The Wood's Secret Garden

As Michael was edging in for a closer shot, he had to quickly abandoned his mission.  In fact, he moved so quickly, that his sandals stayed put and he kept going--or so I was told upon arriving home for lunch today.  Now that would have been a picture. Okay, enough suspense.   Michael was on the second story balcony when he spotted a large female turkey walking through the Secret Garden.  Following on her tail where a half dozen or more fur balls scurrying along.  He grabbed the camera and went downstairs to get a closer look and perhaps a picture or two.  That was when the mother turkey decided that he was too close.  Have you ever seen a turkey in attack mode?  They spread their wings, thrust them to the front and move with a stomping quick pace towards the enemy.  That's when Michael lost his shoes. Needless to say, he was fine.  He didn't even step on any stickers or sharp rocks during his barefoot get away....

It's been almost ten weeks since we sowed the seeds.  Remember this at week nine? It is now this...  We finally have blooms!  There are three varieties of flowers that seem to comprise the garden.  This particular variety is the first to bloom.  On the same plant there are actually four different colored blooms.  We are hoping to see another variety bloom soon.  It is great fun anticipating what kind and color of flower that will be.  I am thinking it will be yellow or orange.  Below are the other blooms from the same plant above:

When I arrived home on Thursday, I discovered a bowl full of little yellow, red and purple gumballs.  Well, that is actually what they looked like.  Perfect little round balls of shiny color.  Earlier in the day, Michael had taken off across the creek to gather wild plums and had washed them and left them for me to discover.    Michael had taken the above pictures before I arrived home.  I must admit, I was somewhat disappointed.  Why disappointed?  Simply for having missed the adventure.  However, I was happy that he had gone exploring on his own and had brought home the plunder. Wild plums are okay to eat right off the tree, however, we had some pork cutlets just waiting for a delicious plum sauce.  So, we decided to look up a recipe for wild plum sauce and guess what?  We found one on a vegetarian from South Carolina's website.  In fact, it was the first website that popped up after I...

While we are waiting on our wild flowers to bloom (eight weeks now and no blooms), the Secret Garden is blooming all over the place!   We do not recall these particular flowers last year, and it is a delight to see how the garden changes with each passing season.  With the crazy storms this winter, the winds and rains must have carried seeds into the Secret Garden from some far off place.  During our walk this morning, we decided to document some of the new flowers that have appeared this year.

We might actually see flowers!  It's been eight weeks since we sowed the wild flower seed in the little flower box that we constructed at the base of the stairs leading up to our second floor apartment.  Every morning, for eight weeks, we have watered them--sometimes in the late afternoon, as well.   That comes to approximately 82 trips up and down those stairs with a watering can in each hand.  Here is what we discovered this morning:  

Well, it's week eight for the wild flower garden that we planted from seed.  Upon arriving home, our neighbor, Elliot, commented, "It might help if you got rid of some of the weeds".  WHAT?????  There are no weeds.  Those are the dang wild flowers.  They just have not yet flowered!  I am laughing as I am recounting this.  What if they are weeds?  They are not weeds!  Okay, after 8 weeks and no flowers, even I am starting to wonder.