The Poetry of Summer

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Type of Orange Paper Wasp

They chew on bits of paper, wood, bark, etc., mix it with saliva, 

and form the resulting pulp into a nest typical of their species

Joe Pye Weed

Cicada Hiding

Neofavolus alveolaris, I think.

Yellow gills on bottom that look like a sponge.

Phlox 'Laura'

Too hot and humid to enjoy

Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa

With type of fly and an ant

Bumble Bee

Female Eastern Carpenter Bee on 

Hairy Sunflower, Helianthus hirsutus

My life feels in slow motion dragging itself across the landscape of a thousand trip hazards.  I’m in perpetual garden watering mode – a half here, next day a half there, next day what’s remaining of the first half, and so on… on and on and on.  Days of high 90’s F or higher, with too few days of reprieves in between since June.  Memories of watering only once a month in ancient times taunts me, as the heaviness of the humid heat drains me instantly as I step out into nature.  I seem to be keeping the tree frogs happy, though, as their night chorus appears wherever I’ve watered.

I’ve had better days and photographing summer now is rock bottom on my list of necessities.  I’ve had a setback with my neck that has sent me to hell for a while, but let’s not dwell on that.  I’ve dwelt on it enough, for all of us, just living it.  Dustin up and quit eating his kidney friendly food… he’s not the slightest bit interested in in anymore.  Senior canned dog food isn’t plentiful, but we’re trying Simply Nourish and Blue Buffalo.  So far, he’s eating them both quite happily.

Lacey’s not always interested in her Tiki Cat canned food, prompting us to visit PetSmart to buy one can of every without fish Fancy Feast Medleys and some from Instinct with gravy.  An appetite stimulant is applied to the inside of her ear flap when needed.    She has a drive to eat almost constantly, without any weight gain.  She’s healthy, according to her regular bloodwork, so we’re waiting results of a more extensive bloodwork profile to see if she has Crohn’s disease or Lymphoma.  We’ve been waiting a week.  It’s really a bummer… waiting.

Some days have passed since I began this… thunderstorms coming in from the north are a constant each day.  Yesterday we found a rather large, small branch from the Ash tree had fallen and broken the central branch on one of the winterberry shrubs, lessening its height by half.  It was the oldest winterberry in the garden and quite tall, so that was a disappointing discovery.

Searching the internet about gardens as engineered products, I came upon the fact that a National Garden Bureau exists in this country.  News to me.  One of the topics was re-engineering gardens, in my case , adapting to the shade created by maturing trees.  We have an arborist coming in Monday to trim back the two hornbeam trees… this is when gardening begins to cost a bit more than planned.

Although I garden naturally, my garden isn’t natural… Nature is natural.  I had a plan, executed it, and Nature has been working overtime since then to wipe it off the face of her earth.  It’s a bit annoying, to say the least.  How dare she mettle with my efforts to help myself to a little bit of her heaven concentrated into a tiny patch of land.  Just because I fill the space overflowing doesn’t mean I want every tree seed that hits the ground to grow into a forest, or every weed seed that hitchhikes with the wind to love me with a vengeance.  She refuses to listen to me, saying Mother knows best.

Yes, Mother…

Dustin

Miss Lacey minding the kitchen.

A cat's job is never finished.

These old shoes are the cat's meow.

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