Breathe

The other day, Jenn wondered what it might look like inside the sunflower blossom, and so this morning, I was able to catch a couple closer shots of this latest yellow mammoth, as context for this very busy bumbler. Each of them should get a bit bigger if you click.

I think one of the things that fascinates me about looking close at the sunflower is that you realize that what we think of as the flower is actually a whole garden of tiny flowers, arranged in a ring.

Those big yellow petals are like flags, landing strip markers...something to indicate to the pollinators that there's something wonderful here. It does seem there is never a sunflower without some busy bee digging diligently through it.



Just about every morning lately, the two Super Sweet 100 plants have been providing me a handful of tasty cherry tomatoes as a breakfast-y snack while I'm exploring the border. I think that's actually why I like having them out there. Convenient snacking while gardening.

I suppose there are worse reasons to choose a plant. When I am patient enough to let these little beauties get to that perfectly deep red shade, they are a rich sweet mouthful of Wow.

The portulaca isn't blooming quite as steadily as it had earlier in the season, though the six little plants I bought have grown into a lovely tangled cloud of succulent foliage around the base of my Flower sign.

Perhaps part of the problem is that they are now a bit shaded by giant sunflowers, corn, sulphur cosmos and cleome. But every now and then, there's a rosy little blossom to enjoy.

And in the category of Things For Enjoying, the clematis vine on the lamp post, which is now almost entirely a study in frilly seedheads, has this morning presented one more purply-blue flower.

One of the things I love best about August is that the dragonflies don't seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere. In July, they flit about, exploring the world, getting to know one another, eating their share of the more annoying insects. Dragonfly business. It's nearly impossible to get a good photo of them.

But then August arrives and I suppose we all slow down just a little, or want to. And if you want a good dragonfly photo, that's exactly what you have to do.

This little dragonfly perched on a dried daylily stalk along the walk in the back yard late this morning, seeming to enjoy a peaceful moment to soak in the warm sunshine.

It was one of those mornings where the sun seemed to come and go a little, fading now and then behind a bit of cloud, it's color and brightness ebbing and flooding like the wash of the tide. There was an easy rustle of trees and their leaves as the wind seemed to do the same thing, the tide becoming long, deep breaths.

Today, the dragonfly wasn't just enjoying a quiet August moment. I felt like he'd stopped by with a message for me. Something about being still and steady now and then, and remembering to take the time to enjoy the warmth of the sun.

And to breathe.

Sunday Garden Report

I have completed the Dragonfly Trifecta!

In July, Patrick danced with dragonflies and Joe had cocktails with one. Today, one of these garden visitors decided to stop teasing me and posed on the faded head of a plantain flower. And what a chance to see what the new camera could do.

Do click to embiggen and admire those wings!

Yes, there's a new camera. It's been a tax-free weekend here in Massa chusetts and I'd been saving up some money saved from not smoking (30 days today!!) and such since my old camera went on to its reward back in the spring.

So now I'm experimenting with something new, an Olympus FE-310. So far, I'm having a great time with it, though I'm not sure I'm interested in the photo program that came along with the camera...my PhotoPlus 6.0 does all I need it to for developing purposes.


The first tentative photos were taken at that house party I visited last night. To the left are Vera and Chicao, two of our hosts...and down below is the whole bunch of us.

There had been other guests earlier, whom I unfortunately missed, but it was still fun to hang out for a while with everyone who was there when I arrived after a long night at work. Good tunes, a little dancing and Vera's special Brazilian potato salad!

Mmm mmm.


Here's me with Maria Paolo, Rocio and Katerin, who are all here on work visas from Columbia this summer.

By day, they are working as chamber maids, but in the evenings, the make the best team trio of dishwashers our restaurant has known in years! Plus, they're funny and sweet and great to party with!!


Despite the late night (it was around 2 a.m. when those pictures were taken!), I was up pretty early this morning, since I couldn't wait to get the new camera out for a spin in the garden.

A fresh round of bachelor's buttons provided some nice camera fodder. These little flowers - each one's about an inch across - just keep coming and coming...and in a great assortment of colors.




I just love the blue ones, but there are many of them up and down the fence garden. Naturally, I'm being won over by the purple ones in the color range, which were part of a range of about five different colors, so they are fewer in number.


The dappled sunlight behind this pair of purple pals is pretty delicious, too.



There's lots to learn about the new camera, so eventually I will have to sit down and have some quality time with the manual, to make sure I'm making full use of everything.

But I'm happy to say that its also pretty intuitive, and I've been having fun exploring some of the different settings.

As you might guess, my favorite, and one of the most appropriate to the Midnight Garden, is the macro-focus...and this camera also has a super-macro focus, and to celebrate I managed to stalk a few bees who were visiting the border this morning for your entertainment.


