I got sick young 'uns. Lauren is running fever 102.5. Benjamin is complaining of a sore throat. Last night Lauren woke me up in the middle of the absolutely burning up with fever. Benjamin climbed into the bed with us at some pre-dawn hour. It's too late in the season for flu, right? If we are still dealing with fever tomorrow, then we will be going en masse to the pediatricians office. Good times.
I harvested a large bucket of broccoli yesterday. We ate a bunch for supper and I put up about three bags in the freezer. I have peas to pick and shell. The peas look bad this year. I think we got hot so early (it already feels like summer out there) and the peas don't really like all that heat. On the other hand...the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and zucchini are growing like weeds. And the corn is about waist high. Yay! Fresh corn!
I have mentioned before that I participate in an oline gardening forum that had a trade/buy/sell section. Once the water warms up, water hyacinth, water lettuce and salvinia multiply rapidly. I toss out buckets almost everyday and put them on the compost pile. Well, a couple of folks outside of zone 9 asked for some...I would have hapily sent it for postage, you know? One lady suggested a trade.... this lily...
for a box of water hyacinth.
Count me in! 
The little Almost Black lily is already sending up pads and thriving. The lotuses have multiple pads and are just loving the heat and humidity. I am so pleased! I repotted and fertilized my big lilies. One of them has a bud...it should bloom tomorrow or the next day. It looks like a Chromatella (yellow) or an unitentified white one. I should really learn to label my plants.
We have baby fish! The goldfish have been spawning and I tossed some elodea and hyacinth into the new pond and into the lotus tubs (I thought I had over fertilized...hyacinth is excellent for filtering out dissolved nitrates.) Apparently goldfish eggs hitched a ride. There are hundreds of baby fish! They are in the lotus tubs...in the new pond...in the galvanized tub where I set transplants. We are going to catch as many as we can and put them in the horse trough with an airstone. Not that I need more goldfish. At all. But still. These are my first fish babies! I am sure there are some in the big pond, too but I have mosquito fish in there. They eat everything.
We have an invasion of frogs in the pond...
Grey tree frog in the trickle filter.
Green tree frog in the banana tree.
Southern Leopard frog...I have bunches of these in the pond. Several experienced pond keepers have told me that if you have frogs in your pond, you have perfect water. Frogs won't inhabit (or lay their eggs) in unblanced ponds. So I take it as a very high compliment that the frogs like my pond 
The chickies are so big. It's almost time to put them with the other chickens....right now I am using them to weed and fertilize. The spinach succumbed to the heat and soggy soil...it just kind of melted. So I pulled the chicken tractor up over the whole row and let them do their thing. They dug and scratched and ate every single weed, bug and scrap of grass in less than 24 hours.
It looks like I have three roosters in the new flock. I'm not happy about that, really. You pay extra for sexed pullets but that's not really the issue. I have too many extra roosters as it is. So either we eat them (can you hear my children protesting?) or I sell them. I might keep the black and white americauna. Ivan ain't going nowhere...he's old and mellow and doesn't harass the hens too much. The bantam roosters don't offend anyone. But the rest? They have got to go. One of the americaunas is bright red and he's been aggressive since I brought him home. In fact, sex unknown, I had named him Hannibal (the cannibal) because he would peck the other chicks and draw blood. He got sent to solitary confinement until we built the chicken tractor. He's still a big bully with the rest of the flock. So now that we know he's a rooster...and a rooster with a bad attitude besides...I have no misgivings about his relocation. See the red one, standing a head taller than the rest? That's him.
The garden is blooming...
The Shirley poppies are breathtaking.
Dianthus
Texas bluebonnets are just starting to bloom.
Confederate jasmine...smells soooo good.
Begonias....they are so pink, so vibrantly colored they are hard to photograph.
Forget-Me-Nots
Interesting about Forget-Me-Nots. They don't grow in S. Louisiana...cultural reccomendation say that they are not hardy south of zone 8. But this particular pot has lived happily in the gazebo for about three years now. I got the seeds for a dime on clearance at the dollar store.
A brown thrush nesting in the fig tree.
I guess I need to get in motion today. All the waking up/going back to sleep last night...I feel lazy and sluggish. Can't do much in the garden since we got a bunch of rain. I guess I need to get some inside chores done. 
Oh...have you all heard about this? A SC law that allows you to sue the "other woman" or the "other man" if your spouse leaves you for them. I love it, personally. But that's just my secret inner desire for payback. And my husband didn't even leave. I still think I should be able to sue for "pain and suffering." Sue her, sue anybody else who actively worked to keep it secret...aiding and abetting so to speak. Why not? I mean...there are for more frivolous lawsuits for things that caused far less pain.
Anyway. Onto the laundry, I guess. | 
