Playing Lotto....Colorado Country Style....

  OK, so not the typical Lottery you are thinking of probably.....but around here, with such weird weather all the time,  we Kinnison's oft play the Colorado Lottery.....and usually are LOOSERS!  Getting anything to grow here is terrifically time consuming and just plain hard!  It seems to never fail, plant new flowers, new trees, they just start to bloom and the hail comes and wipes them out. Or my chickens devour and rip out my prized peony.... rabbits eat my only hyacinths about a day before they open.....there is always something...and every time I say~ NO MORE!  I have had enough, I'm not planting another blasted thing outside.  Of coarse I always do.   We have tried several times over the years to plant raspberries and blackberries, and they never survive.  This year I found two blackberry plants that looked so precious and so full of promise, that I bought them....in yes, January.  We usually get snow until April here, so I kept them indoors,  babying them and playing them peaceful music to grow by~ and they loved it!  I'd say they grew to nearly 3 feet tall here in my window, so tall that it pained me to have to take them outside for their sun each day.  Its been so strange and cold this year, we had killing frost to the end of May, and it wasn't until just this past week I felt it was safe enough for them to go in the ground. My babies!  

 What a chore. We have so much adobe clay in the soil here, it took soaking the ground and many attempts over 2 days to get two peasly holes dug for these things!  Josh wouldn't even dig the holes for me....he said "Mom, its like digging thru DIAMONDS"  ....HA!   But it was.  It was horrible.  I finally got them in the ground and a little wire strung to hold them up, and then......the wind came.

  One literally got snapped in two poor thing, I tied it back up but am not expecting  it to  last. The other one is doing OK, tho its leaves are horribly sun & wind burnt. Every morning, I trek out to see how they are doing and give them a half bucket of water each.  The other morning how surprised I was to find....:::::::GASP::::::  a bloom!  

A little bloom coming on my precious little plant!

So I have been watching it every day,  thinking, today???? Will it open today?????   For the longest time it seemed to no be doing any growing at all.....above picture was yesterday....

  And this one this morning! Slightly unfolding~ I thought, cant be long now! I cant believe its going to open!!!!!  I had an appointment this morning, and when I got back a bit after noon....I looked over from the driveway and could actually SEE it! It opened!!!!

Such a little victory, but not for me!  I suppose actually getting a berry to set would be more like winning the Lottery....but nope, I am happy as a pig in mud just to have the little bloom actually stay on long enough to open!
    I love how its so fresh~ the little petals are still all wrinkly from being folded up~ Isnt it beautiful!!!


                                       ~Don't forget to take time to savor the little things~