Oh Summer summer summer…
The thick clouds finally rolled in threatening monsoon season.
Dinner plate dahlias hang around, bobbing in the heat, begging for a drink.
Caterpillars munch heart shaped morning glory leaves into lace.
I love watching caterpillars eat my leaves.
So many butterflies are now coasting in the breeze.
I've filled my arbors with my pine cone zinnias.
They have totally held up and fill the flower void, as the roses on this arbor only bloom once a year.
(make your own zinnias here)
The cosmos have grown taller and taller for months and are just about to explode.
Large blooms too.
My garden gets most of its flowers in late summer and fall.
The most curious thing has been happening.
Large insects have met their demise right before my eyes.
I had to pull over to save one the size of my fist that hit my car wind shield.
Then…
This one fluttered out of the sky, twirling to the ground as I walked out of a shop last week.
So, I brought him home.
I placed him in my collection of bugs I have found already dead.
Poor thing.
I was amazed at the double wing structure.
I love my dead bugs.
Also…
It's officially official now.
The pumpkin patch 2015 is really finito for sure.
The leaves started to come back from the first javelina feast, then 3 nights ago the javelinas slammed their bodies into the fence until they busted it again, desperation is incredible, and finished it off. Even pulling vines down from above the domed garden enclosure.
So, there you have it.
I'm not upset about it at all.
I don't know why, I'm just not.
I normally would have sobbed.
Alas, such is life.
I'm am happy to be eating basil though.
Basil is everything summer to my heart.
The scent of purest summer days.
Waiting for monsoons.
Day after scorching day until finally…….
They explode.
In fact I tried to get here yesterday but we lost power until late night.
So, I was finally able to sneak in today.
The poor dry earth was begging for rain.
If you are wondering about mud, here is something interesting.
Our soil is very sandy, so the water just absorbs as though it was never there and mud is a rare sight around my place. Interesting no?
I love watching the storm from the front garden porch.
My flower garden is in the front yard, so I get to watch rain on mountains and in garden from the deck.
Of course I was dancing in those glorious showers, as you can imagine.
Watching all the growing things smile and take big breaths of bliss.
Just magical desert rain I tell ya.
It got very wild for a while.
I posted videos on instagram, if you fancy a peak.
Cisterns overflowing…
Followed by the most spectacular sunset in brilliant candy pink.
The power was out so I played the piano by candlelight to bide the time in the dark.
I love that sort of summer drama.
Wind whipping around.
Hail and giant water droplets.
Losing power.
It's just all so exciting when it happens.
It's actually just raining now again, so I'm typing really fast.
Because I'm pretty sure we may lose power again.
I love love love the rain after 90 days of pure heat.
Dreammmy!!
How's life out in your neck of the woods?
Fill me in, won'tcha?
Looove, V
Blessings to you, dear Vanessa. I’m jealous as here on the other side of the world we are cold and still in winter. I long for the long sunny days you are enjoying. Happy days to you. Rachel. New Zealand.
In Florida we’ve had nothing BUT rain for over 14 days and with severe flooding, too. I’ll gladly send some of it your way. Sadly, there’s nothing but more rain in my forecast. Mother Nature needs a serious TIME OUT/GROUNDING. I am going to Comicon on Saturday and am praying that the skies stay clear, or at least during my walk to the building and to the car afterward. ‘;)
There’s a lot of heat here in Western Greece but it’s bearable. I loved reading about the rain over at your place and seeing your plants relishing at the coolness and freshness of it. Drnking the water after so long in the sun and heat must have been wonderful for them… Sunny kisses to you my dear 🙂
As always, thank you for the magic!
So very magical! I can smell the rain through your post, and it fills me with joy. Thank you for sharing your lovely rainy magic with us.
Vanessa, will Halloween be called off if there are no Pumpkins? : (
Will there be a pumpkin shopping expedition?
Not just any old pumpkins will do for The Great Halloween Party!
