Bee balm, but I call them “the court jester flowers” because they look like the silly hats that court jesters wore.
I love these flowers – they make me laugh!
They have been missing the last two summers and I was happily surprised this afternoon to see them in the woods.
They are not the only jesters…
Auggie is a big time jester!
Bear likes to tease also.
Jesters.
It is still raining.
Auggie is inside wondering what to do with himself.
I was folding laundry while waiting for my lunch to heat up and he kept a close eye on my progress.
And the same when I went back to work.
It is still raining!
As per usual in Northwest Montana, the “Spring” weather alternates between hot (75-80F) and cool (45-60F) … sunny and clear to cloudy and rainy. I enjoy the variety, but have been wishing for some soaking rain. We’ve had rain, but not a lot and especially not a lot following last year’s dry Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter. The last three days have been mostly cloudy and also included some steady soaking rain, particularly at night. It is forecast to continue through at least this week. I am not complaining, at all, at all!
This morning started cloudy, then cleared and was sunny for a trip to town for supplies.
Then it clouded over, got darkish and blustery and now it is raining.
Saturday afternoon.
I have fuschia!
Not from the Kalispell Farmer’s Market as per last year ( Fuschia 2015), but from a local nursery: Swan River Gardens .
And yes, that is Auggie just to the right and aft of the front porch, next to the ladder holding a yellow jacket trap… the queens are out and about and we did not have ANY super cold over winter. With last summer so dry and they need water … don’t know what this year will bring. I told the yellow jackets that they were welcome in the woods but to please leave the yard and front porch to Bear, Auggie and me.
Back to the fuschia.
If you search on “fuschia”, you will see ELEVEN posts from last year: May through October. The 2015 Farmer’s market fuschia, my first fuschia in some years did beautifully on the front porch last year.
Last weekend was Kalispell Farmer’s Market opening for 2016, but a series of domestic incidents precluded me attending. This weekend, I just wimped out on a trip to “town” on a Saturday after hearing a LOT of early traffic on my own road home. I wanted just a few grocery items and the local grocery has improved greatly so Bear and I headed out in the Jeep with garbage to drop off, a planned reconnoiter of the local nursery and then the grocery.
But plans must often be flexible and to my surprise the nursery had fuschia, although not many and only a few with the Swingtime (white and pink)
– most were the Black Prince:
And the baskets were large and further along than those I purchased last year.
I looked at the baskets and thought about room in the Jeep AND the nursery was busy with other people getting things. I didn’t want to lose out so snagged a basket with all Swingtime and 2 baskets with a mix of Swingtime and Black Prince and away we went with a basket on the front passenger seat, a basket on the floor passenger side and 1 poor basket sharing the back with Bear. We headed straight back to home because there was no room for groceries and the poor basket with Bear…
I say poor basket because as we were leaving the nursery, someone arrived with a dog and Bear got excited and that poor basket suffered a bit of knocking about. But, it made it home. I apologized, watered and fed the poor thing, trimmed off some breakage and hopefully it will forgive Bear and me and flourish!
A bit later…
… gah!
“What ??? – I did not touch the darn fuschia!!”
