Flowers

I took flower photos Monday morning while weeding the gardens early. I did it before the sun broke through the clouds and made things much hotter.

Petunias

 Lilies!

Love in the Mist

This first shot is when the lens fogged up
from the humidity. I took it anyway
before setting the camera in a
camera bag to acclimate to the weather.

I should have remembered to stick it in a camera

bag and set it on the porch to slowly acclimate.

These are one of my current 

favorites!

They are so easy to have in the garden and they will reseed themselves. 

Love in the mist is surrounded by another easy
keeper called Creeping Thyme. 

So easy that I have to mow it back. However I would rather
have this in the yard than grass! 

It smells
nice when mowed or stepped on!

Creeping Thyme

This sunflower plant seeded itself between the round stepping stones 

just off the porch.

I let it grow and the dogs enjoy its shade!

Borage.
The flowers are edible and

taste slightly like watermelon.
I often decorate salads with these.

I had fun with this borage stem. 
I used a double exposure trick
with fern leaves. A bit of 
fun on a hot afternoon edit.

Morning Glories are another flower that

reseeds itself.

I have pulled all the little ones that I didn't want

growing from seeds spread last year.

I am allowing one plant to spread and provide

shade for the porch also.

I don't have just blue and purple flowers. The Zinnias and Cosmos of every single color are coming along nicely in the gardens I planted at the start of June. 

My nasturtium is doing its thing also. Soon, I'll have flowers and leaves to add to my salads right next to the porch.

And...

Hannah.

I am still dealing with her itchy incision. If I leave it uncovered in the morning, she goes after licking it. I imagine the whole area itches because her fur was shaved off.

I can't wait until she is all healed up.

She is such a high energy dog! 
Here she is helping me this morning inspect the meadow. I have to admit, it looks rather lovely right now with all the wildflowers blooming in the area I didn't mow.

Her new healing outfit with gauze over the incision and an Ace Bandage covering the area better so she can't pick at it.

Oh Hannah. She loves to give me the 'look'. She is driving me crazy!

Play time is required

I got a nice reminder the other day in the comment section from DeniseinVA regarding my toy photography which looks like I had abandoned lately. 

I sort of had in a way as my mind has been hyper-focused on taking care of business at our place and hunting for spring plants. I decided that even though the day was cold and overcast that I'd leave things for a little while and take some items out for 'play time'.

The dogs and I ended up in one of the dry runs exploring what the latest heavy rainfalls had done to the area.
The water had rushed down from the ridge so hard that it removed all the fallen leaves and cleaned some moss off the rocks.

The creek and this spot are some of my favorite places on our land.

I really wanted to try some shots in the creek with toys. I enjoy trying to get reflections in the water.

The ducks kept floating away too quickly. There is actually some flowing water in the creek this spring!

Oh hello.

Shark Duck?

To do some of my playful toy photography, I generally load up a backpack and ... well, you guessed it, the dogs come along. They like inspecting my work. 

I had to stand in the creek [rubber boots on!] and stack tiny rocks up in the water to set the Lego kayak on. I must have done it a dozen times or so. The kayak kept tipping over or sinking. [It doesn't float]

Twice, Hannah jumped in the water and knocked them over. 
Patience is the key. Hannah will learn to just observe.

I didn't have the best light and I didn't have the best angles, but I shot these anyway. Just to enjoy the challenge of it.

There is mini-me in the middle and the two dogs. My Life in Legos.

This is the final shot. It is okayish, but at least I have the reflections in the creek.

The fun shot I took of the day was the one below of the Titan 13 'action' figure and his robot dog jumping the creek.

Hannah is starting to figure out I don't want her to knock my toys down.

She will get it eventually. Charlie was the same way when we started doing things like this together.

The difference between these two dogs is that Charlie is focused on everything else going on in the forest.

Hannah is always watching me.

I often wonder what Hannah is thinking. 

We spent the early chilly morning exploring and the afternoon doing yard work.

Just for fun b/c it is going to be so ....

dang hot and humid today... Here is some comparison shots of the flower gardens.

The East garden --> East side of the house.

This is the path through the East Garden. 
On the left side of the path, I have so 

many perennials. 

