Saturday, July 18, 2015

the new normal

July is so abundant! When I look at the grocery shelves, I'm in awe. So much fruit, so many veggies! How can you sample it all? And of course, when I look out on my flower fields, I have that some sense of explosive growth.

It is the month of the daylily. Such a curious flower -- bloom a day and be done. One day, that's all you get. But oh, is it a day of beauty!


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Does the frog know to get off before the flower wilts and folds in, taking away his resting place?


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The lilies in great masses aren't as spectacular  as some of the other flowers. For one thing, if you don't pick off the spent blooms, there's a lot of dangling nonsense from the stems.

Today, I gently force myself inside the main  bed just by the front porch and deadhead the lilies.


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And I stake some of the asters and the sunflower-like heliopsis.


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It is wonderful working in the yard without the threat of a rooster.


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The girls follow me around (Isis is still cautious when they get too close to him)...


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... and honestly, despite the stickiness of the summer heat and the occasional appearance of mosquitoes (we are having a relatively tame summer so far as far as they're concerned!), it is a most wonderful morning.

Breakfast? Yes, of course, somewhere in there we have a porch breakfast. Yes, sublime. It always is.


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In the afternoon I play with Snowdrop.


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Storms pass through, but we find a window for a walk.


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... By our lakes. I look at them with different eyes now. A boat at the edge of a storm, a duck on the water -- the Adirondack recollections are still very fresh, very vivid.


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In the evening, Ed suggests we go out for dinner. No -- it's a kind thought, but I'm very tied to the farmette right now. By the end of the day, I want to stay within her folds.

... with my flowers, hens, and popsicle loving guy. Hey, at least I made these -- watermelon popsicles, easy breezy recipe found here.


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