Walking Iten's Acres: Odds and Ends--Mostly Odds July 20, 2012

Odds and Ends--Mostly Odds

     There were no encounters of a third kind at Iten's Acres this week--unless you count the mouse that was on the riding mower when I went to get it out early in the week.  He was not happy to see me.  And I didn't think he was planning on mowing the lawn for me.  He panicked and ran under the mower.  I'm surprised that he didn't have a mouse heart attack when I turned it on.  Luckily for him I don't turn on the blades until I get out into the yard.  The little rascals like to build a nest in the motor.  Time to get out the d-con.  Emmm, tasty.  I don't bother in the winter.  Dave the lawnmower guy always cleans out the nest when he gives me my spring tuneup.
     I mowed the front of the Acres.  Even though we haven't had much rain, the grass has still been growing.  Well, actually it's the buck thorn.  If you don't know what buck thorn is, count your blessings, name them one by one.  Number one:  not knowing what buck thorn is.  Ugly, invasive weed.  I think if I ever had a lawn company put something down that kills dandelions and buck thorn, I might not have much lawn left out front.  Yep, I know, a bit of an exaggeration.  But exaggeration can be therapeutic at times.
     There are flowers blooming everywhere.  Each bed has beauty.  Hibiscus and rose of Sharon are scattered here and there in odd places.  The pond has a bouquet of yellow water lilies.  The wild area still has a zillion (exaggeration) Queen Anne's Lace, a couple kinds of coneflowers, some lingering day lilies, and black-eyed Susans.  But the star of the show is the phlox.  I brought up a couple of plants from Mom's South Carolina home when I first moved to the Acres.  They are now everywhere.  You can't keep them in the flower beds.  Not that I would want to.  Sun or shade makes no difference to them either.  Every year there's a new bunch or two, or three, or four, or . . . You get the picture.  They have a marvelous scent.  Hummingbirds and butterfly love them.  Bumble bees get inebriated on them.  They just sit on them for hours.  (I wonder if they have to get de-phloxed when they get back to the hive?)  They also change colors as they spread.  I must have a dozen different shades by now, and I started out with just two:  pinks, reds, purples, lilacs, white, greens, two-tones.  And they all bunch together.  You can have four or five different colors in one small group.  They are huge as well--six, seven feet tall.  If you get a chance, flock to the nursery and get some phlox.  They will bloom until the first frost as well.
     The oddest events of this week at Iten's Acres:  three days in a row of rain.  I couldn't believe it.  And the rain was followed by much cooler temperatures.  Thank you, Lord.  I pray you will send some of the stuff to Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Texas, and any other place in need of it.  Aren't you glad that He sends rain on the just and the unjust?  Otherwise the whole world might be a desert.