Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Flowers, Monarchs & A Puzzle

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I’m not sure they could look any prettier and it’s going to be 78 degrees today (too hot) but next week it will be much, much colder and I thought I’d take a moment to salute this year’s limelight hydrangeas while they’re still here.

Gorgeous.

This bush is much younger than my Annabelle hydrangeas, but you’d never know it. It is huge!

And one of the many reasons, but perhaps the most important, for growing zinnias from seed – they bloom late in the summer into the fall and a newly emerged monarch butterfly flying southward can stop and dine for a couple of hours. They provide much needed sustenance for the trip and are one of the few flowers available at this time of year.

This beauty was hanging around the zinnias for a few hours and didn’t seem to mind my presence. When you’re really hungry, things like that don’t matter. Hydrangeas don’t do it for monarchs. The coneflowers are gone. There are a few stray roses, but giant zinnias provide lots of surface on which to dine and I will make sure to sow those seeds again next year.

Things like this make my week. Having some food on hand for a hungry monarch makes me very happy.

I finished the puzzle.

The World of Virginia Woolf.

It’s quite lovely. Next up, something a bit more intense: The World of Frankenstein. Perfect for this time of year, don’t you think?

I’m currently retreating from the world and news of the world.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

The Beginning of the Change of Seasons

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The view as we drove home from getting vaccinated. Just around that curve and down the road a bit is the nursery where I get all my plants.

We did have mild reactions, by the way. Nothing terrible, just feeling a bit achy, and not-quite-right. But, we got both vaccines at the same time, something we normally don’t do. I was a bit off all day long, Anyway, I’m feeling better today, as is Don. That’s good, as he has a gig this afternoon.

I may mow. We’ll see.

It’s turned much cooler – yesterday felt positively fall-like. I’m happy about that as the summer was far from ideal and I’m ready to move on.

I still see one or two of the groundhogs, but not very often. The babies are no longer babies and have found their own homes. I’m relieved not to have to monitor the garden constantly, but I do miss their playful presence. I ran across the photos I took of them when they first emerged with their mom and I got sad. Ah, well. I rarely see any of the rabbits either.

The groundhogs will start to hibernate next month. Although I’m ready for fall, there’s always a bit of melancholy attached to the seasonal change into fall and then winter. Don and I were sitting on the glider during a break from mowing and I looked out at all the trees and the green leaves and reminded him that we had waited all winter and into the early spring to finally see some green out there. And soon that will be gone.

But for now, my brown-eyed susans are still in bloom, lots of wildflowers are blooming, but the coneflowers are fading. The giant zinnias are still hanging in there and so are the Rose of Sharon bushes, both of which have plenty of buds yet to open. (I never know which plant names to capitalize!)

Even this fading zinnia is beautiful, almost sculptural. Time to take a walk around the property and take some pictures.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Garden Surprises

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Garden surprises:

I thought this endless summer hydrangea was not going to bloom at all this year, There was absolutely nothing but leaves all summer long. But a week or so ago, I noticed two blooms developing. And here we are.

Never give up, I guess!

And yesterday, as I was walking by the memorial garden, I thought I spotted something. I quickly went back and way up in the garden behind another plant was a tiny rose. I had a little bush up there that had died. In fact, I removed most of it – all of it, I thought. But there, in its place, was a tiny plant with some leaves and this:

An unexpected delight!

It’s been such a strange summer for the gardens and the trees. As I write this, it’s raining again. We had to snatch the opportunity to mow yesterday because a dry day is rare around here. Once again, the grass had grown way too long because it rains every day so we can’t mow. Mowing was exhausting, as we had to constantly stop to remove the grass that was clogging the chute. We might resort to cutting that section of the front lawn more frequently so we don’t have deal with so much tall grass. Of course, you can only do that if it doesn’t rain.

The good news: after today, we have over a week of dry weather in the forecast.

Woke up at 4:30 am this morning. So did Don. The a/c had shut off because I forgot to put it on the correct setting, It was too warm for me. Don says it wasn’t too warm for him, he just happened to wake up too early. Needless to say, we’re tired and a wee bit cranky this morning.

The enormity of the losses in Morocco and Libya is heartbreaking, I can’t stop thinking about these horrific tragedies within days of each other. Those poor people. We are seeing the evidence of climate change in hurricanes, fires, floods, drought, excessive temperatures (I’m sure I’m leaving something out of this list.) What kind of world are we leaving behind? And what are we doing about it? Not enough, and whatever we do now may be too late.

I’m in such a dark mood this morning that I could go on and on about the state of the world and our country. But I’ll stop there. Older and, hopefully, wiser.

Sometimes.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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