Sachem

Another hot and humid week here in central Oklahoma. I visited my family for my niece’s birthday party in Texas last Saturday. I didn’t expect it to rain the entire drive there and back. This made the traffic light and the UV low which was good. The crape myrtles and mimosa trees were in bloom this week and looked beautiful on the drive. It seems we will have more rain tomorrow and the temperature will drop again. It has continued to be a little cooler than usual this year so far. One of the kids attending the party had a moth land on her hand. She walked around with it for a few minutes and then put it on some flowers. It looked a little beat up after she had handled it. My brother got some chickens recently but they’re not old enough to have eggs yet. I didn’t go to the farm this week but need to go soon. I have a butternut squash vine and a moonflower vine on balcony that are getting bigger and need to be transplanted as soon as possible. The hardy fiber banana tree is also not looking great these days. I think the issue is either too much water or too much heat. I am continuing to make healthy soups to improve the quality of my diet. I made a corn and jalapeno soup this week since summer is corn season. I used onion, celery, garlic, vegetable broth, corn, jalapeno, cilantro, cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, and coconut milk. I think I added too much corn because it ended up tasting like creamed corn rather than soup. Next week, I plan to make a butternut squash and apple soup. I saw a sachem on my balcony for the first time this week on my zinnias. Or at least that’s what I think it was. I saw a similar looking skipper on Sunday and today. I looked them both up and got different results. The one from Sunday seems to be a fiery skipper and the one I saw today may be a sachem. Apparently, these skippers are difficult to differentiate. These skippers were too fast to catch with open wings. It was also quite windy today so the sachem was having trouble staying on the zinnias. The zinnias have been very popular this week with the pollinators. These are cut and come again zinnias so I can cut them and they rebloom after. I also saw my first bell pepper on one of my balcony plants today. Unfortunately, it seems to have blossom end rot due to inconsistent watering. I am not sure if it will be edible. I had known that tomatoes get blossom end rot but didn’t know that peppers could get it. The nicotiana is continuing to bloom profusely. I am continuing to plan for fall and thinking about what perennials to plant this year. I will definitely try California poppies again this year although they didn’t come up for me last year.