A "Fall" Sunday at the Grackle

It's possible that our 100 degree days have passed for the season, but I'm not counting my chickens yet. Still, the mornings and evenings are waxing gorgeous, with temps in the 60s. So this Sunday morning, John and I grabbed our dark French-pressed Revolution coffee (from Just Coffee in Madison, WI) and set ourselves upon the front patio in front of this new cactus I just bought at Barton Creek Nursery. I think it looks like a miniature forest of pine cones.

The Barbados cherries (Malpighia glabra) are beginning to bloom in the front garden. The flowers don't look like much from afar, but they are quite beautiful up close and smell nice too. I expect to see the bees swarming them any moment now.

The flowers will give way to bright red cherries that the birds will devour before we hardly get a chance to notice them. These Barbados cherries have frozen back to the nubs the past two winters with our crazy freezes, but they keep returning in full shrubby glory. I'd say this is a proven winner for our area, and seems to be able to handle the random freezes and droughts.

The Blackfoot daisy continues to bloom these days too.

And a self-sown, lemon-yellow sunflower arched it's neck toward the rising sun.

After perusing around the garden with the camera this morning, I whipped up a special Southern-style eggs benedict, with homemade buttermilk biscuits, bacon and poached backyard eggs delivered by the chickens of some good friends down the road a spell. What a great start to a beautiful day!