William Rose wrote:
In article ,
madgardener wrote:

I haven't written lately despite the bad luck and personal problems
and health issues.........soooooo, if you don't mind me leaning over the
fence and chatting with the two of youse, I'd be honored.

Shore, pull up a fence. No scars though, and no pictures of scars. Lord
it is a hot one today.

All the melons are up on their toes and lookin' like they're gonna make
a break for it. And the "bird house" gourd will be over the top in the
next couple of days (7'). Everything else is just sagging in the heat (4
PM: 95 F). I know it's not that hot but we haven't been tempered yet.
Few more weeks and this will feel just fine.

Think I'll take a shower and make a run for it to the store. Tabouli,
left over chicken salad, lunch meats, cold fruit, and the last of the
blueberries with raspberry sherbert for dinner tonight. I'd better put
one of them cheap Australian chardonnays in to chill too.

Geronimo,


Let me formally introduce meself, there, William.....I'm an old regular
around wreck.gardens. Been here in and out of the patches and weeds now
for over eleven years. Came here as madgardener, showed my ignorance and
rear end sometimes when I was REALLY green in the netiquette areas and
signed off in terseness as "madwoman" until I learned candor and
demeanor and manners and now am firmly in the archives as madgardener or
"maddie" as I'm wont to sign sometimes. I am rabidly horticultural,
with bouts of SPS or sticky pot syndrome and apparently a newer and
lesser known affliction that I've had for YEARS now but was unsure as to
the identity of....OCTS.....Obsessive Collecting Tendency Syndrome.....I
ramble on at the jibs, waxing poetic and frothy mouthed about me faeries
and fliers and pollinators and critters that abound here in Faerie
Holler (Eastern Tennessee, near and in front of the Great Smoky
Mountains). I've contributed and talked to all manner of gentle folk
herebouts on this and the UK wrecked gardens newsgroup.

I know the in's and outs of all but the more extensive trees and lawn
grasses despite that I am considered a Master Gardener and Master
Composter by UT's standards (University of Tennessee based outa
Knoxville, Tennessee). I am more hands on learned, self taught and if
you were to see me cut upon a bramble, I'd probably not bleed but pour
out musical notes and potting soil.............been known to "be able to
take a popsicle stick and grow a two by four" but able to kill a healthy
and hail African violet with the merest glance.......

No scars nor photo's of scars. I've just had another summer of hell and
I deal with it as well as one can. My gardens go on with or without me.
The blister beetles I mentioned in the previous response are munching
as I write. I can't see to spray their blistery asses into writhing
death throes, believe me I would.....I adore my mantis, toads, lizards,
and wide assorted fliers, stingers and flutterers that abound with
increasing numbers. Some less this year than last, others more so.
Those white butterflies which are benefiting from the lack of the evil
red wasps with the black wings, yellow jackets and even hornets.

I can say that as of two hours ago, WE GOT A DOWNPOUR!!!!!!!!!!! WOO
HOO!!! DESPERATELY in need of moisture. I actually have many DEEP
PUDDLES in the driveway! The crickets are singing praises, the frogs
and peepers are thrilled and the resident frogs in BBQ Frog Holler
Pond/Trough are most likely enjoying the heavy humidity right now and
basking in it on the blue clay slabs that I use for bridges and sunning
rocks for them. Believe me, I danced for that rain and downpour. Poor
Craven Smeagol the cowardly dawg of the canine trilogy herebouts was so
taken off guard he didn't have time to throw coat or shiver his hair off
and no need of drugs despite all the thunder-boomers that came with the
intense storm. the rain was horizontal for 45 minutes blowing
sideways.......

My own heat of 97o today was tempered finally by the storms at 6 p.m.
EST and it's now down to a cool 72o ahhhhhhhh, almost worth opening a
window~ Right now I have parched phlox that were never cut back in the
mid spring to ensure doubling and not being so dang tall....daylilies
that are pleading for me to either lift them and put them where they can
benefit from more sun or have mercy and off them. (I can't off them, I
love all flowers, except the hateful Vinca major aka Periwinkle and it's
only when it's busy making miles of sinewy vines like now that I despise
it....it is intent on reclaiming every square inch of ground I worked
years to clean out. I pulled a vine today and it snapped YARDS away and
laughed at me...grrrrrr, maybe with the soaking tonight I can get out in
the mornings cooler temperatures and the asparagus fork and lift some
roots and dig out a few cubic meters of it and toss it into the pasture
for the bovine to munch upon. There's a thought! g There are over 20
black Angus with a few brown calves thrown in for measure that have
cleared the whole fence row next to my side yard and not one bit of
Vinca is left!

thanks for hollering back. Always an honor and pleasure to meet another
garden fence neighbor. Happy knosching!

maddie enjoying the HUMIDITY!!