Butterflies

The butterflies are so pretty fluttering from flower to flower in the garden. There seems to be an abundance of them this year. I have read that is a sign of a healthy environment. I don't know how localized that may entail, but I would say that my yard and garden are in good shape this year.

Round Hay Bales

These large round hay bales are picturesque in the fields. On hazy or foggy early mornings they conjour up images of wooly mammoths grazing on the hillside. I also remember an earlier period when Allis Chalmers made a round baler. My dad sold these and other farm equipment. On a couple of occassions he was called to get a farmer out of the baler. The best I recall one survived and one didn't. Here is a video of the old baler in action.

Lughnasadh/Lammas

I am amazed at hot green it is on the 1st of August. Usually we have started our dry spell and things start looking kind of dried out and drabby by now. I suspect we will still have a fairly dry spell between now and the first of fall, but at least we are starting the normally dry period in good shape

Jordan's School Flowers

Jordan sold flowers for school which we dutifully bought. And, since we wanted to share her enthusiam and environmental concerns, we dutifully planted the flowers. Much to our surprise but consistent with Jordan's enthusiam, the flowers are very beautiful and environmentally pleasing. Doing your duty often has pleasing payoffs.

Morning Glory

Morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae. As the name implies, morning glory flowers, which are funnel-shaped, open in the morning, allowing them to be pollinated by hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other daytime insects and birds. The flower typically lasts for a single morning and dies in the afternoon. New flowers bloom each day. The Aztecs used the seeds which contain LSA (a relative of LSD), a hallucigen, to pray to the sun god.

Fresh from the Garden

Been busy lately, but not too busy to collect a few veggies from the garden before a morning shower in July. It's hard to beat veggies right out the garden. You pick them when they are ripe, not based on shelf life.

Mimosa

I know a lot of people don't rate mimosas very high on their list of trees, but in full bloom the fragrance is hard to beat. Also if it is properly maintained, it is a very pretty tree. In the background is my oldest mimosa tree (about 25 years old) that I pass on my way to the mailbox early in the mornings. In the still morning air the fragrance just hangs over the whole area and you have to just stand there awhile and soak up enough to last through the day and ultimately through another season. The other good thing about mimosas is that they bloom for weeks. I know the fallen blossoms get messy, but that is part of the process.