lily lie lay, lily lie loh..

 What a mess!

 

 

(Are you going to feed us, or snip lilies first?)

 

 

Sigh... I'll feed you. But what a mess!

 

 

 

In the end it was 2217. That is the snipped lily count this morning. Ed comments: that's a lot of lilies and that's an awful lot of counting! Of course, he is correct. But the burden is in snipping along with mosquitoes and, too, giving that much time to it when time is scarce. It's not in the counting. I like the rhythm of numbering them. It's very meditative. I'd even call it soothing and relaxing were it not for the bugs. 

Naturally, that tally is inflated because I did not snip lilies yesterday and only did a third of them the day before. Nonetheless, it does tell me that we are still in the high numbers -- close to a thousand per day. 

It's been a really great day lily season! (The true lilies, on the other hand, have suffered. Many gardeners have complained about the lily leaf beetle invasion and sure enough, the beetles have hit my orientals. You can spray them weekly to ward off the pests but I'm not going to do that. I'll just avoid them in future plantings.)

Cleaned up flower fields:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (that's better!)

 

  

 

 

So many lilies! So why are you putting in more? -- Ed asks. 

Well, these lilies arrived in the mail and they wont do anything this year but they will fill in some bare spots next year. We dug out a bush -- a bare spot was created! I am spineless when my favorite lily company sends me tempting emails with sales and very pretty new colors.  So, I have as a goal to plant my last plantings for the summer: 7 more lilies.

But first, breakfast.

And that snipping, which I had interrupted because I so needed my cup of coffee! And finally, planting.

 

The young family is here for dinner tonight and I just have to get some fresh corn. Our farmer down the road is late this year so I high tail it over to Eugster' s, where Primrose and I last shopped for corn. You may well ask me -- why not stock up then? Wouldn't Friday's corn be good for a Sunday dinner? Well no. When you live in the middle of corn country, you really get hooked on the Stradivarius of corns. Two day old corn, even from a fine corn grower is like settling for a Tonarelli when you can have a Stradivarius. Really, corn picked the same day is at height of excellence. None can compare.

Here they come.

Dinner, outside...

And then I am spent. I haven't yet caught up on rest and of course, garden work is... work. So yes, tired, but very very content. Happy. Grateful.

with so much love...