Towers and Sweet Peas



                   Headless Tower



First things first.  I went out to spy check on my tower this morning and was amazed to find that it had lost its head!  What on earth are those demonic Calaveras County tower-raisers doing up there, hidden by the trees?  What ghastly changes are being made?  Are they attaching a giant red eyeball to the top that will be fixed right at Frogpond?  Or, perhaps, clamping on a huge satellite dish with a creepy happy face painted on it?  Inquiring minds demand to know.  Well, I'm sure that I'll be finding out very soon.  Until then, we must all sit on the edges of our seats, biting our fingernails...









School starts in a very few weeks, so I've to get as much done around here as I can before I have to put on my teacher clothes again and sail down the hill to my classroom.  I've been putting so much time into creating the orchard garden, that I've neglected the areas that are closer to (and are more visible from) the house.  So these past few days I've been working in the upper gardens that are right off the carport -- specifically, the two raised beds. 

The larger of the two beds had a bamboo sweet pea tipi that I'd put up last autumn.  I didn't need to plant any flower seeds -- all I had to do was get my trowel and transplant the crowd of tiny volunteers that were sprouting all over the rest of the bed.  They did beautifully and, due to our cool spring, remained in bloom for a long time.

   

    However, all things must eventually pass (and with a few days of 100 degree heat, that passing came quickly).  Come July, my darling sweet peas looked like this.  So I collected some of the pods for seed and all the rest went on the compost heap.





              Voila!

The bed doesn't look nearly as impressive as it did in the full glory of spring, but it certainly is tidier now.

                                       

In the back of the same bed where I had my sweet peas, I've got half a dozen rather spindly artichoke plants that I decided to let flower.

 

I adore eating artichokes, but I also love their brilliant, almost neon purple blooms.



When I see how they glow next to those orange pomegranate blossoms, I'm perfectly content to have a feast for the eyes instead of the stomach.