The Yellow Rose of Texas, etc.

Some mornings, I can go out into the yard or garden and find something really inspiring that makes blogging a piece of cake. Other mornings, I end up introducing my chickens or making up some new space-filling tradition to satisfy my addiction to writing for an audience. This morning is somewhere in between. There are some interesting things going on out there, but it's tough to put them into any sort of a coherent narrative.

Here's my best try.

I've never really been much of a rose person. Sure the flowers are nice and all, but when they aren't in bloom, rose bushes are kind of hideous. Despite that, on a whim at the nursery one day, I decided I wanted a rose bush. I bought this one mainly because the name, The Republic of Texas, appealed to my sense of Texan patriotism. 

Roses, nice up close but barely worth looking at from a distance, sort of the opposite of impressionism

Turns out, it's sort of a dud. It hardly ever blooms and the flowers last, maybe, one day. Maybe I don't baby it enough because I do have it in a container rather in the ground. That said, the flowers are pretty when the bush does decide to produce them. Incidentally, I do have another rose that blooms better so roses have grown on me.

Baby green olives, hopefully squirrels don't like them

In a related story (related because the plants' containers are next to one another), I mentioned in my Arbor Day post that the olive tree my mom gave us bloomed this spring. Surprisingly, those blooms actually produced fruit. Now, it's only ten or so olives, but still not too shabby for such a young olive tree. I guess I should start trying to acquire a taste for green olives.

Speaking of plants with fruit, we will soon have more peppers than we'll be able to eat. Hot peppers are ridiculously easy to grow so I grow a lot of them to help maintain a healthy self-confidence. Here are a couple that are laden with fruit. 

Jalapenos - usually only marginally spicy, but, after chopping them, be sure to wash your hands thoroughly before touching yours eyes or going to the bathroom (lesson learned)

Cayenne peppers - usually a bit hotter than jalapenos so, just to be safe, have Travis chop them for you