Sunny Morning

  

The 'extra' rain has stopped, sun shines brightly and warms the day. Birds are singing and you can smell fresh air. Lovely. Raindrops are left everywhere, 

 

 

I am so surprised to see my vegetables and herbs, they look so fresh.

 

Striped amaranth

Red lettuce

Cilantro

 Mint

But snail eats eggplants' leaf.. 

July Flowers

This July, the weather was a little erratic. It supposed to be  dry season here, but the last two weeks it is sometimes cloudy, drizzle and in these last three days heavy rain doesn't stop. We are happy to get rain water and don't need to  water the garden, but for plants that are not too fond of water I am afraid  they will rot.

From the sudden rain, I get some bulbs flowering, Zephyranthes and Amaryllis. They are supposed to flower in November or December, when the dry season is over.

 Pink Zephyranthes

 Amaryllis

Last month, I planted some roses, and they give me their flowers this month! I am not so sure about their name. I bought them at Pasty with Rp 5000,00 each plant, very cheap. I bought 6 plants and two of them are now  flowering.

 

Red Candy Rose. People usually call it 'Mawar Batik' because of its stripped pattern.

Pink Holland Rose bud. 

I have posted about Javanese dish named Gudhangan which one of the ingredients is Kancu (Bauhinia tomentosa) here, it is a medium shrub or a small tree that can grow up to 4 m in height. The leaves are divided into two lobes, like butterfly wings. People usually plant Kancu as land border, they also take the leaves to feed their farms.

 

 Pink Bauhinia tomentosa's buds

It's blooming! And you can see banana trees at the back. They are setting fruits. 

Another edible shrub is Poinsettia. People here call it 'Kembang Racun', racun means poison, and its young leaf is edible, edible poison, xo xo..

Poinsettia

My Evening Sun Sunflower is blooming this morning! I love the two different colors on its foliage.

I grew dahlia tubers on February and they just rot, and then I grew dahlia from seeds. After several failures, I finally get them bloom. And here they are...

Dinnerplate dahlia

   

 Before and after rain exposure. This one is grown from cutting.

What are blooming now in your garden?

I am linking up to Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. It is my first opportunity to link my post, have a look to see flowers in bloom from all around the world!

Rainy Sunday

 The weather is a bit weird lately. It should be dry season here, means rain no longer comes but rain often comes in this last two weeks and days often get cloudy and very cold. This Sunday, rain falls down during the day and night, just like the rainy season. 

Eventhough it is weird, people are happy for the ‘extra’ rain. Their water storage is getting empty and the rain gives them sufficient water to save into the water storage. Free, they do not need to purchase water from water tank at least for next  couple days.

Water storage

People collect the rain water into chamber or whatever they have. 

I just stay home all day long, making pineaple jam and nastar.

 

Pineaple jam

Nastar

What do you do when the rain comes?

Gudhangan Bayem

I still have some vegetables to pick in this dry season, 'bayem' (amaranth), kangkung, kancu young leaves (Bauhinia tomentosa) and cassava young leaves. This afternoon, I pick them from the garden and cook it into gudhangan . Mantap!

 

Here it is... ! Gudhangan, Javanese dish contains boiled vegetables and served with unique sauce made of grated coconut, chili and some traditional seasoning.

Homegrown Vegetables

The rainy season is starting over, rain no longer comes down. I live in a very dry area when the dry season arrives. We do not have water sources such as wells and rivers. We get to hold rain water in the rainy seasons. When the dry season comes and no longer cloudy, water obtained by purchase from the water tank that carries the water from the springs.

There are some vegetables that still had a chance to pick  before the dry season arrives.

 Young pumpkin leaves are the other edible part of pumpkin tree, served with Lemon Basil and young cosmos leaves as Javanese salad called 'urap'.

 String beans, young pumpkin leaves, winged bean, cosmos young leaves and young string bean leaves. Perfect fresh homegrown vegetables to cook.

It is the first time I grow red string beans, and it gives me pretty red beans dangling among the cosmos leaves.... 

Lettuce and 'terong lalap' egg fruites.

Blooms in June

In June, some flowers in my garden are blooming. Yay.... ! Although there is some of that from May have started flowering and growing number of petals that bloom in June. These African Violet ' Lipstick ' and ' the Alamo ' Frills on top. Are Pink African Violet ' Cushion ' new this June bloom.

Red and salmon gladiolus are blooming. I  make a flower arrangement with the salmon gladiolus.

 My Red and Stripped Euphorbia

I put Red Balsamina Impatiens flowers in a bowl of water and I really love the bright red color it has.

 This June my Red Balsamina Impatiens are still flowering but had still not as much as in last May and I have started harvesting the seeds to be planted again. Yay ... ...!

 The Sunflower says 'Good morning!'.

Have a great week everybody!