Hanna, how could you?

So I leave town to work for the weekend, and come home to find out Hanna stopped by (uninvited, I may add).




Granted, we really only got hit with bucket loads of rain, so it could have been a whole, WHOLE lot worse. Unfortunately, the event I was working on was outdoors, so I got to spend some up close and personal time with that bit--, er, lady myself.

Once home, I assessed the damage and tied up the plants as best I could. I noticed the corn cobs were....missing! Most of them, in fact. Had they blown away in the storm? Had someone (gasp!) stolen them?

I looked around and found the answer.

Freakin' squirrels.

Even the ears still on the stalks look a little picked over.

In fairness, I didn't actually *see* the squirrels, so I shouldn't blame them. Could be raccoons, or opossums, but whomever did it is on my you-know-what list.

Well, at least the corn stalks looked kind of cool in front of the house. It's almost time to cut them and let them dry out to create a festive fall display for the porch. Thankfully the man doesn't read this blog or that last sentence may freak him out ("You're going to do what with the corn stalks on our porch?!").

There is one giant beauty (about 9') that was just starting to bloom Monday morning. I'll be back at the house Wednesday night to see how she's held up.

As for some of the sunflowers that couldn't be saved, I decided to make a festive bouquet to cheer myself up.

I have a lot to catch up on. While I was on blog sabbatical, hundreds of unread blog posts queued up in my Google Reader archives, and one of my favorite bloggers even announced she was expecting a new little blogger (congrats, Courtney! :-). Thank you to ALL of the amazing folks who stopped here from The Inspired Room's Fall Nesting Party. Many of you were new to me so it's been great to see your blogs, too, and to read your thoughtful comments. Mahalo.

I've picked up some super cool little bargains over the past couple of weeks (the thrifty gods have finally smiled on me!) so I'll be sure to post them over the next week.

Germinating

For the first time, I'm taking a crack at planting seeds. Actually, strike that: My first and only other attempt was when I was 6-years-old and Mrs. Biscoglio, my Brownie troop leader, had us plant seeds in egg cartons for our moms. I don't think mom actually got to see the fruits (or, flowers) of my labor. I’m pretty sure my carton garden yielded nada -- and if I'm not mistaken, drew carpenter ants to our kitchen windowsill.

We had a seriously cold spring here that catapulted immediately into an unbearably warm and humid summer, so I couldn’t even plant my seeds until a couple of weeks ago. And now I fear the blazing hot sun will dry roast my sunflower seeds. I should add a little salt so at least the squirrels will have a yummy snack.

Along with sunflowers and morning glories, I’m planting (or attempting to plant) corn. Kind of just for the shock value. I think it will be a hoot and a half if corn stalks start to sprout out inches from the street. (“Honey, stop the car! Is that corn growing out of the sidewalk crack?!”) I’ve mentioned before that the houses here are built practically on top of each other, likely because back in the day our town was strictly summer residences so I’m sure the “no fuss, no muss” factor was in effect, as was the lets-see-how-many-city-folk-we-can-jam-together factor.

I really want a garden, so I’ve worked our micro-acreage for all it's worth, planting a smorgasbord of perennials in the tiny space between our porch and sidewalk and complementing that with containers wherever I could fit. As for the seed projects, I’m most excited by the sunflowers, which are showing signs of progress:


Isn’t it cute how the sproutlings have little seed helmets?!


(What can I say. I’m a city girl, so these small miracles of nature shock and delight me as if I were that 6-year-old again, back in my Peter-Pan-collared Brownie uniform eagerly watching my egg carton. Waiting. And waiting.)

Some of the other stuff I may have accidentally pulled up. I thought they were weeds. Oops. But I’ve IDd what I think is corn, so I’m going to try to resist my Type-A urge to yank the rest of little green weed-like objects out of the ground. And since I’m not exactly holding my breath for a bumper crop of blooms, I bought sunflowers at the Asbury Park Farmer’s Market on Saturday and put them in my fancy new sap bucket:




Ahhh…Instant gratification!