The first days of summer
The first days of Summer are feeling like…the first days of summer. We reached nearly 90 today. All the plant life is shooting upwards and outwards, many plants already bolting, some flowering, some already going to seed under the hot sun. The plantains (most would call them weeds) in our uncut lawn (meadow) sending their stalks skyward almost overnight.
And it smells like summer. I love being out in it, the hot sun on my back, my clothes clinging to my body from sweat, the midday quiet – even too hot for the birds to be out singing, and a little too early for the crickets – the long days and still relatively cool nights.
Cheap thrills, I know – but this is my life at the moment.
Hornets harvesting wood pulp from our cedar deck for their nests
This thistle that I was nurturing got knocked over by the heavy rains, but hell, that doesn’t stop this pernicious plant! For me, there is no more beautiful flower than that of the thistle
Some of the grasses are already over six feet
Our wildflower beds are taking off, starting with all white
Some call them weeds, some call them “understory” – it’s all in the eye of the beholder
Red spirea just being gorgeous
You can’t live out here surrounded by corn country and not plant a few stalks (this is sweet corn)
As to vegetable gardening, this is the first time in five years that we are again growing a few vegetables. Believe it or not, it has been very difficult for us to find a good place to put a veggie garden. The only nice big, sunny, relatively flat place is our septic field (where we have the wildflowers), and you really shouldn’t grow veggies there. The back yard is all woods. I grow cucumbers as much for the foliage and the flowers as for the fruit. They are beautiful!
Now tomatoes, we definitely grow for the fruit! I think in two weeks, we’ll be feasting on some “early girls”
Oh, I just can’t stop!: Milkweeds ready to flower
Hostas ready to outgrow their containers
And this one ready to outgrow the county!
A patch of unmowed white clover
It’s also a good time for certain chores. Like washing rugs on the driveway with the garden hose, and letting the hot sun give them a good quick-dry
This little jumping spider on the side of the house caught my eye
And finally, well, just another picture of where we live
