Flower garden tour...

Just a walk around the house with my camera... well except for the Queen Anne's Lace and the white clover those flowers were in the yard.

Enjoy

 

Happy August

 

It has started out very August-y. Hot Hot Hot. But the gnats have started to dissipate here and being out in the flower garden is more comfortable [in the shade]. 

I am bummed. I woke up yesterday morning and listened for our resident wren. She/he always sings and scolds me when I go out with Charlie. In fact several wrens generally serenade the yard each summer morning.

I was left wanting. 

Their voices have disappeared. Left in their place are crickets and an occasional Robin, Wood Thrush, and Woodpecker voice in the predawn. Another voice not heard is the Red Wing Black Bird. The birds are starting to migrate.

Hmmm. Not to be a bummer, but I read somewhere that August is also the month where we lose a significant amount of daylight. 😔 

I still feel like it should be ... more nice summer and not heading towards fall. But that is how nature works, right?

Time waits for no one?

However, August is the time for flower gardens to shine in their glory with annuals!

My Zinnias that were not doing well have finally hit their peak! So color me happy!
They aren't as plentiful or tall as they have been in years past, but I adore being able to cut bouquets of them and add color to my kitchen counter.

This side garden of flowers was all my leftover seeds from last year. I did not expect to have this!

The girls say good morning!

Here is a closer shot of the orange cosmos bunch. They are thick as thieves and I don't think any weeds even grew up in between them. So much for spacing them out a few inches. I just dumped the seeds on the ground and raked it, then stomped them into the dirt. 

I'll be gathering a lot of these seeds again this fall.

This makes me smile even though August races us towards Fall.

Some other stray cosmos got in the mix. My favorite colors of cosmos are the multicolored ones, but the orange ones sure are prolific with their fern like foliage and bright colors.

And then there was a huge surprise. A white Malva aka known as Prairie Mallow came up in the middle of the orange cosmos!

They are related in a way to Hollyhocks, but are more sturdy and readily reseed. I hope to see more of these white beauties next year. I'll have to collect their seeds even though they will do it themselves.

The humming birds are going crazy over the 4 O'clocks in the evening and through the morning. The flowers close up during the day and re-open with a sweet scent all evening.

I have hundreds of these plants on the west side of the house.

Every year now, I collect Nasturtium seeds and replant a few around the porch. Each August I am always surprised as to how they want to spread out and take over everywhere. 

I let them. Here they crowd out the stepping stones to the porch. The violets are volunteers from a hanging planter I had there last year. They actually are doing better as volunteers than they did in a hanging pot.

I'm going to let the plants do what they want and just carefully go around them.

I have one more spot that I planted with Zinnias and Cosmos. It is an area where the old veggie garden used to be. Next year I hope to add another small extension of carefree flowers. 

The morning glories have gone crazy and have covered the wagon wheel. I had to put out a couple of posts to give them more climbing area.

Have a good weekend and stay cool. 

Meanwhile

Twila went home and I think Charlie was either bummed out or just very tired. He took his spot on the couch and napped most of Sunday and Monday. I think it was a little of both. 

He does like other canines and enjoys the company. He also likes his laziness.

By Monday evening he returned to his normal self and enjoyed being the ruler of the house again. Such is a dog's life.

Honeysuckle
[invasive but pretty]

Suddenly, it is October and I am wondering where the year went and what the rest of the year will bring. 

This fall hasn't affected me like other years for some reason. I have always felt anxious and strange when the days got shorter and the trees started to turn. Maybe it is because of the unusual heat we've had these first days of October.

The cosmos I planted are loving it though. They are producing like crazy. I'm gathering seeds from all the varieties. The plants did produce flowers as early as late June, but now they are tall and well....

intense!

These are from two different spots in our yard. The third area I have with cosmos is out further with the morning glories that are also producing like mad.

I'm washing up the siding and getting things ready for the cold weather that we will eventually get. It could be as soon as this weekend when we get our first frost.

For now? I'm going to enjoy the weather and the rest of October. 

Rain, we got rain!

 Thank goodness! We have had two rainfalls this week!

Rejoice!

This morning we received an inch of rain! Delightful!

It looks like I can get out in the forest and look for awesome cool fungi!

Things have been so dry ...

See photo below, this is what our meadow looked like last week. There is nothing left there and I am keeping the mules out of it. 

Today we had an inch of rain so far and more is falling this afternoon! There are times when I don't get too excited about rain but not this year. Any rain is appreciated.

