fit to split

The days are still warm enough for cheerful visitors...

But this might be the most anticipated visitor of all!

After a 6-week dry spell, we have had two short rains.  Not nearly enough, but every little bit helps.  There's no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days, but I'm hoping that these little episodes are enough to put the garden to bed (and not the grave!) over the next couple of weeks.  So far, it's still going strong.

Flowers are still blooming, and I'm still getting my cat escort on my daily trips to the garden.

Things are looking good, but there are definite casualties.  The hot weather has turned our soil to dust over compacted clay, so when we had strong wind last week, some of my beloved taller flowers were downed.  I lost several of my Benary's wine zinnias (5" - 6" flower heads!), and also my beloved 'Mission Giant' marigolds, which look so much like yellow dahlias.  Whole stalks split on the top-heavy plants.

At least I'm going to have big marigold bouquets for a while.

The good news is that I've read that pollinated flowers WILL produce seed.  These marigolds were covered in pollinators, so the large, open flowers are going to be saved and dried.  I'll take a couple of their seeds and attempt to germinate them in a plastic baggie, wrapped in a wet paper towel.  If they germinate, then I can assume that the whole lot is viable.  Hooray!

I'm collecting seeds from my nasturtiums, with their lily pad leaves...

...and it seems that FINALLY, our goldfinches are migrating.  This means that I'll be able to salvage seeds from the rest of my zinnias and cosmos, which is a big relief.

I've noticed, with our heavy dews, that we've got little pockets of webs all over the yard.

These are made by tiny grass spiders, and the drops of dew caught on the webs make them visible.

It's hard to believe that soon, all of the little spiders and their webs, both large and small...

...will be gone for the season!  Although I'm still seeing spiders, butterflies, and bees, I don't think they'll be around for more than another week or so.  Our temperature dipped to 35 degrees last night.  The slow slide into winter is in full swing now!  You can already see it in our house, as our cats are perfect temperature barometers.  Cats lingering in sunbeams...

...or curled up in quilts?  Oh, yeah - I don't have to be a Game of Thrones fan to know that winter is coming.  

But I'll prolong fall as long as possible, with touches of leaves and fall color wherever I can put them.

Have a great week!