a midsummer night's stroll

Hot hot heat!  Mornings and evenings are the best times for being outside right now.

Sometimes Todd and I will walk down to the pond after supper.  The fields are filling up with wildflowers after 2 years of battling invasive weeds and thistles.

We had the back of the field fenced...

...to try to keep out these guys.

We have a limestone-bed stream that runs along the back part of the property.  It's usually quiet, but swells up after a rain.

No prolonged gentle sprinkles here.  It's hot and dry, and then a torrential downpour will come...flatten everything and be gone in minutes.  These somewhat frequent mini-monsoons have caused the soil to erode from the sides of our bank, exposing the limestone beneath.

Todd found an eastern box turtle on a recent jaunt - the shell, anyway!

Love the geometric shapes.

I've seen it reproduced many times in clothing, like this knitted skirt.

photo courtesy of Norah Gaughan, Ravelry

We can see the effects of the weather in other places besides the stream banks.  I'm frequently seeing a slime mold, delightfully referred to as dog vomit fungus, in the garden. 

It's not really dangerous but does spread quickly, but at least it's easy to scrape up if you don't want to look at it!

Otherwise in the garden, poppies are somehow still going strong in the heat.

Ditto sweet peas.

Forget-me-nots and bupleurum, both cool-weather flowers, are somehow still doing well, too.

But the heat lovers are vying for attention.  Coneflowers are popping!

Celosia has self-seeded EVERYWHERE.

Shorter varieties of snapdragons are opening up, too!

Claudia loves helping me measure progress with her constant presence!

Here's hoping for more moderate temperatures and gentle rainfall.  Have a great week!