Hot Wednesday

With the forecast calling for the start of a bit of a heat wave for us, I was out in the garden extra early this morning, tending to some maintenance issues on this day off.

Before I could get started though, I was pleased to find these pink tiger lilies opening up by morning's early light. They would normally be taller, but came to the garden sort of late this year, so they are only about eight inches tall.

No stunting of their blossoms, though!

Here's a nice close-up of one of those multi-hued hydrangeas outside the kitchen door.

After taking some pictures, I got to work, deadheading the garden beds, mowing the paths and the back yard and then giving everything a nice deep watering before the sun rose any higher.


The purple beebalm is so much more prolific than the red that I've planted. Not only does it climb to about five feet before branching into these lovely purply-pink flowers, but I've divided it a number of times in the few years since I've known it, and it's constantly making more.

I found this little garden snake cuddling up to the coiled garden hose when watering time came. He was gone pretty quickly, too.


Pink snapdragon, up close.

Down below, a pollinator of some variety makes the final approach toward the latest of the dayflowers.


A new calendula bud unfurls in the morning light.

As morning turns to afternoon, this big bumblebee makes a visit to the fading drumstick alliums.

Afternoon found me hooking up with Lori, Sebastian and Vickie for a few holes of minigolf at Pirates Cove in Yarmouth. Here's the head pirate himself. That's his first mate to the left.


It was indeed a hot afternoon(humid, too!), but climbing through the caves and around the waterfalls of the course helped us find some sweet relief.

It helped, too, to know that Dairy Queen was in our post-game future. It turns out those Turtle Waffle Bowl Sundaes are as nice as they look on television.

Down below, another self-portrait by a guest photographer.