Rare Flower Sighting at the Malloys

For some of you, this may be a common garden flower.  For us, this is the first time we have seen this in over 15 years.

Yes, indeed, a pink poppy.  This is a plant from my brother, Jim, who brought it to us when he visited at our last home, over 15 years ago.  I brought it here, and planted it in the garden by the water feature.  Also known as the Chipmunk Front Yard, which had several front doors for various chipmunk tunnels.  The chipmunks LOVED poppies.  The buds were eaten before they ever emerged into flowers.  I transplanted this last summer and voila! amazing flowers.

Last summer, I did some work in the back yard, building some small gardens for the first time.  The yard had looked like this, prior.

As all of you well know, a garden is a leap of faith, because when it is new, you really don't know what it is going to look like.  This year has been a real pleasure.

Although the gardens are small, they have added a lot to the back yard, and there are lots of flowers.  I got some magnificent iris from my friend, Norma, and have planted hollyhocks, which will be in bloom soon.  I don't think I have had hollyhocks since I left home.  The small bit of garden on the left side of the patio is an herb garden, which adds a lot to the cooking flavours.

Unfortunately, the herb garden is loved by a turkey hen, who tries to scratch it up every day.  This seems like trading one wildlife hazard for another.

The lack of posts have been due to us enjoying a month of "Walking Pneumonia".  We had never heard of it before, but several friends assure us that it is worse thank we think.  We finally visited the doctor's office a week ago, had it diagnosed, and then embarked on a course of antibiotics for 10 days which have made no difference.  Apparently, this piece of happiness can last for another 2-4 weeks.  The worst aspects of it are the worst case of lethargy/fatigue that we have ever experienced, as well as a cough that never ends.  If you think I am whining, you are absolutely right.  There is good news!  I checked the Mayo Clinic website, and found it is common in children and in adults up to 40 years old.  Yay!  We are 40 year olds!!  This is better than geritol.  More posts will come if we ever recover.