The Color Purple....

It rained again.

Big lightning and thunder, 

and another inch of rain.

It seems that the Texas Sage, Cenizo, blooms all over the neighborhood.

But, for some reason, seldom here.

But, not this time.  This time, there are LOTS of blooms.

Their pretty purple blooms are covering the shrubs.

And, the perfume from the blooms, is really nice.

This shrub really needs to be trimmed back.

But, for now, I'm glad I didn't get around to it.

The bees are glad, too.

Happy Gardening...

~~Linda~~

The Weather Forecast....

...is,

August is coming to Texas.

It happens this time, every year.

BUT....look at that forecast...only THREE hundred degree days.

Last year, we'd had over 40 days over 100 degree.

This year, only about 10.

We'll take it.  Along with the rain we've had this summer.

So very welcome.

The other morning, when I was putting the bird feeders back out. 

(The raccoons have convinced us not to leave them out at night.)

There was so much humidity in the air, we had a rainbow.

Our Texas Sage is finally blooming.

It's been blooming all over the neighborhood...except for ours.

So...finally.

They're really pretty blooms.  And, they love humidity.

That humidity plus high temps mean it'll be HOT.

But, after living under a broiler last summer, it'll be so much better.

Have a Great Weekend...

~~Linda~~

The Sage in Bloom, Is Like Perfume

The Texas Sage, cenizo, has been putting on quite the show this week.

We finally have been getting some wonderful, glorious rain.

Some call this a barometer plant....it predicts rain, or will burst into bloom after a rain.  Strangely, the ones in our neighborhood have been blooming most of the summer.....the hot, very dry summer.  Not ours, though.  They only bloomed once, and it wasn't quite the show I expected.  I'm not sure why the others bloomed, without a hint of rain.

But, this week the rains came.  And, the sage bloomed.

This one is kind of scraggly.  It really needs to be pruned back quite a bit.  It's in the southwest bed, along the side of the house.  A bed in much need of work. 

The heat and my laziness this summer has kept me from doing much more than the watering chores.... just keeping things alive.

But, these sage bushes thrive on hot and dry.  And then, when they get some humidity and rain, they show their gratitude by giving us these wonderful blooms.

The rain weighed the limbs down....

And, scattered purple petals...making a colorful carpet over the ground.

We got several days of rain.  I'd like to tell you our total, but the batteries in the digital rain gauge went out the first day.  So, we can only guess the amount it missed.  What was recorded was about 5 inches.  And, there was more that didn't get recorded.

We were lucky to have just a steady, gentle rain.  Other parts of the area had some flash flooding.  That's Texas for you....drought and flood.

Of course, the drought isn't near over.  We'll need a lot more rain to get things back to where they need to be.  But, we're all happy to have the rains this week.  It made life much more liveable here.

Deep in the Heart of Texas