In the Pink

We had rain along the Front Range last night. The Denver area had feet deep hail--a lot of hail. I have never seen so much hail ( in the news). Here we just had nice sweet, rain punctuated with thunder and lightening, a very nice way to end the heat spell that wore out its welcome. As I posted on Facebook today, one of things that I am enjoying about retirement is the luxury of being able to go out to the garden early in the morning after rain instead of rushing off to work.

I came back from the garden with the egg basket full.

And a handful of white onions. We planted 3 varieties of onions: white, yellow, and red. I think that the white are the best if their odor is any sign. I cut some up for salsa, crying all the while. The whites did the best given that they were in the part of the garden that didn't get watered as much as it should have.

The garden is still in the pink: by the house, cosmos, hibiscus, dianthus , and a sweet rose.

Fondly called around here Heidi Biscuit, this lovely hibiscus has survived the horse manure top dressing. The leaves still show the signs to the over fertilization and the blooms are not as big as they should be, but she is lovely, none-the-less.

Growing in my little succulent garden, the dianthus have bloomed all summer long with vigilant dead heading.

I love this rose. It is just the perfect shade of pink.

The garden still blooms pink, too. The only zinnia to survive the cultivator has been so lovely and a joy to watch grow.

Uninvited to the garden, this gorgeous dark pink cosmos has popped open here at the end of the summer. Next year I will plant more. I love cosmos. So do bees and butterflies.

Decorators know that a dash of red adds panache to a room and to the garden too. One volunteer zinnia found her way into the garden.

Hiding from prying eyes, the sweetest little red strawberries.

In the courtyard, the red rose continues to please. It will bloom until the first frost.

Back in the house, getting ready to make salsa, I washed up the vegetables. All cleaned up, the peppers look nearly perfect.

Is there something wrong with me when I get so excited over onions?

I grow egg plant just because they look so pretty in the garden and they are so easy to grow.

Now what do I do with it?

These are California red bells; they don't do so well. They tend to rot on the vine. At first I thought they needed more water. Then less water. But before they reach any sort of maturity, they develop brown sores that just begin to eat away at a healthy pepper. Do you have the same problems?

This one might survive. I remembered that last year I picked the Cal reds while they were still green to let them ripen on the counter. We will see what this one does.

I spent part of the day making salsa to use up some of the tomatoes, onions, and peppers. To this batch I added jalapeno and Anaheim to give it a punch. The first two batches I just used green peppers since my jalapenos and Anaheims didn't do well. I bought some from the farmer down the road who had better luck than I did growing fabulous peppers.

With my work done for the day (so I declared), I retreated to my craft room where I can spend mindless hours making stuff. Another perk of retirement: I can do whatever I want. 

I have been working on a glittered house Christmas village, but last night I decided make a haunted house. It turned out so cute that I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting on my Cricut machine pieces to make five little haunted houses for the grandchildren. 

Tomorrow we make a trip to Denver, so I am glad that I finished the salsa. There is still work to be done in the garden; hopefully, I can get out later in the week to do some weeding and clean up. It is supposed to be cool all week with more rain. 

We love rain.

As I close tonight, rain falls again. My friend Cymber who lives in Hawaii posted this on Facebook today. I don't think that she will mind if I close tonight's post with her inspiration:

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby. ~Langston Hughes

Good night all, and thank you for visiting.