An inch of rain meant that we'd have some water in the creek for a little while at least.

The total rainfall for the whole day ended up being an inch and 1/10th. Whoo Hoo!

It is too late in the growing season for hay fields to rebound except for perhaps one last cutting. I see that the price of hay has gone through the roof figuratively. It may become a very harsh winter with the food source being scarce and very expensive.

Okay, enough of that.

The flowers are enjoying the rainfall as well as the grass. We may get to mow the yard this month!

Cosmos with an Ambush Bug waiting for breakfast...

Cosmos in the morning light.

The morning glories are finally blooming and  adding color to the old Wagon Wheel I have out in the yard. 

I think the variety of poppies that I got in the wild flower seed packets are my favorites this year. They are so stunning in their pinks and reds.

I'm going to collect their seed heads for next year and see if they sprout!

The Nasturtiums are in their glory and spreading their vines like crazy.

With the humidity and the rain along with some hot weather this weekend, the fungi, slime molds, and mushrooms ought to be bursting forth!

Bolete from before the rain.

Way to go Fani Willis!

Autumn

The photo above was taken at my mailbox. My neighbor lives on this ridge and we share the upper part of the driveway. It drops steeply down into a hollow.

There is something magical about the late afternoon light on all those maples and oaks. I could pull up a chair and sit there all afternoon to watch the leaves and trees. 

This week we've had some amazing sunrises. I mean brilliant and startling in colors. 

Sunrise at PeeWee's: Harvest time.
Sunday morning

The Sumac Tree I have been watching since August:

We had a killing frost two nights in a row so the garden flowers are all done it and turned into slimy gobs of gooey green. But at least I could appreciate them just before they turned.

Cosmos

Other jobs for the Autumnal weekend were replacing the stock tank heaters and pulling burrs from my an-ni-mule tails. The redheads always get into parts of the forest where stick tights and burdock are, no matter how diligent I am about pulling or cutting them down.

That is Sunshine staring at me. 

I'm happy to report that their winter coats are soft and fluffy. 

After this last blast of color, November ushers in the Brown Season or the colorless season.

I find it hard to be motivated to take photos of anything in our forest during November. 

But I generally use that time to tidy up the house and do indoor projects anyway.

I have a new 'old' Christmas Chair for this year that I found in one of the sheds. A old bent Hickory.

But since we are all thinking about the end of October.....let's enjoy these days were the temps are still above zero!

Do you like winter? Yes, I do. 

Fungi & the project

First some pretty frost photos of Cosmos flowers. In the last one there is a fly that has frost on it!

I've been working on having some fun finding Fungi and Mushrooms. Why not? I can't be running around going to craft fairs or hosting company right now, so a Nature Project seems sensible.

September and October seem to be a good Fungi/Mushroom/Slime Mold time of year. Just as April and May are incredible for finding spring flowers emerging.

We haven't had a recent rain so the wonderful world of Fungi is a bit dry. That presents an interesting opportunity in itself.
The photos you rarely see in Mushroom books.
This is pretty ugly but also pretty telling. The mushroom comes up with moisture, grows rapidly, spreads its spores, and is done.

All within a few short days! I have no idea what this 'shroom looked like in its prime. I'm guessing it is a Jumbo Gym [common name]. 

Below are some little purply red-ish odd fungi that grow all over on the dead mossy logs...

I saw them referred to as Rusty Gills in one place. I saw several 'names' that could ID them. Without a microscope and spore prints [I know! Very technical stuff, right?] I doubt I could ever really say what they are.
Less just call them cool little fungi.

Here is another log with them dried out and shriveled.

I think they are just as interesting like this as they are when fresh!

And then there is this to consider. I'm not even going to pretend to know what most of these fungi are. For example there is a common one called the Russulla with about 750 different species of it.

I have no idea if these are Russulla or some other strange and exotic named Fungi.

Pretty in a way, aren't they?

I wonder if these are the same kind as the ones above only aged?

I really don't know.

But I am having a blast looking for them and photographing them.

Old Oyster Mushroom bunch perhaps?

I find them oddly beautiful in how the grow and how they reproduce.

And for your enjoyment, something I thought was neat.

Not the best photo but kind of a cool common name.

Ochre Spreading Tooth.

Charlie and I explored upper Duck Egg today. We went to the look out, got a bit off trail and explored the prairie on top. Charlie is exhausted from 'swimming' in the grass.

He is such a trooper!

So my next project ... I think, will be a photo book of 2020. This is such a bizarre year.

It deserves being Memorialized. Yes?