the cat days of summer

If the dog days of summer involve sweating profusely under a relentless sun, then I prefer the cat days of summer...inside, air conditioning, half-pulled shades blocking out the worst of the glare. 

But sometimes, cats have just got to stretch their legs outside, even in this heat!

Todd and I took a short hike the other morning before the worst of the heat came on.  It was cool and shady, and I was happy to have camera in hand. 

This goldenrod crab spider was so still and beautiful that he looked like a painting!  He seemed to happily co-exist with the citrus flatid plant hopper directly above him. 

I'm fascinated by these plant hoppers.  Although it's hard to see, they've got comically large, staring eyes like a horse or a goat.

You can see that he's firmly attached to this blackberry vine.  Plant hopper suck liquid from plants and can cause quite a bit of damage, especially when they line up on a single branch or vine like these.

I saw lots of jewelweed, a favorite from my childhood.

They produce long seed pods...

...that pop in a very satisfactory way when you squeeze the base.

Their leaves also have tiny, soft points that provide excellent landing spots for dew.

So many beautiful mushrooms!

At home, I've been heading outside more and more frequently to cut flowers for bouquets, despite the heat.  I found this old wooden tool-and-die part at a flea market years ago, and hunted down some small vases at a thrift store that would fit in the holes.  It's perfect for a series of small arrangements.

I love filling it with flowers for our summer table.

I've been a little slow in my bouquet-making this year.  I've been so discouraged about my garden - both the new one and the overgrown, messy ones from last  year - that I haven't wanted to spend any time in them.  But even the stunted back garden is putting out nice flowers...it's tough to tell with my cell phone picture in the bright sun, but although they're much shorter and sparser than intended, I am getting a lot of blooms.  And I've got tons of sunflowers and cosmos that are just now budding out and will be putting on a nice display soon.

...and, while I've covered my eyes at the front garden sprawl and tall, flopping flowers...I'm thinking of taking on a new attitude about it.  Flowers are not only beautiful, but functional.  I've attracted so many pollinators this year.

Moths, butterflies, all sorts of bees, and scores of hummingbirds are swarming the flowers all day long.  And there's still a kind of beauty in the floppy, uncontrolled mess of flowers.

So I'm going to try to appreciate them for what they are instead of fussing over what they are not.

Claudia approves.

I'm going to keep enjoying these cat days of summer...

...but make more of an effort to enjoy what's going on outside, too. 

Have a great week!