Heather's Garden

FLOWN SOUTH

Literally!  Today's infrequent post comes to you from Marco Island, FL.  I've been coming down here on vacation for 15 years and each time I'm amazed that more people don't flock here.  It's relatively inexpensive and much quicker to get to from the northeast than Aruba or Jamaica.  Plus you're still on U.S. soil, which, given my cousin's current stranded state in Bangkok, is nothing to sneeze at.  Of course, I think that now, but when we visit during the season I curse every old person in the ridiculous traffic and have to remind myself that a drive that takes me 10 minutes in November will take 45 in February.

We've been here a week now and both completely decompressed almost instantly.  In fact, it's been tough to motivate myself to get up and walk the 8/10 of a mile down the street to our favorite beach restaurant for dinner and a show -- the show being a fantastic sunset.  VPH has been asking to go for about 4 days now and finally today I mustered the energy. 

The view from our beach-front table:

 

Hints of the beauty to come, but I included here because 10 years ago I para-sailed from this very spot.  Wish I had a digital camera back then, although I imagine I would have been too nervous to bring it up with me:

 

We left our beach-side table and walked out onto the beach:

 

It's a sugar sand beach:

 

VPH walked down to the water, put a toe in and turned right around.  We're a little spoiled by the 82-degree heated pool at the condo:

 

Not sure which of these is the best:

 

   

   

But this is my desktop background for the foreseeable future:

 

Hope you're all as relaxed and joyous as VPH and I are tonight.  Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. I have to say thank you, Mom!

DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE A GARDENER

Thank VPH for putting this in your head.  I have to thank VPH for inspiring me to post for the first time in almost a month.  I also must express my gratitude to those who wrote me to check and see if I was alive.  Nobody's sick, the garden hasn't been lost, and I will continue to blog.  I've just been really busy this month and that, plus the end of the gardening season, equaled no posts.

We've had enough of a frost that most of the basil died (and before I could bring in the cute little pot I planted for the winter kitchen, oh well):

 

So last week I sent VPH outside with instructions to dig me a trench for the bulbs:

 

Remember the bulbs?

And there it sat for a week bulb-less -- busy, remember?  VPH was home today -- stupid Tuesday school holiday -- while I had to go to the office, so guess who planted the bulbs?  I present guest gardener and photographer VPH.  Now does the title make sense?  He came up with it himself while he was working outside.  First he carefully placed all 176 bulbs into the 15 foot long 6 inch deep trench:

 

And then he filled it in and replaced the mulch on top:

 

Then he gathered up all the dahlias, cut back their dead/dying stalks, and put them in the basement for me:

 

And finally because he's the best husband ever, he had these lamb chops on the table 10 minutes after I arrived home (photo credit back to me now):

 

I'm also terribly behind on my blog-reading, but I promise I'll come by and visit you all soon.  We're leaving on vacation next week -- 10 days in FL -- so maybe I'll have some tropical beauty to share with you soon.