Summer Days

And the days of summer drift by. Not having posted in a day or two, there's a surfeit of images, so I'll start with this bouquet and greetings for Feliz Anniversario to our friend Jozi!

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I'm excited to find this favorite discovery from last summer returned. This tiny little perennial put up a single stalk last summer, but this year has five others like this one waiting to bloom. I've been stumped so far in identifying this one...I wonder if its some old form of veronica (that only occurs to me because, across the path, some different blue veronicas are preparing to bloom).

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I've introduced an old railroad spike into the ground between the hydrangeas, in hopes that an iron infusion will deepen the blue of their flowers in the future. Meanwhile, their multi-toned blossoms do make a great back-up for this orange asiatic lily.

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In the back garden, a first pink hollyhock blossom.

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The infinite oregano has begun blooming this week, and its bringing out the bees in force. It's pretty fascinating to watch them all so hard at work.

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The verbena flowers are also attracting attention, like this eager little moth. He was fun to photograph, since he kept hopping around from flowerhead to flowerhead.

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I never expected I might actually capture a shot this clear of him in flight...which isn't really that clear, but I guess it does give you some sense of how fast those wings flutter.

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There's butterfly weed in bloom everywhere in the back garden, as well.

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Finally, the yellow snapdragons begin their show.

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And the purple agastache is joining in, too.

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This flower has the furry stems and foliage of rudbeckia, but might be (based on some of the empty seed packets I've hung on to...) some variety of sunflower. Anyway, the flower's quite cool.

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Down by the ever-rising shore of the pond, I found this cluster of flowers of some kind. They're interesting to look at, a little alien in nature. I'm guessing they're some kind of fungus, but I'll be happy to hear from anyone who knows more than me on the subject.

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Not far away, I also discovered this blue dragonfly.

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