Off to Greener Pastures

I'm not sure if anyone other than the rare visitor referred by a search engine ever even visits this blog, at this point.  It's always been primarily for my own benefit, to record the progress I've made and to enjoy the occasional browse of my favorite photos from the garden...

Well, if there is anyone out there reading-- and for the benefit of any casual visitor from the future-- you may have noticed that the photos are gone, replaced by error messages, and the whole blog looks absolutely hideous.  'Twasn't always thus. ;o)  No, before Flickr's new policy of allowing only 1,000 photos per free account, the blog was full of photos. 

When Flickr announced the policy change, I went through a period of what I can only think of as mild grieving for my old blogs, because over the course of years I'd foolishly embedded almost all my blog photos as links to my Flickr photostream-- and now there was no way to prevent all those photos from disappearing.  (No way short of paying a yearly fee ransom, which I refuse to do on principle as much as for any other reason. I'm not interested in dealing with Flickr ever again, after the way they've treated so many of their users.) 

I even went so far as to preemptively delete many of my photos myself, in a last-ditch effort to salvage the more recent photos on one of my other blogs (the craft blog).  So now those deleted garden photos link to nothing, leaving gaping holes in nearly every single post of what was always a photo-heavy blog.

The gist is that this blog is essentially broken for me, now.  The text is all there, of course, and I will leave the blog up for that reason (for my own reference, mostly)-- but rather than giving me joy, this shell of a blog now makes me sad (and a little angry at Flickr, still, to be completely honest), so I think it's time to seek out greener pastures. 

In my new blog, I'll use my own photo hosting so that (I hope) the photos will be there for the foreseeable future.  If there's anyone out there, please join me at my new garden blog address: A Southern Cottage Garden. 

I can promise a gazillion daylily photos (and yes, a few other plants, too), continued griping about weeds (d**n that torpedo grass!), and a glimpse into a fellow gardener's yearly struggles, quiet triumphs, and small joys.

Potpourri

Zephyranthes (rain lily).

Caladium.

Coreopsis 'Mercury Rising'.

Succulents.

Gloriosa lily (flame lily).

Chaste tree (Vitex).

'Sunshine' ligustrum and 'Red Hot' Black Diamond crepe myrtle.

Bee on bog sage.

Crocosmia buds.

Small gladiolus.

River oats.

Crepe myrtle.

Jungly flower bed.

Tiger lily.

'Red Hot' Black Diamond crepe myrtle.

One day, I saw a large (and rather ugly) mushroom in the front yard and had Luna sit next to it for scale.  The only problem is, Luna doesn't usually love having her photo taken.

She went from ambivalent...

To skeptical...

To "I've got to find some way to get away from here!"  (g)

'Lady Margaret' Passion Vine

It's been a good year from this passion vine.  The Gulf fritillary butterflies came fairly early this year, but for whatever reason, their hungry little caterpillars haven't defoliated it, as they did a couple years ago.  It's covered in leaves and is still blooming, even now in October. 

Gulf fritillary caterpillars:

Rose of Sharon

Crinum

Crinum x. powellii 'Album'.
I think this is the first year this all-white crinum has bloomed in our garden.  Last year, we had our first blooms from the "milk-and-wine" type, which are white with a red stripe down the center of each petal. 

Speaking of the milk-and-wine crinum, this was supposed to be another of those, but when it bloomed this year (for the first time in our garden), it was clear that it's another type-- maybe 'Ellen Bosanquet'?  (Though we have a small 'Ellen Bosanquet' elsewhere in the garden, it hasn't bloomed, yet, so I've only seen the flowers in photos.)

Whatever it is, I love the dark pink flowers!