Bright And Cheerful

taken:
day forty two
07.31.12

Lots and lots of bright and cheerful Black Eyed Susans at a pretty 

garden near a playground that we visited for a morning of summer fun.

The Good With The Bad

taken:
day forty one
07.30.2012

These are Mint blossoms which are growing in a pot on our front porch. It turns out that Great Black Wasps love them! I'm not crazy about attracting those buggers right to the front porch but I love having the Mint growing right outside my front window. Take the good with the bad, I guess.

Frilly Comeback

taken:
day forty
07.29.2012

This Moss Rose, on the verge of unfolding, has been around since last summer when I planted a mini succulent garden and included a few of these pretty flowers. Last fall I decided to save some of the plants, put them in this planter and brought them inside for the winter. They survived! So I moved them out to my deck once the weather got warmer this spring. The Moss Roses were just little stems and leaves until midsummer when I noticed a tiny flower bud forming. Soon after, there were more! I was excited to see the blossoms make a comeback and fill the small planter with color and frill again. 

Long Overdue

taken:
day thirty nine
07.28.12

This fading Swamp Smartweed was growing along the shore of a small pond at a nearby campground. We were there for a long, LONG overdue get together with my best childhood friend. She came up with her family and friends for a weekend of camping so we thought we'd stop in for a visit. 

It's unfortunate that we hadn't seen each other for almost 6 years.  My youngest son was an itty bitty newborn when they came to visit last. We let our busy lives and a little over an hour distance get in the way of seeing each other more often. So sad!

Our kids had so much fun together at the campground! They hunted for frogs in the pond. They went canoeing and swimming in the lake. They roasted marshmallows over the campfire, and topped off the evening hanging out in their camper being goofy and giggling the night away. Memories made forever!

We'd love to see them more. If we waited 6 more years, her oldest daughter would be 20. No way...we won't let that happen again! I hope we'll be planning another get together with them really soon!!!

Bristly

taken:
day thirty eight
07.27.12

The bristly center of a midsummer Rudbeckia blossom.

Galore

taken:
day thirty seven
07.26.12

It's Cosmos galore these days. Here's some more 'Bright Lights' Cosmos, blooming abundantly and joyfully. They make me smile.

Feasting

taken:
day thirty six
07.25.12

Another nature walk. This one by the Rum River. These Soldier Beetles were everywhere on the tall Hoary Verbena growing wild along the nature trail. Each pretty purple flower had at least one of these guys crawling on it, feasting on it's sweet nectar.

Since the beginning my 94 Days of Summer project last year, I've really enjoyed learning the names of countless native wildflowers, grasses, bugs, beetles and butterflies. Before this, I didn't know these were Solider Beetles. I didn't know that they fed on nectar and that they're most active in late summer and early autumn. I'm feasting on all these nature facts, finding nourishment from the world around me. It's all so fascinating! And maybe there's no serious money making to come from learning and remembering all of these interesting details, but I definitely feel richer for knowing it. 

Limelight

taken:
day thirty five
07.24.12

I love, love, love Hydrangeas. They're so showy and dreamy. Nothing beats a brimming bouquet of Hydrangeas! There's a bit of a Hydrangea collection going on in my yard, with about six or seven varieties. This one is 'Limelight'. It's a pale greenish-white when it first begins to bloom, then turning completely white. As the summer goes on, the blooms take on a pinkish tint. It overflows with billowy blossoms on woody stems.

Frilly Side View

taken:
day thirty four
07.23.12

A soft frilly side view of sweet scented Garden Phlox blossom.

Let It Fly Away

taken:
day thirty three
07.22.12

"Give your stress wings and let it fly away."

~Terri Guillemets 

A wonderful set of wings on a dragonfly in my mom's flower garden.

Imperfect Is Beautiful

taken:
day thirty two
07.21.12

A pretty pink Zinnia. With an obvious imperfection. One petal, shaped like a heart. All the others, perfectly petal shaped. A pretty heart shaped flaw. How can you not love it! 

Maybe a lesson to learn? 

Maybe we can learn to embrace our imperfections? They make us unique, they make us individuals. Imperfections, they're beautiful. In fact, they're not imperfect at all, they're prefect, the way nature intended it.

Can you imagine this flower being embarrassed of it's one heart shaped petal? The thought of this flower wanting to hide it, mask it or surgical fix it seems ridiculous, doesn't it. 

Embracing imperfections, it's easier said than done but it's definitely something to strive for. Maybe I can learn to love my crows feet the way I love this sweet little heart shaped petal? Maybe.

