Sometimes a day is just that... a day.

A day like any other... sipping hot tea, leaning back in my arm chair, watching out my window as the goldfinch preforms acrobatics plucking seeds from the giant coneflowers that grow taller than I can barely reach.  I wonder as the morning sun rises, if the clouds gathering on the horizon will eventually drop a little rain in my afternoon; or tease me as they usually do by rumbling all around me, and moving on without a designated raindrop for my thirsty yard.

A group of gregarious English sparrows (a bluebird bully) moved into the neighborhood many moons ago, and while I would like to pepper their little hinnies with buckshot, I'm a lady, so I'll say no more.  Late last month, a pair of house wrens took over the chickadee box; and even though the babies have flown the coop, mom and dad's chitter-chatter while feeding the little tykes gets mighty intense.  On top of that, a new batch of cicadas has been escaping their earthy confinements to join the heavenly choir above ground.

Sheltered baby cardinals are flushed out of hiding as I go about the business of gardening, and chirp incessantly for their next meal as the dog two houses down begins to whimper once again on being left alone all day.  There are times when I find nature to be just as noisy as a city street; although, it's an assault to the senses that reminds me more of freshness than staleness.

A type of Crane Fly (I think)

Body approximately 1/2 inch long
on Joe Pye Weed

Common Green Bottle Fly

Spicebush Swallowtail on Joe Pye Weed

Six spicebushes in containers and a few more

 now appearing in the gardens ~

this creature appears every late summer.

Tiny bee resting with tattered Wings

This poor little guy has seen better days

"Black Cherry" Tomato

Tomato Moth Caterpillar

Thought the wrens would get these, 

but had to intervene while I still had some tomatoes left.

Cicada found on ground

Leaf-footed Bug missing one leg

Zabulon Skipper

I'm uprooting Virginia creeper left and right out of my wildflower garden this week.  Of course, one never really gets rid of the stuff.  As a ground cover it's perfection, but as a control freak, it's turned my flower bed into a tangled web of roots and leaves that knows no boundary or height constraints.  It's been the monster of my gardening nightmares this season.

For twenty years I policed the mother plant, ripping out her runners before they creeped to the far shores or climbed to the heavens above.  Then I got sick, and that little sucker shot out all over the place.  I felt a twang of regret when I dug the old lady out of her comfort zone and tossed her into the trash can.  I'm still removing bits and pieces of her brood, and already missing her as I view that too big of a patch of bare ground.

I'll remind myself each day as I lay my eyes upon that empty space; of her contentment having it all her own way, and my discontentment with her casually advising me to bugger off when I objected.  The emptiness will reawaken with Summersweet clethra, the same Summersweet that still lingers around the edges of her memorial.  The lavishness of that licorice aroma is a promise worth waiting for.

Phlox "Laura"

Waved Spinx Moth

(not a clear photo)

Blends in well with tree trunk

Clematis Seed Head

Blue Lobelia

Milkweed Bug on Echinacea 

deciding to hide from camera

An eerie beauty in drought

Leafcutter Bee resting on native sunflower seed pod

Tree Cricket (I think) on spider daylily

Pucker Up!

Bumblebee on "Hot Lips" turtlehead plant

Dustin and Vic

I've had the bestest time on my walk this morning!

Snacked on a tootsie roll in the cat litter pan while daddy looked for my leash, gobbled up a cicada while daddy was on his cell phone going down the steps, licked up some upchuck while daddy petted that ugly dog next door, snacked on a wad of rotting something while daddy cussed at the speeding car, and found a delicious mouse corpse behind the nice lady who pets me's mailbox while we stop to chat.  I licked daddy all over his face while he was removing my leash, because I love him and want a repeat at the end of the day.