End of July

What does the end of July bring? Well, lots of flowers are blooming all over my yard. 

The hummingbirds and humming bird moths are crazy busy sucking up that nectar.

I put morning glories in several places this year. I put one right outside the porch door and let it climb up a shepherd's hook. 

Most of the flowers in front of the west porch area were variations of blue this summer. Of course, the Morning Glories take the cake!

 

July usually gives us a rest from mowing with a dry spell. Not this year. Mowing has to be done every 5 to 6 days. Maybe that is why I feel so behind on things. Days of wet, days and days of rain. No dry spells for the farmers to make hay.

The sunflowers are blooming too along with my Brown Eyed Susans. This is the first time I've grown them and they are doing so well.

In fact, they have been home to some elusive Crab Spiders. 

They hide under the petals of the flowers and wait for a meal to drop by. They are ambush spiders that don't create webs to catch their prey. 

August will bring the Orb Spiders out in force in the Meadow just east of us. That will be incredible to see again this year [hopefully]. Thousands of Orb Spider webs sparkling in the morning dew.

Air Quality was a huge factor on and off for July. Well, for this summer. Wildfires in the States and Canada are obviously contributing to the horrid atmosphere. However, the mules are pleased to be wandering a clipped pasture. The blueish haze is smoke.

We got a trip in to Cabela's yesterday and drove through driving rain. Hubby looked at the fish in their giant fish tank and was not impressed since he couldn't have any to eat.

On the way home, Steve as always took the scenic way home which includes as many back roads as possible.

This was a shot I took of the ridges above Prairie du Chien as we headed home. Shooting out the back window of a moving car is pretty challenging.

That's smoke too.

Today is much worse as the sun looks brownish and the haze is thick and smells bad.

Kinda flopped

 The smoke from the fires kept me from seeing the Milky Way and the Northern Lights. But it sure didn't keep me from trying.

I set my alarm for 1:30am and got up and dragged my sorry butt out of bed and walked to the Meadow. I had a little camp chair I took with me and set things up. 

Not much happened in the skies. So I decided to play with my headlamp to see if I could do some experimental light painting on the Hickory tree in the Meadow.

The sky was lit up with very faint colors but it was really just brown-ish from the smoke. Interestingly enough, it was very cool out and there was no evidence of fireflies anywhere.

By 3AM I gave up on the lights but was happy to faintly see the Big Dipper. So I took this last shot and decided to head inside. I got a wee Star Trail as a result. The smoke completely obliterated where the Milky Way was supposed to appear.

I must have bumped the tripod a bit when I walked away. I can see it in the photo but I kept it anyway.

So this is what the skies really looked like above 👆. However, just for fun I did something pretty awful and fun.

Same photo as the one in the Meadow with the orangish-brownish sky.
I cheated with adding a sky swap.
So of course I would title these as what I wish I had seen. However, it sadly was not true.

The scary part it the ease at which I was able to change the photo. 

Okay. Well onto a couple of other Meadow photos that are not faked. I was able to get out just before sunrise and take these as the other half was up on this morning at 4am and had eaten his breakfast and had coffee so I could get out and enjoy a few morning moments in the Meadow.

We had a very busy week last week and even busier weekend with lots of comings and goings.  

The horse we called Fifteen went to her new family where she will get tons of attention and love. 

I was surprised, I haltered her up, and led her to their tiny trailer where she loaded like a pro. To her credit, she is smart but I don't have the time for her. The last time she had loaded into a trailer was the day she came home to us 6 years ago.

The mule gals absolutely had a fit after she left. But after 24 hours, they quieted down as if nothing in their lives had changed.