“Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy”
Psalm 96:11-12 ESV
I believe we have now entered the “dog days” of summer. I noticed that temps across the country have been super hot, even in places where we might not expect it. While it is hot here, I don’t feel it is above average for us, but it appears many of you may be seeing temperatures that are above normal! We’ve had blustery skies at times and small showers popping up on occasion. “Small” is the key word as far as precipitation is concerned!
The blueberry crop is better than ever, and those small showers seem to have been welcomed by the berries. I have been amazed by how much variety there is in the way the berries ripen, side by side along the same stem!
You would think that all of these would ripen together, but nope, they will not. It sure would make picking them easier if they would!
While picking blueberries I turned to see this group playing their usual “follow the leader”. I see this small group of turkeys a lot and for some reason they most often pass by in a line.
Those pop up showers are welcome, bringing only a little relief, but sometimes they do leave us with a nice parting reminder of God’s goodness!
I didn’t think I was doing a very good job watering the new little (they are supposed to stay small) quick fire hydrangeas that we placed in pots this spring. However, based on what I found growing underneath on Wednesday, maybe there has been plenty of moisture? And I thought the mushrooms were a good color and architecturally fit in well with the setting. It was 95 the next day and they dried up!
Our local meteorologist calls this phenomenon a sun dog. We don’t see them often, especially in the summer. I read that it is caused by the sun being filtered through high altitude ice crystals. There was no icy feeling at my location when I made the photo!
I hope to show more when these blooms mature, but the small tree in the foreground is a peanut butter tree. The leaves smell like, you guessed it, peanut butter. This was given to us by a friend and it was a twig that lived in a small pot through one winter before I set it out. Our friends have a large tree and the blooms are beautiful and attract hummers and butterflies big time. We were pleased our little tree survived and now it is blooming for the first time.
Pam came by and thought “old Rusty” looked good surrounded by Lantana and that he deserved a spot on the blog, since he’s been around here for years. I name most everything because the grands love the idea of everything having a name. This is Rusty, and he sometimes holds a small plant or vine, but not this year. He deserves time off.
The Giant Marigolds we get from Johnny’s Seeds have done great each year we have planted them. They provide many days of color without much attention. Once they become spent however, and deadheading is necessary, there is a fair amount of work to keep them providing new blooms!
We have a small section where I sow a wildflower mix and just leave it alone and see what happens. The spot hasn’t offered much so far, a few coreopsis and cornflowers, but mostly weeds. But out from the weeds these tall stems shot up almost overnight and started blooming. We’ve not had this growing before that I recall, but the Scarlet Sage gave some life to the overgrown area! Strangely, I didn’t think this bloomed until autumn? Maybe some of you are familiar with it?
I must apologize for continuing to bring you the little yellow birds, but they are present in our garden in significant numbers. I tried to count, which wasn’t easy as they move around so much, but I think we had about 10 at one time on the sunflowers…
…and this nice couple, guy on the right, girl on the left, were seen out dining together. I think they are an item!
Does anyone see a little girl with curly hair? She looks like an angel peering from the clouds.
The close of another summer week! Time moves on. We alway feel like once we pass the fourth of July that autumn seems just around the corner!
We hope everyone was able to view today’s post without difficulty. I stopped a little short of what was planned as we have been experiencing technical problems with hosting and being able to access the website to create and edit new posts!
Summer is still alive and well however. Enjoy your week!
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Linking with:
Between Naps on the Porch, Katherines Corner, Follow The Yellow Brick Home,
Life and Linda
Today one of the cloud pictures are angry looking and the one that you see a curly haired girl I see an old man with a long nose. I’m thankful that you’ve been getting showers and your rainbow is the first i’ve seen this year. The mushrooms are a different color and they were getting moister from some source, probably your watering hose. All of your flowers are so pretty and don’t seem to be hurt by the heat. Blueberries are indeed not fun to pick. It has to be one and a time and it’s tempting to grab a handful. The turkeys are letting Pam know that Autumn, her favorite season, isn’t far behind.,