Blazing Stars come in 

after the daffodils, tulips, and 

iris plants.👇

I used broken bits of concrete pavers to make
my own path. This year I laid down cardboard
and then layered the mulch over the cardboard.
It worked pretty well this year!

This is how it looked in the beginning of May.

 

The Porch area... now...

and earlier this year....

The back step...

What greets you when you park at our house right now....

I have more gardens. They are considered my wild-ish gardens. I plant the seeds in mass -- I use a coffee can full of mixed seeds I collected from last year and dump in the dirt. I rake it and stomp it into the ground.
I do weed it until it is knee high and then I let the plants do what they want.

I simply mow around them and admire the colors and the amount of bees, birds, and other insects that are busy with the plants.

I guess I did this post because late in February next year if I am still on this Earth, I can look back and see how pretty the gardens were this summer.

Then I can plan to do something different for next year. I do have to say though, having pumpkin plants near the house has actually been quite fun. They really attract the bees and it is exciting to watch the pumpkins grow and guess what they will look like.

August is a time of change and at least for me it is a time to put up produce. The past few days I've been freezing veggies for this winter. Thankfully, there are enough produce markets around for me to pick up as much as I want. I haven't had time to do a vegetable garden for the past few years but still manage to freeze or dehydrate all of our veggies for the next several months.

Have a grand day...

The color yellow

I thought that I'd go with another color. I picked a really difficult one.

Yellow.

This is one of the pumpkins that grew as a volunteer plant in the pasture. It isn't truly yellow, but it is yellow and orange. Maybe orange can be the next color I target.

I chose to go out very early in the morning and look for yellows. This was a very hard task. 
Below is a macro of a yellow cosmos. These cosmos are both bright yellow and tinted orange.

I took a shot of the seeds below. They are so easy to collect and then simply reseed anywhere. 

For years, I wasn't a fan of any yellow flowers. I avoided orange and yellow flowers in my garden but the colors have really grown on me. Next year, I think I'll be adding many more yellows. I'm eyeing marigolds. 

Below is a pumpkin flower.

This one decided to grow in and among my Nasturtiums. So far, this plant has provided us with 3 small white pumpkins. [I gave out as many extras as I could to the little neighbor kids for their fun]

Finding the color yellow got harder as I left the porch and garden areas. I went out to the meadow to see if I could find some Golden Rod.

Most of the Golden Rod was too faded to provide a colorful photo.

But...

The Orb Weavers were Back!

This one was wrapping up her breakfast which was a grasshopper she had captured. When I shifted my position to 'get' a better and closer shot, she left her breakfast and sat still on her web. She didn't drop off the web like others, but waited patiently for me to leave.

The second shot is the first one I took of her, it is a close up of her wrapping up her meal. Does the yellow and orange colors on her count as Yellow?

I don't really love spiders. I do appreciate the work they do. They are absolutely fascinating to watch. When I worked in Security, I recall the nights I spent in the guardhouse watching an Orb Weaver create the most beautiful web. She showed up each night for weeks. 

We called her Charlotte.

The fog and mist were lifting as I headed back towards the house. I saw the box elder showing off some yellow and headed out towards it. The box elders really put out the seeds this year!

I checked the old oak tree and found just one or two leaves that had color. They usually don't change first so I was surprised. The branches must be damaged in some way to produce dying leaves right now.

Sunday promised another HOT day and it produced it. By late afternoon, it was 90 in the shade and even hotter on our porch which gets full sun through the fall and winter.

This last shot was up through the old oak, I was going for a sun star flare and got one.

The yellows were hard! I need to walk up into my neighbor's woods where he girded some maples which are showing off some great colors right now. This week is going to be a hot one. 

Stay cool.

Well now...

I sure had plans for this week. A bike trail, a hike at Billings Creek, and of course gardening, yard work, and grocery shopping.

Monday's text from the tree guys said: We should be ready to do your trees later this week.

I replied: Let me know a day ahead of time so I can take down the fence and move the animals.

So we hurried up and mowed the yard, I took down fencing that would be in the way where they would stack the cut up pines. I scurried around and cleaned things up so when I got the text there would be less to do.

And now it is Friday and I am wondering if later this week means Saturday or Sunday or??? Did they get held up on another job?