Here in the UK it’s supposed to be midsummer, but although we had about a week of perfect weather (close to, but not over 80 so it was perfect for working in the garden. Since then we’ve had torrential rain and chilly weather. I’ve spent the last few days snuggled under a duvet on my daybed, doing my CQ and embroidery. The garden has taken quite a battering, but most things seem to have survived. Our veggies are growing like mad, and we have far too many courgettes (zucchini) but we’ve frozen a load ready for winter. We’re buying raised beds for next year’s veggies, so I can help out. The rest of the garden we’ve given over to wild flowers and annuals that don’t need much looking after, and attract bees, birds and butterflies. It’s taken 3 years, but I think that by next year the garden will be much closer to my dream
DeLovely, all of it. Especially the first shot of the rain hitting the Cistern. I love that one. I also like your dead bug collection. My Bad Alice and her Madd Hatter have a strange collection of things that died naturally including two tiny bats. It think of it more as honoring the creatures, rather than macabre. I take great comfort in seeing that all is well on your little mountain. I still have some garden items for you from my old home.
**blows kisses**
Deborah
I’ve been totally memorized by your IG feed. I’m sorry about your pumpkin patch loss. As a fellow Halloween obsessed person who can’t grow pumpkins due to our deer population, I always was in awe with your patch. I’m glad you are ok with it. Thinking about Halloween and looking forward to autumn posts too.
I’m so sorry to hear about your pumpkins but I love your attitude. I would definitely have cried my eyes out. We are having an interesting storm just now. Lots of thunder and lightning and little spurts of hard rain. Enjoy your rain and have a wonderful night.
love & blessings
~*~
The photos of rain look so refreshing. And that sunset photo is unreal! I tell ya! It looks straight out of Alice in Wonderland with the blue shadow of the cottage and the pink sky. Magical sweetness!
But your poor pumpkins! Oh dear!
I will be having a new computer so I won’t be online for a while as everything gets transferred from my old one to the new. It will be worth it as I will have faster internet speed. But the down-time is the bummer.
And the poor Hummingbird Moth (as that is what some reference books say). I thought it was the Sphinx Moth too. They are such beautiful flying creatures. And to drop out of the sky…what is going on in nature that everything seems to be frantic or dying? We still desperately need rain here too. My Hydrangeas have not bloomed because they have not had the live-giving, nourishing rain water. They have only the chlorinated/ammonia ‘polluted’ water from our municipal wells from our drip system twice a week which isn’t enough to sustain flowers. Yuk! And I bathe in that stuff! Ewwwee!
Busy as a bee here, with helping take care of grandkids, exhausting but fun too.
Never a dull moment.
hugs,
Miss Teresa
Why does your rain look so much prettier than ours? We have had a lot of rain and storms.
We have been busy with veggies from the garden. I’ve been trying new recipes for canning tomatoes. So sorry about your pumpkin plants.
Love the pictures.
It is just plain HOT in Portland, OR. We are not use to it, as we usually have a drizzle or two and 70-80 degrees. 100 degrees is too much, but we are getting lots of pumpkins.
That is a wonderful moth. I too collect dead bugs. My daughter taxidermizes animals that we come across already dead. Why let something so amazing go to waste if you can enjoy it’s beauty. It kind of prolongs it’s life, by being useful and inspiring.
The lace that the caterpillars leave behind is also quite nice.
Such beautiful pictures! Love the zinnias in the bush, the moths and the picture of water splashing off a barrel.
I, too, am in awe of bugs! I don’t have a collection of them…yet…you’ve got me thinking. Gorgeous capture of the rain! Send some over please! 😉 Summer drama at its best where you are! xoxoxoxo Jen
Rainy, rainy, here, Vanessa… I’m so sorry about the lovely pumpkin patch…we have had the same results here from moles… (sigh). Such is life, I guess. You are after my own heart with the insects! I have always loved them, to the chagrin of my oldest daughter, and the delight of my youngest son…(going to be a junior at Southeast University, majoring in Wildlife/Conservation… ) 😉
Hugs,
Anne and the Kittehs