As you can see, sunshine made a full return to the Cape today and it really felt like summer. Looks like that'll be staying with us a for a few days, which is a comfort, since it's clear now the summer season is in decline.

In a moment typical of the sort of Charlie Brown-y moments which punctuate my life, last night I finally discovered my official cocktail for the 2008 Summer Season.


It's light and refreshing and mellow enough to enjoy more than one without falling down on my face. Being a frozen drink, the only real danger is a brain freeze from speedy consumption.

And no sooner did I victoriously hoist that Midori Colada in the air than leaves began falling from nearby trees, signalling the end of the season.

; )



Howdy, pardners! Life brought a straw cowboy hat my way this afternoon at work, when we hosted the annual un-birthday celebration of a local family.

This year's theme was cowboys and they were all appropriately attired, a wonderful Cape Cod mix of cowboy boots and flip-flops...and there were hats for all the staff who worked the party, too!

And just in time for Carnival Parade.

As I tried out the zoom feature, I caught this sunset-illuminated jet plane high overhead. It was flying east, out over the ocean, so I assume it was an international flight, though it occurs to me it might just have been circling around to approach Logan Airport in Boston from that direction.

In between pictures, I managed some serious dead-heading of the garden tonight. As always, lots of spent marigolds to remove, some more allyssum to trim back...a few faded bachelor's buttons here and there.

More of the daisies had gone past, so they were taken out and some of the coneflower rudbeckia was thinned a little, to encourage some late season reblooming.

I also took shears in hand and addressed the business of the now- tower ing spikes of evening primrose, pruning them back to something lower growing.

We'll see how well they respond to this sort of treatment; my suspicion is they will get bushy and stay a little shorter--I wish I'd thought to cut them back earlier in the season.

Once again, I unwound a great many morning glory vines around the re-captured flags on the fence, so for at least the next few hours, they should be able to flap with abandon on the occasional sea-breeze.


With nightfall coming just a little sooner, the deadheading turned into lighting candle lanterns in the garden and before long it was dark, leaving me free to head inside to sample that first Early Girl tomato.

There were two, actually, but I discovered that the second one had a nasty patch of mold growing on the bottom of it, so that one was jettisoned, but this one sliced nicely and was very tasty.

It would've made a nice tomato sandwich - the kind I've been craving all summer - if I had remembered that we had no bread in the house. But it was yummy just as it was...and tomorrow I'll make sure I'm stocked up to make a proper sandwich with the next couple in the harvest schedule.

It's not quite a full moon anymore--that was last night, but that just means I have a whole month to figure out how to take a great moon photo (no wisecracks, you lot...oh, ha ha...cracks...yah, whatever...) with the camera.

This one's not bad, but you can't see Jackie Gleason's face.

Macrofocus

It was a lovely golden day, more like a day in September or August, except for the angled rays of the sun. Warm, too, but with steady breezes, which made working out there a bit easier. An extra blessing came when the forecast afternoon rains didn't arrive until evening.

A pink dianthus makes merry in the late season.

Here's a dragonfly basking on the old van seat in the back garden. Later, I tried to capture a shot of him poised on some oregano seedheads, but as I pushed the button, he took to the air and landed on the back of my hand for a nice close-up. And here's the universe reminding me to sometimes just enjoy the beauty for myself and not always try to share it with everyone.

Isn't it interesting how the color of the imperial mum completely changes in evening shade. It's like a different flower altogether.

I love the contrast of the yellow and green peach tree foliage and the way they glowed in the sinking sunglow.

I've been away from both blog and garden for the most part this week, as I'm working on a "secret photography" project, which has me sorting through all sorts of CDs and boxes of files for pics from the last eleven years.

I'll try to hit you up with some highlights when all's said and done, but for the moment, I'm racing against a deadline...not nearly as relaxed as this dragonfly on the screen door this afternoon.

September Sunshine

As the calendar page turned, the rain clouds slipped off shore and it was a beautiful day.

On plastic pond shores, frogs basked.

The late-seeded cosmos are coming into bloom, like this pale pink one.

And the morning glories, finally begun, continue their daily show.

A reminder of the sliding season, the Autumn Joy sedum began its pale blooming today.

Temperatures were cooler today, in the mid-sixties. But the sunshine was still warm enough for a little sunbathing, as this dragonfly will attest.

Red dragonfly on rust. 

Dragonfly at Rest

Dragonfly rests on a morning glory seedpod. 

Red Dragonfly

 


 

Busy Sunday in Garden City

Daisy hosts. 

Susan with a Green Fly. 

A late appearance from a rescued lupine. 

 

Dragonfly chills on a Milkweed plant.