dreams...

Today, a new dream is born.

There was a butterfly today outside, and it landed on the butterfly bush.  One colored like a monarch - or like Frankie the cat, my husband says.

The sink that was formerly full of her scat, is now full of growing, healthy onions.  I removed the cat's poopy and planted them eventually, when they had already started to sprout within their bag.  They were a gift from Ann Clegg, a thank you because she had fallen on the obsidian in her plot, and I had been there and bandaged her up.  I want to eat dinner with her sometime soon.  Need to spend more time in Dearborn Garden, enjoy the beauty.  I have plans for the plot I've adopted - Kay's - that will come to fruition in ten months, at the end of next year's winter... But we have a magnificent start these last few glorious months. :) Herbs... lemon verbena, thyme... oregano... yarrow... catnip!, possibly epazote... a single butterfly bush with two trunks possibly, but the same gorgeous flowers... a lilac... volunteer fennel and calla lilies... volunteer sweet alyssum...

There were roses there formerly.  They are now in pots on the back porch.  For the most part the powdery mildew is gone, only because fortunately, Christiana Shaw helped me and informed me about the Neem Oil - organic and effective!  There is one more little stem I must prune, and must water more in case of heat stress, as some of the leaves are wilting now. :( But the flowers are blooming.  The Fourth of July's colors are popping beautifully, a few weeks ago we were treated to pink blossoms... And my favorite by far, the purple rose... Ahhh.  The heavenly scent is ever present in the droplets that form upon the now-wilting heads, as they pass through their time.  A few days ago, it misted, and I can outside barefoot and surprised.  The air smelled so clean, like flowers.  The star jasmine (yes indeed, with its showy pinwheel-shaped flowers, indeed typical of Apocynaceae), the butterfly bush's blooms... and the purple rose.  I leaned close to smell this enchanting flower, and the droplets plucked my lips gently and ran into my mouth.  It tasted as heavenly as it smelled.

Earlier this week I gave them rose food.  We had bought it on our trip to Sloat Garden Center, the same place where we bought the star jasmine, the jessamine, and the gardenia.  And the cute new blue watering can.  Today I repotted the new roses that Kay had bought in the mail.  Six or seven new ones. I hope I can take care of them.  Also a Chinese Lantern.  Tomorrow I will hopefully repot the gardenia, though it's doing well.  Last week we did the lemon tree Kay bought - to honor Grandma.  I can hardly wait to tell her - and the jessamine, the baby butterfly bush Kay had bought online.  Even earlier, I did the big butterfly bush, though this was before we'd gotten the organic potting soil from our second trip to Sloat, on Father's Day with my mother.  I'd put some worm castings in there...

I'd added more fruit and vegetable baby food to the worm bin, and the worms have enjoyed it.  I used the castings from the bottom most compartment to fertilize the butterfly bush when I repotted it, and when we watered it in, instead of clear, the water ran as brown as coffee.  It was beautiful.  A testament to the worm castings' high nutrient content...

The smell from the larger composter is gone.  I knew it would be.  Perhaps it is possible to compost baby meats. :D

Now it is a matter of continuing to clean this place up.  And to spend more time in Dearborn Garden...

So far, out of all the herbs, the catnip is doing the best.  So I've been bringing it home to our cats.  Phoebe loves it. I haven't tried giving any to Frankie yet... Won't that be a fun day! :D :D  I've brought home fennel.  Haven't used all of it, but it's gone great in chicken tikka masala, much to my joy.  A little green caterpillar was on one bunch of fennel I brought.  I didn't want to harm it.  So I gave it more fennel to eat and then put it outdoors.  Finally put the wilted fennel in the big compost while hoping that the caterpillar has already transformed, that a spider wouldn't eat it inside the compost.

I wonder now if perhaps that gorgeous butterfly my husband saw on the butterfly bush came from that green caterpillar... :) It wouldn't surprise me, but it would be magical if it was.  It's the first butterfly I can remember seeing in our concrete-laden backyard. :D