Well, Lynne covered the past three weeks pretty well with her blog. So now, I'll add the visuals, and maybe someday, we'll figure out how to get pictures to get interspersed within the text to make for easier reading. One thing we don't have a picture of, but have to share... As you know, when we got the back porch inclosed, we got the storm door with the cat door built into it so the cats could come and go as they please - and it's worked out really well for us. No more having to get up and let them out or in. However, the other night a couple weeks ago, we were awakened to a really high-pitched whining. Shadow, the long haired Maine Coon, decided that Lynne and I would like the little baby rabbit he had caught and brought back into our bedroom. His grip on the bunny's nape loosened, and now we have this screaming baby bunny rabbit running around the house lights out, with Lynne, me and the cat chasing it!!! Fortunately, we were able to keep it from Mom's end of the house and corraled it in the pantry, where I scooped it up, went outside, and let it go over the porch railing. After that, I think we slept a little longer that morning.
I'm up most mornings before first light, so I get to catch a lot of nature waking up. Lately, we've had our little family of deer back, frequenting the yard once again. Because of the early hour, it's difficult without having a tripod in your pocket, to get decent pictures of them when they're back in the woods, but sometimes, the deer will freeze and allow me to get somewhat close to them. As these pictures show, our deer from last year have gotten their first sets of antlers. We don't have a picture of this year's new fawn, but we do have a little Bambi, complete with spots and all. Here's some deer pics, taken 2 weeks apart.
Like Lynne said, we went to see Willie Nelson down at Alltel (aka Walnut Creek Amphitheatre) While the weather was perfect, we both wish the show could have started a little later. This picture of Willie was taken off one of the teletrons, and it was just too light out to watch most of his performance, because of the sunset glare with the sun being behind us. Our seats were in the first row of lawn seats, just behind the reserved seating. and here's a thunderstorm anvil that reflected more sunset light onto the concert setting.
Just for fun again this year, we wanted to grow some ornamental gourds to decorate with during the fall season. We certainly didn't expect to see one of them 20 feet up in a pine tree, however!
We've grown lots of tomatos this year, and what we haven't been eating fresh from the vine, we've been canning up - a new experience for me. But come the colder months, we'll remember picking these beauties, slicing some up for sandwiches or dicing for salads, before the overflow got packed into jars. The largest one in the first picture was well over 2 pounds on the kitchen scale.
The back yard, from the 2nd floor of the garage...
As Lynne said, the gardens have been feeling the stress of 3 weeks straight of 95-100 +/- temps, but there is still a lot of color in what continues to bloom for us. Next is random shots and closeups of various flowers around the yard.
Just a cute shot I came across one morning... the Mushroom Family.
Of course, it's summer, and that means Butterflies and Hummingbirds.
Random shots...
Small worlds came together again last week when an online friend mentioned that the company he works for happened to have him working in the same town we live in for a couple weeks. So, we invited him over last Sunday for a cookout and watch-moreso listen the NASCAR race... We certainly enjoyed Mr. Ironhead's visit, and he now knows he has a standing invite should he have to visit the area again. We don't think he went home hungry after a barbecued beef brisket, Lynne's potato salad, slaw and dinner rolls.
Sure was good to get you over, Ironhead. Thanks!
A couple late evening shots.
I'm not sure what Lynne says to her plants, but she seems to have talked this one lily into growing to a height NC State would love to have as a center on their basketball team~ The lily bloom is about 10 feet above it's ground level.
Kevin, Jenn and Celeste came by 2 weeks ago, and naturally, Celeste was the camera model. Celeste is about to take her first actual walking steps, and they are coming down again this weekend, for a visit and dinner, and return our older cat Simba.
Celeste is on the verge of taking her very first steps all by herself, and if it happens Sunday, we'll have pics to share.
For those who asked, the flowers in Lynne's Birthday 'card'... that picture was taken in an 'as is' situation. The white trumpet shaped flower is the increasingly popular Moonflower 'bush' and a pink poppy that happened to be blooming at the same time. That's exactly how it was. No moving around for the 'perfect' picture, because we know our gardens are far from perfect (yet) :-)
Life is Wonderful here in the Heartland, as summer's passing is just a few weeks off.