Perched Proudly

taken:
day thirty one
07.20.12

On a little nature walk near our local library we spotted this Goldfinch in the distance, 

perched proudly and soaking in the hot afternoon sun.

Beaming In The Evening

taken
day thirty
07.19.12

This 'Bright Lights' Cosmo is beaming in the evening sunshine. These Cosmos are definitely one of my favorite annual seeds to plant every spring and there's a reason why they are called 'Bright Lights'. They add so much life to the garden this time of year with their tall airy stems that are loaded with buds and blooms. They beacon in shades of orange, gold and tangerine. Which it's difficult to tell from this photo, I know. I liked this photo in soft black & white though because it was almost a little too bright taken in the low evening sunlight. But I will, without a doubt, be posting more colorful photos of these Cosmos in the future. 

Here's a bright and lively one from last year.

Happy Trio Of Colors

taken:
day twenty nine
07.18.12

Another tiny bee. This one preparing to land on a frilly Moss Rose growing in a container on my back deck. 

I love the happy trio of colors in these blossoms {coral, pink and yellow}.

Spiky And Sturdy

taken:
day twenty eight
07.17.12

This spiky and sturdy grass is another clump that withstood our dry spell.

It stands proud and united, prospering during parched conditions.

Resilience

taken:
day twenty seven
07.16.12

This is the kind of photo that I love. 

Natural. Airy. Abstract. Daydreamy. 

I'd prefer this kind of photo over a prefect and beautiful flower any day.

This clump of native grasses was thriving in our lawn during our recent dry spell. 

And when I say thriving, I mean THRIVING, growing taller and more lush than our lawn, 

sticking out like a sore thumb in a sea of dried grass. 

It didn't seem phased by the lack of rain. 

Poor little grass clump got mowed down the next day. 

 Now all that's left is this photo and the memory of it's resilience.

Lemonade And Cotton Candy

taken:
day twenty six
07.15.12

'Lilliput' Zinnias have a lovely little way of popping with color. 

Vivid lemonade yellows and cotton candy pinks compliment each other and bring sweetness to the garden.

Took To The Air

taken:
day twenty five
07.14.12

On this day I noticed this Great Black Wasp on the hydrangeas by my mailbox when I went out to check the mail. There were several of them buzzing around. This one landed for a bit, then took to the air, only to land again on a blossom nearby.

These wasps are HUGE! At least an inch long. That's HUGE, right? It is to me, when it comes to wasps anyway. 

Every time I tell my husband, "I saw a HUGE wasp" or "I saw a spider, it was HUGE", he gives me the look like "Yeah right. Was it really that HUGE?" I guess his idea of a huge insect is different than mine.

I'm not dramatic. I'm not. Not usually anyway.

But I'm serious, these wasps are HUGE, take my word for it.

Invasive

taken:
day twenty four
07.13.12

Hard to believe these soft delicate petals belong to a native plant that is considered very invasive. I read that this plant, Spotted Knapweed, is on Minnesota's prohibited/control weed list and "should be eradicated". Guess I should do my part and start eradicating them then, since they are literally everywhere around here. Kind of sad though because the bees seem to love them and the bees need all the flowers they can get.

Someplace Else

taken:
day twenty three
07.12.12

Oh no you don't, spider! Don't you dare make a comfy little home in my garden right near the entrance. I could ignore you. Pretend you're not there. But I know what will happen. You'll grow bigger and bigger until you are so big {and frightening} that I'll end up avoiding that whole area of the garden. Possibly the entire garden. It's happened before. Spider, you scare me. I know you're good, you eat mosquitoes, blah blah blah, and I don't want to hurt you {honestly I'm too afraid to hurt you}. So could you please, pretty please, just go weave your cozy little web someplace else? Thanks.

Beaming In An Unlikely Place

taken:
day twenty two
07.11.12

I found this Foxtail grass growing through a crack in the street.

Thriving and strong in the fracture of hot blacktop.

Backlit by the powerful low evening sun, it was literally beaming, 

beckoning me over for a closer look. 

Beauty definitely doesn't always grow in lush soil,

straight rows

or behind white fences.

It can grow and gleam in the most unlikely of places.

In the Morning Breeze

taken:
day twenty one
07.10.12

Just a tiny bee on some tiny wild flowers in the morning breeze.

Success And A Sunflower

taken:
day twenty
07.09.12

This is the start of a pretty yellow sunflower. A 'Teddy Bear' sunflower. I love sunflowers but honestly, I'm not sure if I'm ready for them to start blooming yet. To me sunflowers in bloom signify the end of summer. I'm just not ready for that! 

