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. 

Hot and Humid

Hot 
Humid
Wet
Holiday Weekend

That is the weather this week which is good for the crops and not so good for mowing or enjoying the outdoors. 

I did spend a whole day though cleaning up the upstairs of the house. Both the East Wing and the West Wing [ ~~ tiny little rooms in our story and a half cottage ~~] got deep cleaning. 
I did some purging while I was at it.

My walks have been short and after Charlie nagged me one morning, I decided to take him along with my long lens on a walk to the mailbox. 

This wren kept chattering at us so I stood still and waited for her to land on something. I was pleased that she was singing her morning songs. 

We got to the ridge and I grabbed the mail which was just junk mail. It was a flier advertising a Huge Sale! All mattresses must GO! Store Closing!

That store has been closing for about a year now. 

I tucked the ad under my arm and decided to look at the weeds along the ditch to search for insects.

I was so pleased to find this beauty. I think it is a Spotted Skipper, however I am not sure as the wings in this light almost appear blue tinted.

This one could be some sort of Spotted Fritillary. I call it 'little brownish spotted butterfly'.

However, my buddy didn't think too much of our little side trip.

I wanted to just walk down a ways and look a tiny bit more... and so I called Charlie...and got this...

I agreed with him and turned around to take him home. Once he got in view of the house, he trotted the rest of the way to the porch door and stood looking at me. Little dogs get the heat from the ground and his short nose doesn't allow him to cool off very well. 

My morning walks are the highlight of my day right now. I do it early as the weather is hot and mugg--ly.

This is from my morning foraging walk. Oops! I should have left my camera sitting in a bag on the porch for a while before taking it out in the extremely hot and humid climate.

[This was one of those days where the dew point and temperature were just about the same degree!]

Stupid me. But there it is:

I'd stopped here to photograph a fawn laying down in one of the mule trails but got a fogged lens instead.

I did see this fawn on the way back though!

My morning foraging looked very promising.

This is my creek or was the creek until the drought hit. For the first few years I lived here, it was like this. Then we had some flash floods and for many years water always flowed over the rocks but no more than a few inches deep.

It is almost moist and cooler in this bottom. Beware though, the rocks are like walking on marbled ice.

Yep, marbled ice is a good description. The bruises on my gluteus maximuses will be a good judge of that. 

However, I was more interested in getting some delicious oyster mushrooms for supper and some to dehydrate.

On the way back home with my goodies, I found some chicken of the woods...I think. These did not look appetizing at all with the amount of icky looking gnats and bugs on them. 

But the blaze orange color is hard to miss.

And then more cool bugs. A Hover Fly and an inch worm on the head of a yarrow blossom.

So what is this hot and humid weather good for?

Well.

It is good for short excursions into the woods to find neat insects, wild flowers, and wicked cool fungi and slime molds while picking black raspberries!

Free entertainment

It is fun to have coffee and be able to peer out at the neighbor's land where they used to have goats and see this occurring. Two fawns had been staying where their moms had put them. 

The moms would feed them then the fawns would lay still in the tall grasses near some brush and stay until their moms came to get them.

For the first week, all we could see was just the tips of their ears when the twitched them. 

Since the goats left we see the deer making good use of the woods and field. 

I was cleaning out some weeds next to the outhouse when I got buzzed by a hummingbird. So I decided to take a break and sit on the back step with my camera and Charlie in the shade.

Hummingbird in my Siberian Iris? 

There was the friendly wren flitting about and alternating between scolding and singing! 

 

Here is a mule pile up under a box elder tree. They adore standing in the shade under the tree using the low branches as fly deterrent.

Fly season has arrived as well as bot bees that get the mules running and diving into underbrush to get the biting insects off from them.

Our not so brilliant horse that is named 15, came into raging heat. The red headed molly mules decided it would be fun to nibble her flanks and get her to squeal. 

Imagine horse squeals echoing in the woods. It almost sounds like something bizarre is happening. Thank goodness it only lasts about one day.

Sven, the goat loves to be with his pal Little Richard. The goat stands with his head under Little Richard's tail to keep flies off his head.

I thought the goat was really taking a chance of getting his head dumped on by pony poo. Apparently, he darts out before the pony drops a load.

So when the Firestick TV remote died a severe and unfixable death for the 3rd time, hubby had a melt down.

I tried to explain to him that he could find all sorts of free entertainment out doors.

Alas. 

Poor hubby. Did you know there was an app for a smartphone just for these emergencies? Oh yes! Firestick TV Remote app. Thank goodness, the world will not fall apart while waiting on a replacement.

However, since I am the only one who can operate the smartphone, it seems I need to be present any time he wants to watch the TV.

Come on new Remote!