves.

Sadly watching our son and family pack up their house to move to Tennessee. I think we have one more get together before they go. Times are a changing. We noticed the other day our busy streets are no longer busy at 5 pm and stores like Joannes and Hobby Lobby had very few people in them. The restaurants/fast food aren't doing well either. It is so costly to live here anyway and with our inflation now and gas prices people are leaving the state. Can't help but wonder what is next. Places that go up for sale in our senior community go fast. A lot of the people from the Bay Area and SF are moving away from there in our direction. Nice that our community is still in demand, but feel so sorry for so many people in this state that are being forced to move.

Thinking of all of you and take care,

Diane

You’re never too wordy Diane… love your posts! ❤️

Cool this morning with high, hazy cloud. Off for a moors walk with George and Betty then we’ll stop off at friends Christine and Richard for some bags of rotted manure and a cup of coffee! I’ve told Richard not to do any digging or lifting until I get there because he’s still struggling from his five bar gate attack.

Happy, safe Saturday.
Jackie 🥰

I have always loved our orange ‘ditch’ lilies. I wished they spread faster and more aggressively than the weeds.

I found a little article on them. I am sorry they were so invasive for you Anne.

Plant of the Week
Ditch Lily
Latin: Hemerocallis fulva


BURST OF ORANGE -- The commonly seen and often maligned ditch lily was one of the plants that helped unlock the success of modern daylily breeding.

Daylilies are common fare in gardens with modern kinds displaying an array of pastel shades in bi- and tri-color combinations, wavy margins and about every other imaginable variation. The modern daylily is an engineered plant and very different than the dozen or so species from which modern cultivars were produced. One of the parents of the modern daylily, Hemerocallis fulva, gets little respect and goes by such derogatory names as ditch lily, outhouse lily or officially, the tawny daylily.

The ditch lily is the vigorous orange-flowered deciduous daylily with typical inch-wide linear leaves that arise from a central clump and reach about 2 feet long. The flowers appear on a 3- to 4-foot tall scape held well above the foliage in June and July. Flowers are 5 inches across and orange with a yellow throat. Blooms open mid-morning and wither by the end of the day.

Daylilies were known to the early Roman, Greek, and Egyptian doctors from plants brought from China over the Silk Road about 2,000 years ago. Northern Europe only learned of them in the 16th century with Hemerocallis fulva introduced directly from China in 1576. It quickly gained favor in gardens and became widely planted.

The first recorded planting of the tawny daylily in the United States was in 1793. It became the ultimate pass-along plant and by the early 20th century was so commonly found in wild places it was often assumed to be native. Surprisingly the plant is sterile and almost never sets seed pods so its widespread distribution is the handiwork of gardeners.

In the 1930’s Dr. A. B. Stout began studying daylilies and unlocking the secrets of their reproduction. One of Stout’s most important discoveries was to explain that the common and vigorous ditch lily was a natural triploid with three sets of chromosomes. He gave it the cultivar name ‘Europa’ but in the Flora of China it is called H. fulva var. fulva. Because it is seedless, all of the millions of plants scattered around the world are clones.

Adding an extra set of chromosomes normally increases vigor. The mule, a cross between a horse and a donkey, is a common example. In the daylily world, breeders today work with “dips” (normal plants with 2 sets of chromosomes) or “tets” (plants with 4 sets of chromosomes). Crossing dips with tets can be done to produce a triploid but is difficult and is usually not desirable because it produces sterile progeny and is an abrupt end to a breeding line. Ditch lily apparently arose spontaneously and was propagated by some keen-eyed Chinese gardener.

There is another secret to the widespread success of this sterile plant. Most daylilies grow in well-defined clumps but H. fulva produces a foot long stolon (a modified stem) so plants scamper about the garden as they seek new places to run. Thus ditch lily is an aggressive competitor in the border where it is likely to crowd out more timid plants. But in waste places afflicted by inner-city blight this aggressiveness makes it desirable where it can even outwit weeds.

Few daylily specialists consider the lowly ditch lily a worthy addition to their collection but it may have a place as a groundcover plant in difficult locations where plants must fend for themselves. And for gardeners interested in growing heirloom plants it is a natural because it hasn’t changed in the past 400 years.

By: Gerald Klingaman, retired
Extension Horticulturist - Ornamentals

LIN, my neighbour is probably already seeing my day lilies on his side because they also grow down the side of my house inside the fence, but a fence won't stop a day lily! Meanwhile I've now got an empty bed waiting for the veggie seeds next week.
Anne

Gentle rain, just what the garden needs! We’ve walked and seen only a few sheep and lambs and a farmer and his wife in their Landrover, apparently following up a report of a dead sheep!
George and Betty have been towelled off and over coffee I’m now considering housework, starting upstairs and working down.
An exciting day ahead!

Jackie 🥰

A full rain day but that didn't stop Mike from showing up and Jilly getting two very wet walks and a towel down dry. You will never guess what they saw on their walk. A wild turkey! We do live near the ravine but that's a first. No wonder the foxes and coyotes have moved in. We had cabbage/meat/rice rolls for lunch with a homemade English scone to finish off.
Anne.