weather most fowl

 Rain...at last.

It's been insanely hot this past week, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees.  I've been seeing this meme a lot lately and Devil's Front Porch sounds about right.  Or maybe we're in Second Summer?  

When it rains in the summer here, we tend to get torrential downpours.  Unfortunately, it absolutely flattens my flowers.  You can see some slumping in this picture, taken earlier in the summer.

I took this photo a few days ago...

...and all the tall plants (amaranth, apple of peru) are twisted and bent in half. Two of my dahlias were ripped off at the roots. Zinnias, cosmos, celosia...anything that's over 2' fall...bent over.  Next year, I have to run rope the length of the rows, both sides, to help prevent flop. 

Lots of interesting faces in the garden.  So...many...katydids!

Colorful leafhoppers...

Too cool for school spittle bugs...

...and quite a few spiders.  Many people don't like looking at them, so be sure to...

...scroll...

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...if they creep you out! 

Okay, are we ready?

I was really excited to see this beautiful female garden spider (argiope aurantia) this week.

And just a few beds away, a loosely-related garden spider (argiope trifasciata) was nestled amongst the scabiosa.  Males are much, much smaller than females, so this one was easily identified!

I've seen several crab spiders in the garden...they're my favorite!

Like the venusta orchard spider, this beautiful long-jawed orb weaver looks like he's been decorated with gold flake!  

We've also seen the chogs out in the barnyard...the older parents who've maintained their home under our back barn are still there, but not outside very often.

The "babies," now grown, have gone further afield.  We see one especially chunky one by the front garden quite a bit.  I think he's got a nest down by the stream that bisects our property.  As long as he doesn't burrow under our porch!

After our insane rain storm, a flock of turkeys inspected our back yard for insects.  Two parents and...nine(?)...babies!  Well, like the groundhogs and our wood ducks, they aren't babies any more.  They're nearly full grown.

see the babies standing on the fence post?

Our county is doing a turkey brood count and I've been able to document several sightings this month.

Todd and I are still taking short hikes before breakfast almost daily.  So much to see in the forest!

This beech tree is covered in beech blight aphids, aka the "boogie-woogie" aphids, so named because they appear to be dancing on the branches.  We saw quite a few of these in South Carolina!

A lone luna moth wing, nearly bleached of color...

Interesting fungus, like this Chicken of the Woods...

...and so many wildflowers, even this late in the season.

goat's rue

The days are busy as we slowly fade into fall.  I'm looking forward to resting up once things slow down.  The kittens are leading the way.

Have a great week!

a yummy mummy...

 A lot of help in the garden this week.

It's a busy, busy time.  First, we had a load of compost/mulch brought in.

Before plowing, the landscape fabric paths...now buried under multiple inches of dirt and plants with heavy, matted roots...had to be pulled up.  Tough, tough job.  

I'm so prone to migraines now that I don't dare do anything where I'm bending over with the blood rushing to my head, so poor Todd, still queasy from his tick bite meds, had to do the pulling...sometimes gagging from the nausea, but carrying on cheerfully.  He's a saint!!  💗

He also put up the cattle panels for my sweet peas...

...and laid the paths in the garden (more upside-down head work that I can no longer do).

I was able to power-wash the front porch (although Todd stained it)...

...and we're slowly getting the outdoor furniture and plants in place.  This half is mostly done and still working on the other side.

We aren't the only ones who've been active around here.  Every morning, I hear turkeys gobbling, and sometimes see them in the far fields...

The goz occasionally come back, even though we haven't gotten around to de-algae-ing our front pond yet.

Our chog has had babies!!

I hear the groundhog alarm whistle if I have to retrieve anything from the white barn, and I can watch them forage from my office window.  

They are very curious and sometimes I can see their little noses when I'm by their nest, poking and sniffing.

Hummingbirds are back!

I love the return of insects, too.  This teeny tiny spider (okay, an arachnid and not an insect, but still) on an opening peony, smaller than a pinkie nail (upper right side of bud)...

These guys are aphids who specifically attack dandelions, making them my very special garden friends, as I hate grubbing up dandelions over and over again.

Speaking of aphids, I originally thought the insect on this rose bud was a spider, with a mysterious hole in his abdomen.  When I looked closer, I saw antennae.

I did some research and discovered that this is a mummy aphid.  It was parasitized by an Aphidius wasp, who laid its egg via a sting about a week ago.  The larva hatched, ate, and grew.  The aphid swelled, then died as the now fully-formed wasp chewed an escape hole in its abdomen.  Pretty big drama going on right outside our front door!  

The kittens do a good job in watching for any other nature-related dramas near the house...sort of.

Have a great week!

  

the last of the red [cool] lovers

I love my little herb garden, even though it's pretty inconveniently distanced from the house.  Dill is great for salmon, cilantro puts out beautiful tiny flowers that I love to use in bouquets, and parsley is great for a mild accent.  I haven't used any thyme yet, but I have plenty...along with the basil.  When you plant 10 varieties, you get...a lot of basil.

So far, I'm only using 2 varieties in cooking.  Cinnamon, Ruffled, Lemon, Holy Tulsi, Amorotto, Cardinal, etc. sound interesting, but they don't smell quite right for recipes.  Thankfully Todd likes pesto!  So far, a broccoli lemon pesto pasta and a standard mixed-basil pesto for an artichoke/roasted tomato pizza have been rousing successes.  And, of course, all basils are lovely in bouquets!  

We had one last blast of rain before the summer heat set in.

My beloved sweet peas and snapdragons are rapidly going to seed.  I've picked a last few bouquets using those and other last-legs cool flowers.

The final poppies are giving up the ghost, but leaving behind gorgeous seed pods.

Thankfully, there's new growth in the garden to distract me.

These are strawflowers, which look like juicy raspberries before opening.

They are so named because their petals already feel dried - like straw - when they bloom.  Naturally, they last forever in bouquets and dried arrangements.  Aren't they unusual?

See the little hunter?

We have a lot of other life around here.  Deer...with baby!

A lone turkey, hurrying into the underbrush.

Growing tadpoles!!

Bees...

Dragonflies...

...and loads of butterflies.

Pests are abundant, like Japanese beetles...

...and the flea beetles on my amaranth.

You have to take the good with the bad in gardening, of course.  Now that the heat has set in, "the bad" includes 3 hours weekly of monotonous watering for me, and around the same for Todd with mowing, just to keep our paths clear around the barn and to the pond.  Typical summer stuff!

At least the dry, hot weather slows down the weeds. 

Have a great week!