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| Self-Sown Red Stemmed Celery (and Mystery Plant) |
Last year, M transplanted three self-sown red stemmed celery seedlings from his garden in my garden, in one of the planting beds. They bolted and went to seed and this year, I have two or three self-sown seedlings growing in the same planting bed and this one, the biggest of them, growing among the paving stones near the blueberry bushes! I will be harvesting the stalks, soon, before this plant bolts, although the stalks are mostly leaves!
Growing in front of the celery plant is another small plant, with just three leaves, so far. It is a bit of a mystery plant! I asked M if it could be a passionfruit seedling, but, he thinks it might be a coffee plant! He has a coffee plant in his garden and it produced some coffee beans; he gave me a couple of coffee beans to try to grow in a small pot inside the house, but, they didn't germinate. But, he thinks he might have planted a coffee bean outside, near the blueberry bushes! We shall keep an eye on this plant and see what it turns out to be! I remember that there was a coffee plant growing in the garden of my childhood home - I don't recall if we ever picked any of the coffee berries to roast and make coffee, though!
It was sunny on Wednesday morning, but, by 11:00 a.m., the clouds moved in and it started to drizzle a bit by 12 noon. M was able to fertilize the fruit trees and tend to the garden a little. But, by 1:00 p.m., it started raining in earnest and it rained all afternoon and into the evening. It stopped around 10:00 p.m., I think.
I did three loads of laundry (all bedsheets and sofa dust sheets), and with the help of Rebel the Robot Vacuum, vacuumed several rooms in the house! I still can't get it to work through my phone, but, I can press the buttons manually and it happily meanders around the house! We vacuumed the living room and dining area, the hallway, daughter's bedroom, and the family room. Rebel even went into the kitchen for a bit, but, I didn't really want it to vacuum the kitchen, so I gently nudged it out of that area! I accidentally dropped it, when carrying it from the living room to the family room, but, it survived the fall, thank goodness!
I enjoyed a nice chat on the phone with my aunt, this evening, wrote a long email to a friend, and video chatted with my daughter.
Brunch was a scrambled egg on toast. Dinner was some of the soupy rice with half a sausage sliced into it. For a snack, I roasted some cashews and enjoyed them with salt and chili powder sprinkled on them.
Today, I am grateful for:
- More rain for the garden
- Working appliances
- M tending to the garden
- My daughter's gift of a robot vacuum
- Phone calls and emails from family and friends
Today's joyful activity was spending some time in the garden before it rained.
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| Yellow Throated Bird |
I don't put out birdseeds to encourage birds because I have cats in the garden (although Mama Cat tends to ignore birds), but, there are birds who come to eat the cat food! This is not a very good photo because I took it from inside the house, through the glass door. But, the bird is about the size of a sparrow, is mostly grey, and has a yellow throat. I wondered it if was a Yellow Throated Warbler, but, then, I read that Yellow Rumped Warblers are supposed to be common in southern California backyards, especially in the winter; I was unable to see if this bird had a yellow rump, though. Whatever it was, it took a kibble in its beak and disappeared into the blueberry bushes to enjoy it!
You're having a lot of rain, but that's good from a semi-arid region. I was excited saw coffee tree growing when I was in Guatemala - another exotic plant for me. But I haven't seen any since then. It will be interesting to see what the small plant develops into.
ReplyDeleteYes, we are getting plenty of rain, this winter, which is wonderful! Hopefully, we have received enough rain to get through the dry summer. :)
DeleteIt will be fun to watch the new seedling grow and see what it turns out to be! :D
I've only ever seen green stemmed celery and that's one of my favourite salad ingredients. I hope your daughter is able to sort Rebel the Robot Vacuum cleaner for you and what a great name for it. Such a pretty little bird and cheeky too, I'm glad Mama Cat doesn't mind visitors to your garden.
ReplyDeleteI, too, had no idea that there were red stemmed celery! But, M gets seeds from various catalogs and he likes to grow novelty items. :)
DeleteI seem to have internet problems, even with the computer, requiring me to reset/restart quite often. I'm sure it is something like that with the vacuum cleaner. I think it was one of my blog readers who suggested the name Rebel for it! I think I should call it HAL after the computer in the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey! :D
It is a very pretty bird, isn't it? I need to dust off my Birds of North America book and brush up my bird identification skills! :D
I do hope you have a random coffee plant. It will be fun for you to watch it grow and see what come up.
ReplyDeleteIn my yard most random plants are either weeds , baby redbud trees or devil weed
Thank you, Anne. It will be fun to see if I have a coffee plant growing in the backyard! :D M brought me a tea plant, one year, but, it died. I've plenty of weeds growing in my garden, too! Especially after all the rain we're having!
DeleteI love the yellow-throated bird. I haven’t seen any like that here. The very red cardinal is back outside my dining table/desk and I have been delightedly distracted all morning. The tree and the bushes are full of the less colorful female cardinals and some wrens.
ReplyDeleteLove the mystery of your plant. I hope it is coffee—that would be fun to see.
I’m enjoying this day with no rain; we’ll have plenty more rain this weekend. 😊
It is a very cute bird, isn't it? I saw it, today, too, and I watched it fly away, but, I didn't see any yellow rump! We don't have any cardinals here (at least, I haven't seen any).
DeleteIt'll be fun to watch the mystery plant develop! I, too, hope it's coffee!
Enjoy your day without rain. There's no rain here, too, and none in the forecast for the next 10 days or so. :)
Your volunteer celery plants look very healthy and I love mystery plants, although most of mine seem to turn out to be weeds. I can't help with the bird, I will leave it to the bird experts to identify. I hope it enjoyed the leftover cat kibble.
ReplyDeleteThis particular plant looks the healthiest of the lot! I'm hoping the mystery plant does turn out to be coffee! The bird was here today, too, and I watched it fly to see if it had a yellow rump, but, I didn't see one! I might need to invest in a pair of binoculars!
DeleteI have never seen that red stemmed celery. Did you have any to eat last year? I guess it probably tastes like celery lol. Just wondering.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, a coffee plant would be fun.
Yes, I think that's a warbler too. It's kind of mottled and that does look more like the rumped one instead of the plain yellow throated one.
I think the rest of the yellow is hiding under it's winter coat :) Maybe?
I actually didn't eat any of the red stemmed celery, last year. I was waiting for the stems to get a bit bigger before I picked it and the next thing I knew, it bolted! I am sure it tastes just like regular celery! :)
DeleteYes, a coffee plant would be fun, wouldn't it?
I read that the yellow rumped warblers have two different subspecies (Audubon's and Myrtle) with different markings, but, that they interbreed and their offspring can have less distinct markings, so maybe this is such an offspring! I also noticed that the glass door needs a good washing, again!