Summer flowers

 

School is done. Oliver will go to high school 

My irises did well this year

Maya and Naomi. 

Maya celebrating the end of elementary school though she is taking summer classes 

Unfolding Japanese iris

Not sure how this got in my yard. Known as the Mickey Mouse plant or Asian day flower

Kids on Memorial Day 

Front garden a month ago

I’ve been raising black swallowtails. I find the caterpillars on my dill, put them in jars, watch them pupate. So far two have turned into butterflies, the one above being a female. A male, no blue lots of yellow, also hatched. Two more caterpillars have just pupated

Petunias 

Japanese iris unfolded

Had a good strawberry crop this year. Maya liked to pick them

The same butterfly pictured above 2 weeks earlier 

Peony garden at the U. My peonies did great too

Lobelia all over the place

From one of my many planters

Day lilies 

Hannah on vacation 

Front garden early morning 

Blanket flower

Tessa paddle boarding 

Flower basket

Hydrangeas 

I found a pair of nice planters in someone’s trash while out on a bike ride

Cousins escaping the heat

Maya in the peony garden

So on this rainy day, instead of gardening I will catch up on this blog. Yes I love the spring and summer. Our usual birds have returned: the hummingbirds, orioles, cedar waxwings, grosbeaks and the wrens being my favorite. In the evening we sit next to our waterfall and watch the wren parents diligently hunting bugs for the babies, back and forth every few minutes. Lots of bugs this year. The babies have since fledged but they will probably raise more

Naomi is doing well in school hoping to get a degree in computer science. We have Maya a lot while she’s in classes or when her father thinks it is too expensive to pick her up

I hadn’t heard from an old friend in a while. I knew he had chronic leukemia and he had come to say goodbye to me a while back. When he didn’t return my text, I typed his name and obituary. Bingo. He died just a few days after we had communicated last. Sad. 

I have not seen my friends much. I had invited them over one evening and two canceled at the very last minute. Made me sad.

My enemy, the HOA lady who thinks my big flowers are dragging everyone’s house values down has stepped on other peoples toes and has quit. So I don’t have her to worry about anymore 

Planting season

 Since I have been back I have been busy dealing with the gardens. After a delayed spring, it finally came along with my summer birds

A pair of orchard orioles

Lots of pretty sunrises

The tulips weren’t eaten this year

Even the cranes marched through our yard

Hannah in the Plymouth Fountain 

Baltimore orioles. I have about ten. Eating lots of jelly 

Crocus 

Yard art

A few miles away a man planted thousands of daffodils. daffodil woods. He invited me on to his property. Lots of variety 

Gerber daisy

Bleeding hearts

Sunset 

Columbine 

One of two morels found on my property 

The girls playing 

New pot

New lawnmower. The first one we received was unusable After at least 6 visits from the store and numerous phone calls, they gave us one that worked

Lots of Maya. We watch her during her mom’s night classes.  Also on the weekends as her dad seems to be finding many reasons not to pick her up

Early morning double rainbow 

Cute bud vase from a local artist 

Some of my irises

Sunset

It’s been 2 months since I began this post and the gardens are in summer mode and look quite a bit different. I spend much too much time on them

I slowly recovered from my running injury and run at least 3 times a week. I also have been biking. No long bike rides this year. Instead I will canoe the boundary waters with some friends next week