Wednesday

It's a hot, hot week in Madison, Wisconsin! Yesterday, very late in the day, Ed and I went to play disc golf (where you throw frisbees into distant cages). Just to get in the summer spirit, we both left our shoes behind and romped barefoot in the grass. It was an interesting hour. Though we were there at dinnertime, the heat was intense. The bugs kept us company, though in the open spaces, they (mostly) left us alone. The bees buzzed in the clover and when our discs flew off into the brush, retrieving them was murderous. My sweet partner in crime offered to brave the thicket and go after my misfires. I stayed on the grass and said "thank you" many times.

Early in the morning, the bugs at the farmette were so intense, that I snipped only twenty spent lilies, then said -- "that's enough." But this was my last real struggle. By mid-morning, we have the mosquito control squad here, spraying garlic oil at the periphery and a rosemary oil combo in other corners (making this place smell for a while like an Italian restaurant!) to scare away the vast majority (though not all) of the mosquitoes from farmette lands. Unless there are heavy rains, the mosquitoes will avoid coming back for a good two weeks.

The flower heads are mostly untouched and we are always happy to see butterflies, bees, humming birds and dragonflies (and unfortunately the japanese beetles) hover in the yard despite the pizzeria odor. (The smell does go away after about an hour.)











For now, the mosquitoes have been chased away and I spend many hours today fixing the flower beds in ways that I just couldn't do for the past several weeks.

And they are in their prime right now!

The Big Bed is two sided, meaning against a backdrop of taller flowers, there are blooms to the east...







... and blooms to the west. I suppose its main characteristic is that it's super loooooong!






The other eight beds are more manageable. Well, one of them -- the one by the sheep shed -- is still a work in progress and the front bed -- the one by the road -- suffers terribly from the dumping of salt each winter (here is a combination that I look forward to seeing each July...).






The biggest concentration of day lilies is by the porch. They're just coming into their glorious moment right now. Remember how the porch was flanked by daffodils and lilac in April? Right now it's all about the day lilies (against a backdrop of Monarda to the west)!






As for a favorite lily of the moment? How about this one, from the day lily collection:






And this one from a true lily set:






[Speaking of "fixing" things, we do share your concerns about the growing number of barn cats here. At first there was just Stop Sign. Then came her daughter, Dance. Then Stop Sign got pregnant again and in April she added six kittens to the pack. And now Dance is pregnant. This is, of course, unsustainable. We know that. But having them neutered is a complicated business and the timing has to be correct. We can only catch them one at a time and it's a crap shoot as to who will be the one to enter the trap. This isn't the best month to do it: the kittens are too young (the recommended age is 4 or 5 months; they are just a little over 3 months old). Stop Sign would be a good candidate, but surely Dance is not. Again, we're not ignoring the problem. It's just a wee bit more complicated than it seems.]


Breakfast is on the porch. Hot, but not so hot that we would give up on this beautiful summer morning ritual.






From our vantage point at the table, we look out on this (yep, that's Dance resting her belly on the picnic table):






And there you have it. Summer. In full swing.