Surprise Blooms

I was outside on the front porch in a conversation with my step dad and my husband. In mid sentence, something caught my attention. Something I knew was possible but at the same time didn't expect to happen. Let me back up to when we first moved in our home almost 2 years ago.

We quickly discovered that we had cacti growing wild all over our yard. It was entertaining for a while but mostly it hurt when weeding the garden or planting and getting stuck by a needle. My mother figured out that we could transplant them into one big patch. So we did. They survived the winter in their new location and thrived all last summer. The cacti went dormant for yet another winter and had just started to plump back up this last week.

Imagine this sight greeting me when I got home from work and was relaxing on the porch. Yes, we have flowering cacti in our front yard. Not just plain flowers but gorgeous sunshine yellow double petaled flowers. Yay! I think I am in love.

Please don't mind the weeds in the cacti bed. I just haven't had time or the energy to go pull them this week yet.

~Jessica~

Visitors from Far and Near

As I mentioned before, we have had some visitors.

From near, we had a couple critters show up.

We had this adorable little frog stop in. We see them every year, all summer long, but I still love photographing them. He stayed for a bit before hopping along on his merry way.

We also had this peahen (female peafowl) show up. Not only did she want to visit with us, she wanted to visit with our chickens as well. As of this post, she has come a calling several days in a row.

From far we had family come visit.

My dad had business in south Florida so when he headed back home, he stopped off for a few days to visit. Here is Ori (our rooster), my Dad and I hanging out on the front porch.

Then my mother in law came to spend Spring Break with the kids and us too. Here is my husband and his mom walking along a local beach.

~Jessica~

What's Blooming?

It has been fairly busy at our home lately. We have had two different family members come from Michigan to visit. My husband and I have had pretty hectic work schedules and the kids always have something going on. I figured a "bloomin" blog was in order. There are many things blooming in and around our Florida home but here is a small smattering. 

A few Azaleas are still blooming.

Day Lily

Roses

Columbine

Bottlebrush Bush

Jessamine

My favorite "weed", Wild Phlox

Sweet William Dianthus

Another favorite "weed", Wood Sorrell

This is about as close as I can get to the Angelonia right now. There is a mated pair of House Finch building a nest. We are only trying to disturb them when we carefully water the basket. Hopefully, they can up with us until Friday when we can pick up an automatic watering bottle.

~Jessica~

Lemons: Start to Finish

This post was months in the making, literally. We planted a Meyer Lemon tree last February and we had to wait to get lemons. I diligently photographed the process from flower to cut lemons in my kitchen. We harvested our first lemons this past November. Happy birthday Ms Meyer Lemon. Hopefully you bless us with another batch of delicious lemons this year.

February - Lemon Blossoms

May - First little lemons developing. This is a close up so they look much bigger than they really were.

June - The lemons are quite a bit larger now.

July - The first hints of yellow begin appearing.

August - Yellow blush is definitely visible but there is still a lot of green left.

October - Almost completely yellow!

November - Our first ever lemon harvest! It was an exciting time to be had by all.

The kids opted to eat one right away, straight into the mouth. Dave and I opted to slice one up for a big glass of rum and Coke. Ahh, nothing beats the sweet tart flavor of home grown lemons.

~Jessica~

Halloween 2011

I hope you all had a Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain. I have been very busy with work but I did manage to get our decor set up, get us all costumed and have some fun. My oldest decided he was not going to trick or treat this year so no photos to share of him, party pooper. I hope you enjoy these photos from our family festivities.

Outdoor Halloween Decor

Indoor Halloween Decor

Costumes

Fall Festival

Costume Contest at a Local Nightclub

Thanks to everyone for making this year fantastic!

~Jessica~