The Calm

042809 Garden 003, originally uploaded by themissiah.

Well, school is over for the semester and I could not be happier. I've spent the last week *attempting* to get things done around the house - to my loss. However, things are coming along slowly, but surely. The gardening is finished, except for some marigold seeds that need to be sown. We've put in tomatoes (Cherokee Purple and Brandywine), bell peppers (golden), onions, bush beans, cuces, and squash. Now we need to keep the bugs away and keep the thing watered.

We've also weeded the herb/kitchen garden and added in some annual herbs. Also, the flowers have been added as well. I went with Dahlias this year, rather than Petunias. I needed a change and I love Dahlias. Some of the wildflowers seeds I added last year have sprouted as you can see from the picture above.

Here are more shots of the garden(s).

Today, I've been trying to find the motivation to clean part of this house. I did manage to get the mosquito dunks out in the garden "pond" that just sits there breeding mosquitoes every year. I found some environmentally safe dunks that can be used in any standing water (including rain barrels). Maybe we can be outside this year without getting eaten alive.



Today, I had to go get some eggs and came back to find a broad-head skink sunning in our *skink* spot. All of the skinks love this spot. Everyday, I find one or two sitting up here. Some let me get pretty close, but this one was really skiddish. It had a bright orange head, which means that it's a male. He kept running over the side and peeking back up at me as if to check to see if I was gone. He did this several times. So cute.



Here's another shot in a larger format. You can see his coloring a bit better.