August 12, 2024

Can you believe that Summer is already going by?  So fast that it hardly seems possible.  In one more month and a few days it will already be Autumn!   Oh no!  Summer has gone so quickly and we have seen so many incredible things!  We have seen plants and creatures growing before our eyes.  For instance, here are a couple of months going by - you can see the Japanese Anemone budding up and finally beginning to bloom.  In just the past week the blooms have begun to appear and finally in this past week they have begun to be gorgeous!

Various kinds and colors of Day Lilies similarly.  Here are: the wild type, the red ones left by the Omahan-Kaduncs;  the golden August Orange; and the new one I bought but which hasn't bloomed yet.

The Black Raspberries were the best-tasting I can recall.  We didn't have one to put into the freezer!

Here is one of my favorites, the Deptford Pinks given me by Mary-Ann Cateforis of Potsdam, NY.  Fortunately they set seed quite nicely and so I was able to share some of this with other friends.  Pinks are wonderful companions year-by-year.  Here are two kinds that have kept themselves in planters from year to year.

Fall is here and so here is the Phlox. Picture 2 is the wild geranium from early spring.  Picture 3 is the Ivy Geranium. All my favorite shade of pink.

The Asters are now starting up.  What brilliant colors.  Here is one of my favorite Blues.  Then we see my very favorite Pink color.  I guess it's not just MY favorite Pink.  It also is beloved by these brilliant green wasps with gold and black stripedy tails.  

Let's follow along on some of the crazy Beetles and Bugs.  Here is a kind called Spine-headed Bugs (Genus Acanthocephala)

Here is a Bug I haven't seen in a very long time.  It's the Alder Spitttlebug.  A terrible picture, sorry.  Second is some kind of Brown Stink Bug, and third is some kind of Bug I think. 

Let's look at Flies. This one we saw last week.  The second looks like one of the Scorpion Flies.  

The next two are mating.  The third one seems to be three flies mating at once!

Here are some items of Lagniappe.  (My Cajun spelling is only approximate!)  I just want you to see how many kinds of Frogs there are in this yard this week.  You already know the Green Frog, of which Froggy is an example, but not a very good description as he is not very Green at all!  Here is Froggy resting on top of a Pink Water Lily.  Second is a Green or Grey Tree Frog. And third is another really green Tree Frog resting between bricks in the house siding.