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.