Orange and green

Last year, our neighbors, the Murrahs, gave us eight little trumpet vines. We planted them along the chain-link fence in the front yard. They did well last summer. The other day, James noticed our very first blooms. I took some "before" shots this morning.

Trumpet vine (I think)

For Mother's Day in 2004, my favorite son, Patrick, gave me a satsuma mandarin (Citrus unshiu 'Miho') tree. At first, I just knew I'd kill it. But miraculously, it survived! I was even more amazed when it put on fruit in 2006. Around Halloween that year, we had a lot of sweet fruit. The mandarins were really good! In the winter every year, I move the tree into our garage, which has a window. So it gets some sun and seems happy. This spring, James and I repotted my tree, which I thought would really upset it. It already had lots of fruit. And it did drop a lot. But there's more still there, so looks like we'll have some more mandarins this fall to enjoy.


More orange and green... More queens are arriving to feast on our blue mist and butterfly weed. Not as many butterflies this season, but we'll welcome whoever comes!