Sunday, July 24, 2011

From the Garden of the Unusual and Temporarily Ruining Your Life

Sorry that I've been rather scarce lately, I have been undergoing one of worst things that a you can go through, something that can and will test your resolve, sanity, marriage and temper...

A kitchen remodel.

But first, a bit of garden fun....
I have a bit of a soft spot for unusual plants...
Red Passion Flower (although a bit out of focus).  This was taken with my iPhone about 8 feet up. This one is the first to bloom, I have 3 other varieties that are all intertwined together.  These are truly more drag queens of the plant world, big, showy, beautiful and over the top!

Corsican Mint...I don't know if it's edible or not but you can pet it and your hand will have a wonderful minty smell.
Anise hyssop, otherwise known as licorice.  Yes, I didn't know it looked so bright, green and cheerful either! Where they got the color black associated with it I'll never know.  It's wonderful in tea, makes you feel a little closer to Hallowe'en.
Patchouli, it has a deeply mysterious, sensual smell that is supposed to make you frisky.  It's a pretty bushy plant that is fun to smell, although I can't attest personally to the frisky part.
Coconut geranium...my favorite.  The leaves don't really smell all that much like coconut but they do remind you of some unusual tropical flower.  Not really all that showy, this plant is a trailer and the leaves are HEAVILY scented and will linger long on your skin if you rub one on you.  I love this plant!  Hint: buy the trailing variety and not the upright one, it smells WAY better and stronger.  
The Flying Dragon citrus or the I will %$#@ you up bush as I call it.  This weird plant is covered with sharp spines on its twisted branches.  It makes an orange fruit (unripe in the picture) that I have heard is inedible and I have heard it is just so sour you can't stand it but not poisonous.   It's really hardy and a fun plant, something that Morticia Addams would prize.  Just don't get near it, the plant WILL win!


I'll spare you the gory details but we went from this....

To this...
Then this...

To this...

I watched my absolute favorite movie today...Julie & Julia.  I caught myself smiling several times throughout the movie and afterwards grabbed Mrs. Macabre's Ipad and ordered Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child.  Yes, I know, I got caught up in the movie (love me some Meryl Streep and Amy Adams!) but even though I ordered the book, don't expect me to make aspic (look it up, it's like meat Jello! BLARG!!!)! 

Bored you enough? Want some Hallowe'eny stuff?  Stick around, I'm going back into the shed tomorrow and start working (had the Hallowe'en dream again last night, I think it's a warning to get my rear in gear).  This kitchen remodel has consumed my life lately, and the horrible stifling heat and humidity we've had.

See y'all real soon!



8 comments:

The Captain said...

Ouch, that second kitchen picture looks brutal. You new kitchen is beautiful, I'm super jealous. We have a small kitchen, but unfortunately don't have any extra room to expand it like you did.

The dragon citrus is cool looking!

Pam Morris said...

kitchen looks fantastic! agree with all else--blasted heat and humidity, Julie and Julia, etc. anyway, be careful out in that shed in the next few days--don't think the temperature is supposed to go down all that much. :sigh:

The Artful Gypsy aka Wendy the Very Good Witch said...

Enjoyed looking through your garden. I love scented geraniums and patchouli and mint. But the passionflowers are so cool. We had some nice ones growing a year or two ago and they attracted the prettiest butterflies.....which then laid eggs and hatched caterpillars that preceded to eat away the lovely vine. Ahhh...such is the cycle of life I suppose. Anyway, love the new kitchen...beautiful. Lucky you!

Chris 'Frog Queen' Davis said...

LOL! When you said you have survived the ultimate relationship tester, I knew you had to be talking about a kitchen remodel.

We did ours 6 years ago. We figured if we made it through that, we can survive just about anything.

LOVE the garden pictures. Passion flower is on my favs too, although I have not had much luck with it at my end of the world :(

Looking forward to the Halloween posts....always!

Cheers!

PumpkinBrain said...

I did not experienced the kitchen remodeling yet. I'm not expecting it to happen before at least another 10 years. We'll see then if my relationship can survive this. Looking forward your Halloween creations!

Jeanne said...

Gorgeous Kitchen re-do. And totally agree about the remodel being a test in every way, shape & form!!! And yet, Hubby & I keep doing it over & over with the various houses we buy! You'd think we'd learn one of these days..... But the kitchen turned out beautifully! Kudos to the carpenter! :0)
And your garden is gorgeous! Some very interesting plants. Where do you purchase them? Online? Mail order? Or a local nursery? I'm always on the lookout for the odd & unusual plant. :0) So many of the oranges found in southern climates have actually been grafted onto a hardier species which produces thorns. Love the curly-q of the branches.
And I don't even want to discuss heat and humidity!

Mr. Macabre said...

@Jeanne...I get all of my plants on line; unless you want a sun fern or a crepe myrtle, you're pretty much out of luck where I live.
The Flying Dragon is actually the species that most citrus is grafted on to, I think. I have 2, one where the lime tree died in the winter but the Flying Dragon lived on and one that I bought from a local nursery.

And the heat and humidity is unbearable, except that it's great for my window tinting business!

J.E. Bolton said...

OMG! Your kitchen is beautiful. AWESOME WORK AND KUDOS!