heat defeat

It's hot...really hot.  Normally, when temperatures are in the 90s, I stay inside.  But because of this girl, we are outside...so...much.

Many socialization excursions that will have to take the place of puppy training until she gets a clean bill of health from the vet.  So it's walks on campus, with so many other pups...

(adults pups are okay!)

...and lots of local hikes, where she meets lots of new people.

She loves the car!  

She's a pretty chill pup...most of the time.

Okay, so I *have* to be outside...at least I can try to enjoy some nature.

green heron eating a frog

groundhog invading our neighbors' container gardens

black tiger swallowtail caterpillar

But honestly, I have the worst attitude ever.  For some reason, summer is killing me this year.  I never like summer with the heat/humidity, the mosquitoes, the ticks...but this year it's just the worst.  I'm apathetic and lethargic.  I'm not motivated to get things done and feel almost desperate for fall.  Every time I see a sign, I celebrate. 

Changing leaves...coincidence?!?

This is a FALL webworm caterpillar!

These winter shoes really needed cleaning because it's ALMOST time to wear them again, right?  Right?!?!?

We had to have some trees trimmed because they were crowding power lines recently...

They only cut a few down.  Most of them were just trimmed closely on one side.  Bare, they look like winter trees.  

Sometimes I look at them and pretend that the leaves are falling and that soon it will be cold again.  I've got another two months to go, easy, so I'm trying to work through this summer ennui with lots of pep talks.

Summer flowers from the garden!!

Fresh fruit!!

Lazy cats in the grass!

(Claudia is doing well and will get to go outside again soon!)

Lakes, rivers, wildlife!

geese at Lake Griffy

It's helping...a little bit.  But sometimes staying positive is a full-time job.  September will be here soon! Stiff upper lip!  

And...have a great week!  

Signed, someone who is ready to live in a more moderate climate.  ;)  

squirmy wormies

It's prime season for insects!  It's been too hot (and I've been too busy) to get out with my camera much, but I've seen some great specimens close to home.

soldier beetle...a great pollinator!

scorpionfly...this is a female and she doesn't have the cool scorpion tail that males have!

big group of aphids on the milkweed!

sweat bees

honey bees...look at those beautiful wings!

We have a new resident on the front porch.

chinese mantis

He's getting bigger and bigger...

...molting regularly.

There are plenty of moths around our porch lights to feed an army of mantises, so he's picked a good place to hang out!

It's not too late in the season for baby birds...

red-winged blackbird babies in our front pond

...and new flowers are blooming, like this milkweed.

Lots came up in the garden this year and I love it!

In the woods, blackberries are ripening...

...and woodland hydrangeas are starting to flower.

We're mostly INSIDE, though, with these lazy cats.

Barnabas

Frances

Pepita is doing really well with cat introductions.

All the cats are making an effort...even Calliope!

Pepita is having some adventures...

daily pond walks

fierce feats of strength

intense Daddy snuggles

...but she's spending a lot of time like this, unfortunately:

The vet couldn't fit her in for almost three weeks after the adoption, and when they finally saw her, they determined that she was crawling with parasites (despite frequent wormings).  Right now, she has giardia and hookworm.  Because she'd just had a flea treatment, we can't even give her the hookworm medicine for another week.  She's getting two doses of antibiotics daily for the giardia, but reinfection is SO easy.  I have to bleach her crate daily.  Water and food dishes have to be treated with boiling water daily.  Her bedding (including car blanket) has to be washed every other day, and so do all of her toys.  The floors have to be mopped daily and the carpets have to be vacuumed.  When she goes potty, we have to pick up everything and treat the location with diatomaceous earth (to kill the hookworms/giardia parasites that would otherwise worm their way into the soil and instantly reinfect her).  We have to wash our hands CONSTANTLY, because humans can catch giardia (although it's unlikely).  In short, everything has to be spotlessly clean and she cannot go around other dogs, because she'd infect them. 

We had to reschedule her puppy class and we're sad that we can't do our planned socialization around town.  Hopefully she'll get a clean bill of health at her next vet visit in two weeks, because I've read horror stories about puppies having giardia for MONTHS and needing constant antibiotics (and constant cleaning to prevent reinfection).  It's daunting but we're really hoping for the best.  The good news is that she's cheerful and active and shows no signs of being infected...that's a good sign!  We really want to expand her house boundaries but every room she goes into has to be deep-cleaned daily, so she's going to have to wait for the vet's go-ahead.  

Thankfully, giardia transmission from dogs to cats is rare.

Off to do MORE cleaning before work.  Have a great week!  

the fungus among us

My unfinished to-do list is growing longer every day and the blog has fallen by the wayside!  I will try to keep caught up, because I have a massive photo backlog.

We've had an insane amount of rain.

The weather has been delightfully cool - 70s during the day and 50s at night (it was 57 degrees this morning when I woke up!).  This is great for heat-hating humans like me, but terrible for small seedlings.  I got fairly nice germination, at last, and then the rain and the cool...everything stagnated.  And it's too late in the season to play more.  Thankfully celosia filled in the holes in the annual garden, but it does look like I will mostly have a million pink celosia plants despite all my work this year...sigh.  

One interesting garden anomaly...I did not plant sunflowers this year because it was so cool for so long and sunflowers hate cold, wet soil.  I repeat:  I didn't plant ONE SINGLE SUNFLOWER SEED.  Sunflower seeds are large and distinctive...it's not like I could've planted them by mistake. Yet...dozens and dozens of sunflowers sprang up in my greenhouses.  I used NEW soil that rarely had old soil from old greenhouses mixed in.  This old soil sat outside in the freezing snow all winter long.  Sunflower seeds do not last in weather like that.  They rot easily, and our many little animals would've rooted out any that lasted.  Squirrels, chipmunks, groundhogs, even birds.  Yet...somehow...I have almost a hundred sunflowers.

I planted one last set of greenhouses last week and unbelievably, MORE sunflowers grew.  How is this possible?  Where are they coming from?  Well, in a sea of hot pink celosia...I will take it. 

At least the yellows have filled in in the perennial garden.

...and in all the other gardens around the house.

In front of the garage

Along the front walkway

one of the front-facing beds

I got the very last peonies this week for house bouquets.  They didn't last long...they know that it's June.

Our tree frogs are LOVING all the rain.

Cope's grey tree frog

Our wild animals are loving it, too, from new fawns to a gaggle of raccoons!  :)

The spillway from our back pond to the forest streams that run from it are roaring loud all the time from so much rain!

A rabbit can have 40 babies in a breeding season, and we're seeing it!!  These rabbits were playing in the side yard the other morning.  It was too dark to get a good picture, though!

Wild strawberries are ripening...

...ditto with blackberries.

Lots of busy insects...

winged carpenter ant

leafcutter bee

fall webworm moths mating

chrysophilus velutinus mating

...and insects whose lives have run their course, like this fly infected with the entomophthora muscae fungus.

The name in Latin literally means "insect destroyer."  It infects their brains, kills them, and compels the corpse to climb to a high location for maximum spore dispersal.  Pretty cool!  

The cold and wet has kept me out of the garden...and the rain has interrupted a lot of our walks.

Even bundled up in a sweater and wearing jeans yesterday, I 10000% prefer it to a normal Indiana June.  

Have a great week!