On Being Stalked

Sunday, May 21, 2006

 

I'm just dropping in for a minute to write an entry - life is so busy these days that I'm wondering how I ever had time for school.

And I am also working on figuring out what I'm doing this summer, waiting on a call from the Attorney General's office to see if we are going to finish a school project for them.

Meanwhile, I've been stalked.

I'm generally pretty observant when it comes to those kinds of things, I mean I check around every day just to make sure everything is going well.

In New Mexico, you've got to check often, because if you don't things will just shrivel up and die on you.

Take this clump of grass in the yard. The previous owner has 5 of these things planted deliberately in various places.

As I've tried to work on converting this yard into a festival of color, I've been stumped on what to do with the clumps of saw grass. I thought they were ugly and required a lot of trimming just for a clump of green.

Then one morning the other day I walked outside to check all of the plants and I looked at one of the clumps in surprise.

I mean, come on.

I look at these things every day, at least in a passing glance.

Although I suspect it took more than one night, I'm here to tell you that in something like 24 hours or less, I got stalked.

I mean look at this thing. How do you walk around the yard and not see something like this rising out of a clump of saw-grass?

I know my son could do it. Heck, he walked out into the driveway and didn't see a brand new Tahoe sitting there, but I water and tend to the plants every day.

So after the first one appeared, up popped 5 or 6 more on another clump.

What's interesting here is that you can see the progression of how this "flower" works. First it starts out green, then as it matures the flower changes color to orange.

Then each bud opens from the bottom and you see all the traditional "parts" of the flower.

I guess it's a bit like life, this scrappy clump of green. You never know what hidden beauty lies beneath a crusty exterior.

I guess it's best to keep your eyes and heart open.

I wonder if they are attractive for humming birds. Just as I was setting up for the next shot of one of the mini roses, a hummingbird came right up to the lens of my camera and darted away.

Just an hour or two later, that same rosebud, opened up to the New Mexico Sun.

We found out that roses do really well here, so I've got 3 climbers and 2 regular ones waiting to be planted.

The only problem is that the soil here is so hard that I have to rent an electric jackhammer/shovel to dig the holes. I've decided to wait till Mrs. gets back from AZ to approve the locations.

I do the plants, but I'd rather not have grief about where I place them.

Give it a week or two and I'll have images of the transformed yard. I've got 18 pots of flowers and the 5 rose bushes that should all be flowering soon.

Anyone know what I was stalked by?

Common name Torch Lilly - Sometimes called the Red Hot Poker Plant.

Meanwhile, its time to head out to the chapel of the open road.