Everything got turned upside down this week. Wednesday was a complete wash as I didn't feel good.
Then there were the phone calls with the Palliative care nurse and the pharmacist regarding hubby's meds. I had to stay near the house all day and wait for an overnight delivery of meds and a video appointment with his Palliative Care Team.

I should learn never to make real plans this year. It just doesn't seem to work out well.

BUT!

I did get out just after sunrise each morning and take a walk through the pastures way out back.
After all, no one calls, texts, or needs me for anything at that time of the morning. So it is just me, nature, my camera, and sometimes my tiny box of Legos that need to go adventuring.

My method is just this. I walk along and look at interesting things in the pasture and woods. I look for interesting light and plants while checking to see if the hot wire fences are still intact. They usually are. Only during rut season do they generally get knocked off the insulators.

If something catches my eye, I stop.

I couldn't help myself in this spot of morning light coming through the woods. The rock was a perfect spot to do something with my little alien tourist and Skate Board Willy.
The little guy on the skateboard actually belongs to a space lab build, but I just imagined him as having more fun as a skateboard artist. Maybe gravity doesn't matter to him so much?

That must be his uncle taking his photo, right? What a daredevil.

The little sun flares just seemed to add to the fun so I kept them.

I had another character in my box. He is a rare Lego [I like finding the rare ones!]. 

I couldn't resist putting him in a ray of light so the sun shown through him.
He is a Rock Monster and in my thinking, he must be joining the others to steal that dragon egg that looks like a rock!

Truly, only a strange mind could think all of that up in an instant, right?

Creativity for me gives me moments of euphoria. It is a warm fuzzy feeling that is combined with a huge sigh. 

Soon enough after having those moments, I have to get back to managing another person's health care and running our small place.

Things don't always go as planned, but small moments of joy sure help out with that.

Onward.

All in a Day

All in a day's work.

I'm actually a bit too small of a person to handle a scythe properly with a good wide swing. However, I make it work.

I do this work at dawn, it is cooler out and I learned that weeds cut with a scythe much easier when they are damp with dewfall.

I see these tools hanging on the side of sheds with citified folk who don't know how to use them ... I imagine they are 'decorates'. To me, it is better than a power tool. I have to get it sharpened again. I asked hubby but he forgot.

[Perhaps I'll take it up to my neighbor and have him do it as he has one too. When I was getting the mail he and his son were out yesterday afternoon and we discussed the attributes of Scythes. I think he was surprised that I used on. ]

Next up was a trip to town to turn in my ancient STIPUD Phone and see if I could get a newer upgraded one. I went to the local US Cellular place in town and was waited on by the absolutely nicest bunch of customer service folks. The gal that waited on me was named Sara and she was newer at her job so she apologized a lot for doing things slowly.

I told her that this was my thing to do today, so I was not in a rush. I was learning about this phone and it was the first decent one I've ever had. My previous cell came at a discount of less than $50 and I admit, it was pretty crappy. However, it worked for what I needed it for.

Hands down. The greatest Customer Service I've ever had from anyone in recent memory!

When I got home I tried to familiarize myself with the Google Pixel phone [yeah Eddie, it is a nice phone and I got it for 50% off!]. 
Olive texted and asked if I wanted to walk in their woods with her and Aiden.

Off we went.
We were hunting for Oyster Mushrooms and we hit the jackpot.
The first shot is dried up Oysters...

[photos below are with the cell phone Google Pixel 6a]

This one is of a flush of them....

No Forest Adventure is complete without a Lego Person.
This guy needs a name before he is introduced to Fern! Got any good ideas?

By nearly nightfall, I was tired and worn out. Today I'll have to take a nap so I can go out in the fields on the ridge and hopefully shoot the milky way & fireflies!

As a last bit of something, I'll say this. I know I go on and on about CrossFit and it may seem obsessive to others. It can seem that way. Below is a link to a video that pretty much shows what our gym is like. It isn't a hard core place -- though if you wish to be hard core, it can be done. Our gym is very unique. In the summer they offer children's gym class and teen gym class too.

CrossFit Viroqua 'We are Family'

This video is Exactly Why I
Go... [the video directs you to watch it on FB so I am sorry for that, but if you have access, it is really quite fun and very short.]

PS: 
This morning I finished up the Thistle Patch ... onto my next Farm Job whatever that will be!