Mexican Sunflower

It has been a rather hot and of course windy week in central Oklahoma. I have been seeing some of the plants on my balcony start to bloom this week. The nicotiana and scarlet sage are both beginning to bloom and look stunning. I am pleased as punch about these because I collected the seeds myself last year. I also saw my first Mexican sunflower this week. This plant has really taken off recently and has lots more buds. The flower wasn’t as big as I had expected it to be. It was about two inches wide and I had expected it to be twice as wide. The plant itself is much larger and bushier than I had thought it would be. The flower is the most vibrant shade of red and matches the scarlet sage quite nicely. I planted it because I had read that it is a great pollinator attractor. We shall see if it lives up to the reputation. So far it has been too windy for the pollinators to be seen much. Of course, Oklahoma is really amazing for butterflies but there are far more in fall here than spring. My boyfriend bought me two more new plants this week since I have been continuing to do some work for him. This week, we got a Renaissance spirea and a white drift rose that was half off. The coral drift rose we planted recently is doing really well, much better than the Blue Girl rose. The Blue Girl is recovering but may not flower this year. I have not been to the farm this week due to work so I hope to go out there next week. My boyfriend has completed my squirrel feeding area with a corn cob holder. It is really cute watching the squirrels hug the corn and chew on it. However, the squirrels definitely prefer nuts and seeds more than other things I have tried to feed them. Walnuts, almonds, pecans, peanuts, and sunflower seeds seem to be some of their favorite foods. I didn’t draw much outside of class this week but I did continue to work on my daffodil painting. I cooked some delicious parathas this week using a recipe from the Cooking with Chetna YouTube channel. I froze most of the parathas to eat when we make fish pakora next week. I’m looking forward to cooking something new and wonder if I can achieve a similar flavor to the pakora from our favorite Indian restaurant. I definitely recommend trying fish pakora if you’ve never tried it.