And here are some marigolds

Dewy elephant ear

In honor of Sean's birthday

I'm making one of his favorites--pesto!

Chiles' last stand

As you can see, we've had to add even more supports to the chile patch. The weight of a rainfall sends them right to the ground. We are so happy with the incredible harvest we've gotten, but we can't roast them fast enough! Such a burden :-)

Fay visits northeast Georgia

A weird day with constant rain with tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings. Very annoying when you're trying to paint!

I tried several times to photograph the downpour, but it makes for a very unsatisfying picture. Nevertheless, here's the "best" of them. The doe seemed to give up on hiding from the wet and made herself comfortable in the tall grass to wait it out.

Succulent

Blooming!

I've gardened where there were rocks, but I've never had an actual rock garden. These salmon-color flowers are a nice incentive to expand. I'll have to see what survives the winter before I get too enthusiastic!

The rock garden was an accident of sorts. I put some chunks of granite around a decaying stump and shoveled an appropriate amount of good soil over and around, planted, and waited for the results. Everything survived, and then some!

It figures that I would want a rock garden. There are no rocks to speak of in this part of Georgia; not the size you can pick up anyway. It will be fun to take a field trip to gather some.

Stalking the tasty wasp

This little house is occupied by paper wasps. In under five minutes, the anole on the roof went from the green color of the moonflower vine to the camo you see. I don't know if the hunt was successful.

A very tiny toad

and I guess I have to redo my manicure.

Downriver

The river is shallow enough that we could walk to a shoal and take pictures.

Looking up

Fay takes over the sky

Hoping for some far-out rain bands

Optimism is a good thing.

A deer's-eye view

I'm taking this from their favorite browsing spot. The fawns particularly like whatever grows here, but I can't determine what it is. Probably a bit of everything!

Why a visit from Fay would be good

The river needs a drink!

We'll be thinking about this for a few days

Tropical storm Fay just made landfall in Key West and is heading "north."

We could use the rain, but...

Shiny!

I love this basket lamp!

Second harvest

The plants keep getting bigger and they're putting out a great many good-sized chiles.

We hear that we might meet up with Fay on Thursday. She will likely bring lots of rain and wind and the chiles will suffer, so we did a major picking and roasting--always a nice way to spend a few hours!

The Blessed Capsaicin

Rick swears this is Jesus as an embryo--a Jesus Fetus, if you will. Well, I don't see the resemblance myself. Maybe we should give it a spin on ebay. Oh, wait! We, uh, roasted it. Hmm. Maybe it was Joan of Arc.

Circle of life

Rather vividly illustrated.

I found this on one of the chile plants. It's a tomato hornworm, the caterpillar of a five-spotted hawk moth. It is (unwillingly) hosting the eggs of a braconid wasp, which will eventually kill the caterpillar.

Those who grow tomatoes (and chiles, I imagine), are big fans of the wasps. I'm indifferent to the wasps, but I'm rather a fan of those hummingbird-sized moths.

Birthday present!

Rick fell in love with these single-cup espresso makers in Paris (where else?)
Just drop a capsule in, press go, and in about 30 seconds, perfect espresso.

Reverse zoo

We don't mind if you look, as long as you stay in your cage.

Sitting outside at the Trapp on a warm evening

Sipping a cool brew
and making new friends

Catgoyle

Inspiration

Painting again. Pink? Maybe.

Harvest

I should say first harvest! The timing was partly decided for us; the plants kept keeling over with the weight of the chiles. We're guessing that this is 1/3 of the total harvest. More than enough to keep us through the winter!

Except for the lack of plant tags, we're declaring the chiles-in-Georgia experiment a success! The proof, of course, will be in the bowls of green chile stew for dinner tomorrow. mmmmmm!

Magnetic

Yee ha

Hold still, dammit!

Six shots later..

View from the pool

We spent a lot of time in the pool this evening, even though the water was about 90 degrees!

Neighbors

Georgie, in orange, and Pyg(malion).

Quite at his leisure

Swim-up sudoku

(yes, this is from yesterday, but it's my blog)

I am not a bug

I am a stick. Just a brown stick.

Roundup was its timeless end

This morning, Rick began the execution of the poison ivy on our fence. His is an evil laugh.

Are you edible?

I found a baby mantis on the blackeyed susans, but s/he didn't photograph well. Here's a relative!