What a difference a good night’s sleep makes! Both of us sacked out around 10:15 and we slept straight through to 6:15 this morning. I’m still a bit groggy, but I feel rested.

I did my usual thing yesterday – when I am sleep deprived, I often feel the need to get outside and take on some chore. Yesterday, it was weed whacking, which I couldn’t do for quite a while because of the weather. Very therapeutic! Then I came back inside and took it easy the rest of the day.

Rose of Sharon. (Hibiscus)

Zinnia. Our impudent little groundhog has nibbled on some zinnia buds, which makes me frown. But, what can you do? Some years, deer are really destructive and in other years do little to no damage. Same with groundhogs. Henry, our much-missed groundhog was a true gentleman and never got into the gardens. He stuck to the grassy areas.

I have to do some work on deductions for our taxes (we always file an extension.) And I have to do some prep work on the script for Darko’s Agatha Christie adaptation. I’ll be doing that every day for the next week. The lawns will have to mowed sometime next week; growth has really slowed down, as it does every summer, but especially when we’ve had so little rain. The end-of-summer flowers have started to spring up everywhere. There’s a patch of goldenrod, some purple loosestrife, and some Queen Anne’s Lace.

Okay, time to make that second cup of coffee! Don has come back in the house after practicing guitar up in our woods. It’s rather magical up there.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

This post will be rather short. Someone who lives in this house with me neglected to contact our security company about a low battery warning we had on a smoke detector, even though I asked him twice, and at 4 am I woke up to non-stop beeping/chirping.

Needless to say, I am not in a good mood. I was already sleep deprived and this has sent me over the edge.

He knows he’s in trouble and he’s steering clear of me. Wise choice.

Phlox in the big garden bed.

More of the big garden bed.

Rose of Sharon.

I’ll be back tomorrow, of course. Hopefully, I’ll be feeling much more rested.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

After I wrote Saturday’s post, we went grocery shopping. When we came back, I checked on the baby birds.

They had fledged.

I never expected to see them fledge, of course. But after we got home, I watched one of the parents flying around carrying food, clearly searching for the birds. Calling, chirping, flying from the porch railing to a branch on one of the maples, looking in all directions. That eventually stopped, so the birdies had been found. Later in the day, I peered into the bush and both babies were perched on branches above the nest. One of the parents was there and somewhat angrily shooed me away. Message received.

Since then, nothing. They’re around, I’m sure, because the parents have to feed them and teach them to how to be independent, but I haven’t seen them in the vicinity of the porch.

I miss them. As Don said to me, “You have literal empty nest syndrome.”

But weren’t we lucky to have a ringside seat to this little miracle?

An eastern swallowtail that’s been hanging around here for a couple of days. They’re so beautiful.

Part of the big garden bed, now filled with coneflowers, phlox, and milkweed. There is more phlox this year than ever. It’s rather wild looking, partly because the dangerously hot weather kept me from weeding, but also because it has evolved into an almost meadow-like country garden. Sometimes I run across a older photo of a more groomed version of this garden, but this suits me fine and as I age, it is probably the best solution.

The weather has been lovely. The humidity has disappeared and it’s nicely warm. What a relief!

Edited to add: BUT, we have an air quality alert because of the fires in Canada. So maybe I won’t be weed whacking today.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.