What does make me feel better though is that I planted these sunflower seeds early. I think in March. Maybe that's why this one is blooming already?

I tried a new seed starting technique this spring called Winter Sowing, using recycled milk jugs. I plan on doing a post on it later, once I can show the outcome of what I planted. 

What I will say right now is that it was really fun. The boys helped me and I was very happy with the results of most of the seeds that I planted.

Seeing this sunflower bloom proves to me that my Winter Sowing project was a success.

Weed Soup And A Weird Bee

taken:
day nineteen
07.08.12

My flower garden needed weeding. Bad. So it was time to get to work.

After some bribery, my husband and I recruited our boys to help. They could earn $1 for every bucket of weeds they filled. Offering a cash incentive always works.

My oldest helped my husband weed in the landscaping. My littlest kept me company in the garden. Notice I say 'kept me company' instead of 'helped'. Because a 5 year old can get distracted very easily. Instead of weeding he ended up digging holes, making some kind of weed soup in a bucket of water and just plain ol' wandered around. Not too much weeding going on, on his behalf. Although he did eventually earn that $1 by the end of the day. His older brother earned $6!

After my littlest guy had wandered back to 'help' me, this weird sorta creepy bee buzzed around us. Finally it landed and we got a good look at it {and snapped a pic}. It looked like a bee with a hunchback. Totally weird. Never seen one before.

I kind of shivered. Not sure why, I just did. Maybe because it reminded me of a very very miniature bee version of the mutated dogs in the end of the Hunger Games? But that's just my imagination being a little dramatic.

Later I googled 'hunchback bee' and what do you know, I found it. They're of the genus Lepidophora. And are actually just a fly, not a bee.

Ever encounter one of these guys buzzing around?

Peeking Purple

taken:
day eighteen
07.07.12

I planted some Pansies back in April since spring came so early this year. They are still going strong although the hot weather has made them a bit droopy. They'd rather have cooler weather. Good thing they are protected on my front porch, sheltered from the sun. Otherwise they probably wouldn't have made it this long. This happy purple Pansy looks like it's peeking up saying 'hello there'.

I Heart Flowers

taken:
day seventeen
07.06.12

I love how this Common Yarrow, with it's small white blossoms, is clustered into a lovely little heart shape.

Twitching Antennas

taken:
day sixteen
07.05.12

It's always exciting to stumble upon cute little critters. The key word there is cute. Because I can definitely live without encountering the creepy critters, especially spiders! This tiny grasshopper definitely fell into the cute category, with it's twitching antennas and poppyseed eyes. It grasped tightly to a stock of native grass in the heat of the bursting evening sun. Wonder what he thought of our sweltering heatwave?

After A Full Moon

taken:
day fifteen
07.04.12

Wow we got lucky, yes, this flashy moon was the backdrop to the fireworks show that we saw on the 4th of July. It was the evening after a full moon so the moon was nearly full, so large and glowing. 

I was more amazed by the moon than the fireworks!

While the timing, the direction, the nearly fullness and blazing orange color of the moon all seemed to have been perfectly orchestrated, I've decided that this was possibly a once in a lifetime event. When could this ever happen again? 

Nope, not ever. And don't tell me it could. I won't listen.

Which makes this photo extra extra fun. As the fireworks rained down in the sky, with the moon in the background, it looked more like a meteor shower than a 4th of July celebration.

Radiating Afternoon

taken:
day fourteen
07.03.12

In my friends garden I found this sweet little clover radiating in the hot hot hot afternoon sun. Nearby our kids played in the kiddie pool. They splashed and giggled the day away while my friend and I relaxed in the shade OUT of the hot hot hot sun. We still nearly melted because it was just THAT hot but it didn't matter, we had such a fun afternoon!

Busy

taken:
day thirteen
07.02.12

Fuzzy little bees find beaming orange Butterfly Weed difficult to resist. Why are bees so busy? Probably because it takes 2 million flower taps to make 1 pound of honey. No wonder why bees work so hard!

Dock at Dusk

taken:
day twelve
07.01.12

The dock at dusk. If this dock could talk, it might tell us about the harsh waves that it endures when the north winds whip down. Or about the bazillions of lake bugs that invade the summer and coat the water top. Or about two little boys that love to walk along it and once they gain their courage, jump off it into the cold water. Or about the duck families and tranquil loons that float gently by. But it would definitely tell us about the medley of breathtaking sunsets that fall on the horizon every single evening lighting up the sky with amazing color. And this was a beautiful sunset to kick off the first day of July.