The rest of the weekend.

We slept in Saturday, resting after a very long and busy week. That's our routine. The weekends are for recharging the batteries, unless there's a trip to take or a concert to go to.



When Denise got up and went out back to see about layin' out in the sun in the yard, she noticed that the vines we'd planted a while back had finally begun to bloom.



I had only a few seeds left from an original stash of hundreds, harvested over many years of growing these vines. The pot of seeds had been ruined when I let them sit out there and get soaked with rain water. I was lucky I'd found a few pods that hadn't been ruined.

As the flowers grow and then wilt on those stalks, the seed pods grow and after they've dried you can harvest the seeds for next years crop. You can even eat them while they're still green, but you won't catch me doin' that.



You can see the little seed pods growing along side the flowers in this shot.

They're called Purple Hyacinth Bean Vines. But they're also known as Indian Bean, Egyptian Bean, Dolichos lablab, Lablab purpureus, Bonavist, Chinese Flowering Bean and Pharoah Bean. They're widely grown in Africa, India and Asia for use as food for both humans and livestock. The Hyacinth Bean Vine's most prestigious growing spot in the United States has been in the gardens of Thomas Jefferson's historic farm, Monticello. Now they're in mine too. Makes me feel all special!

I got my first seeds some time in the mid-1990s, from one of the houses down the alley from my folks house in Temple. They had them growing over their fence. I got some dried seed pods and grew the vines in planters on the second floor balcony of my apartment. The sliding door faced the setting sun each day, so I grew enough of these to shade the door, just as these shade one of my bedroom windows. The leaves provided so much shade that it ended up saving me money on my electric bill.



Our Canna Lilies are also blooming and looking green. Considering the drought, and how seldom I seem to remember to water them, I'm amazed they're doing this well.



The flowers are just beautiful. They were all transplanted from my mother's garden this last spring and early summer. They'd become overgrown and crowded there, so she dug up about eight or ten plants and gave them to me. I planted them in the corner of this planter that I'd constructed out of railroad ties, and they seem to have taken off. We've supplemented them with a few different varieties of Lilies, purchased from the local Lowe's, but mom's are still the tallest and prettiest.

Speaking of Mom, she teased me last Friday by mentioning that she might fry me some chicken if I wanted to come over again and have dinner. Silly question! Denise and I went over Sunday night.



Denise had the job of making the drinks. Strawberry Daiquiris all around, thank you.



By the time the last thighs came out of the oil, I'd fixed out potatoes with pepper, butter, sour cream and grated cheese, and Denise had mixed the salad with mom's special home made dressing. It had all been pre-cut and just needed tossing with a few forks.



After that, there was a little ice cream, with chocolate sauce dripped over it. And there was a good long talk about lots of things going on in mom's side of the family. There a lot of drama these days, but I won't go into it. Not now anyway.

I know, you always leave this place hungry. Well hell, eat before you get here. I can't help it.

After that, Denise and I drove home and hit the sack early. I killed off about two chapters of the book I'm reading and the next thing I knew it was 6:30 and the alarm was goin' off.

That's my life these days. I guess I'm workin' hard to make it better, so that when I'm as broke down as some folks I can sit back and relax on a cool porch. It's somethin' to shoot for. Cheers!