Flowers, Flowers, Everywhere

Despite the heat, humidity and bugs, I went out and weeded all the flower beds. Here’s a typical batch of weeds growing up through the stones.

The plants just love the rain and heat – everything that flowers is flowering. Here’s my best shot. It’s a Firebush with a Zebra Butterfly coming in for a sip.

Polly brought down a Hibiscus from Connecticut and this is the second time it bloomed this year. In a mater of two days and the flower will be gone.

Here’s another Hibiscus that was planted by the previous owner and it’s the first time I’ve seen it bloom. Also notice that its leaves are variegated – Never seen that before on a Hibiscus, in fact, I didn't know it was a Hibiscus until it bloomed.

Two years ago, at a yard sale, we bought this little cactus that looked like Mickey Mouse – look at the size of it now. That yellow flowered bush beside it is a Thyallis.

We dug up these Mexican Bluebells out of the woods and planted them along one side of the pool – they have really taken to their new home.

This was planted by the previous owner – I think it’s some type of Jasmine or at least it smells like one.

We transplanted this Peace Lily from a sunny location to this more shaded one and it is showing its appreciation.

The Walking Iris is so named because after it blooms the seed pod still on the stem falls over and starts growing a new plant – thus it seems to be walking – they bloom throughout the year whenever they get enough water.

Here’s a bunch more flowers in bloom but I’m not sure of their names.

The Orchard of Eden

Last summer we had planted all kinds of fruit trees and to keep them healthy while we were away we put in a drip water feed for them. So on this quick trip down to Florida, I was checking on the drip system to make sure they were all dripping on schedule, pull all weeds that were encroaching on the trees and give them some fertilizer to keep them growing. 

Let start on something positive – the drip is certainly giving them enough water – look at the banana plants

They were only a two foot tall when I bought them at Walmart – in about 6 months they have grown to 8 feet tall – they are only supposed to grow about 12 feet before they fruit – I’m going to have plenty of bananas.

Here’s a view of most of the orchard after I’ve weeded and mowed. Weeding wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t for the heat (high80’s low 90’s), the humidity (above 85 %), the thunderstorms (some everyday for the first 4 days) and those damn little bugs. Jumping in the pool helped with the heat and humidity – I’d go inside when is started to lightening but a light rain was better than the stifling heat and humidity so I'd stay out in the light showers – But nothing got rid of those little “no-see-um” bugs. There was always a ball of them flying around my head. The good thing is they didn’t bite like mosquitoes – they just wanted to fly into your ears, nose or eyes and get a drink or lay eggs. First you start swatting at them but quickly realize you can’t kill them and if you hand is dirty from pulling weeds it really makes a mess when you swat your head. So you just let them be – they sure tickle when they climb into your ear but at least they don’t bite. 

Only a couple of trees have fruit on them. There are some oranges.

And a lot of figs (Tony D. father would be envious).

But wait till next year – everything has grown – take a look at the pineapples – all started in the spring from the tops of pineapples we ate.

And here are the papayas – I’m growing them in pots since that reduces their height and makes it easier to move them inside if we get a bad freeze.

Ah, it’s a regular Orchard of Eden.

Green is the Color of My Pool

I decided this year to take a couple of trips down to Florida to keep the lawn in check, adjust the water in the pool and fertilize the orchard. This is the first of the trips – I fly Southwest and booked a nonstop flight out of Providence – only problem is it leaves at 6 AM – yawn.

So I get into Tampa at 9:15 and to get to Wimauma (about 40 miles away) I plan to use the HART Bus System. A guy at the Masonic Campground had offered to pick me up but seeing I was by myself and had plenty of time, I wanted to try the bus system. I found the HART bus stop right at the main terminal. I had looked up on line what the bus connections should be and it was a Route 30 bus to get me from the airport to the MTC center, there I get a route 8 bus that takes me to Brandon Mall and from there I use a route 53 bus to the Wimauma Walmart – Nothing to it. These buses seem to run pretty close to their schedule but they sure go some winding routes through the back streets of Tampa and Ybor City – I don’t think I want to do this trip at night. The route 8 bus trip had 60 – yes 60 - stops. I guess at rush hour they might use them all but at 10 AM we only stopped at every third or so. So that is the bad part but the good part is it only cost $1.80 for my all day seniors HART pass. Great deal.  Maybe when we are down here full time next winter we’ll use it to tour Tampa area and Ybor City (old Cuban cigar making town).

So I make it to Wimauma Walmart by 12 noon and John from the campground comes and picks me up and drives me out to my house. John and his wife have been using the swimming pool and he tells everything was fine until last week when the pool turned green. 

The next door neighbor, Rusty, came over and said it needed more salt (3 bags he suggested) because the chlorine generator only read 1200 ppm where it should be up near 3300 ppm. It sounded logical so I went to Walmart and bought 5 bags just to be on the safe side – after dumping in 4 bags and seeing that the chlorine generator still read the salt at 1200 ppm – I guessed that this wasn’t working. A quick internet search told me that I should unhook the chlorine generator and look inside it to see if the electrical plates were clean or if they had any deposits on them.

I did and they were so heavily coated that you couldn’t see the plates nor any gap between them. I got out the high pressure sprayer and so thin tools to scrap and blast the deposits – it got the bulk off but I finally had to use a muriatic acid bath to completely finish the job. Put it all back together again, turned it on and went to bed – it was a long day. Next morning the salt read 4700 ppm – way higher than it was supposed to be but it wouldn’t hurt anything (according to the pool supply store). 

Now after two days of scrubbing and cleaning all traces of the green are gone – splash – I’m swimming everyday with the temperatures in the high 80’s and humidity up around 90 % - I needed the pool.

I wonder if he has a bathing suit on.