Black Widows and Blazing Heat
# of black widows discovered out in the open while watering today = 2
Remember, black widows make these crazy looking webs. If you ever see an irregular looking web, keep an eye out for its creator.
Speaking of spiders, I videotaped a spider in my doorway the other night. It was beautifully backlit while wrapping its prey just before sucking the life out of it. I’ll try to post the video clip soon.
I finally planted most of the plants I bought at P.O.W. before my trip to Mendo. Waking up early this morning made all the difference. At 7am, it’s quite nice outside. It was so nice outside that I found myself thinking, “There’s no way it’s gonna be 106… 7… 8… 9 degrees today.” Hah. Still, I’ll take 109 and low humidity over 80 degrees and humid any day…
Recent garden bummer: turns out my irrigation controller was OFF the whole time I was out of town and a few days after I got back. I have no idea how or why it was turned off. I swear I didn’t do it. We probably turned it off when repairing the spray heads my darling puppies gnawed off awhile back. Some parts of the yard look crispy, but I’m doing my best to rehydrate things.
Speaking of my cute canines, they’re being really good lately but have managed to dig two small but very deep holes in the lawn. There’s absolutely no sign of dirt where they’ve dug, but I know they did it. I caught them in the act a few times. God, I hope they didn’t eat the dirt from the holes. Don’t know why they wouldn’t, though, since their palate is quite broad. Ants, cherry pits (toxic to dogs, by the way), cat poop, a several-day-old grilled cheese sandwich someone left in my van, garbage in general… all of it’s haute cuisine for these dogs. Their expensive gourmet kibble from PetSmart, however, is always met with boredom and slight disdain.
On a positive note, one of my Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia) is huge and blooming right now! It’s 6-7 feet tall and pretty wide. Love it. My cosmos it blooming up a storm too. It’s so showy and cheery, I must plant more of it next year. Gloriosa daisies are, well, glorious. Pink sedum is just coming into bloom. Etc., etc.
