BEES KNEES

on a cool morning, a bee lays its drowsy head on a passiflora lady margaret pillow...

SNOOPY RIP

our beautiful snoopy departed this earthly coil yesterday... he developed a mouth cancer and rapidly declined. he was a "kick ass and take names later" kind of soul, whose love was hard earned, so all the more highly valued. he is missed.

DOWNY WOODPECKER

i've been visited daily by this cute little guy, who can't resist the sunflowers....here he is right-side-up on top of the potager gate...
here he enjoys the new cedar trellis, which we must have put there just for him...

SKIPPERS VISIT; LESPEDEZA BLOOMS

folded wing skipper blends in with sunflower head...gf blends in with marigolds reflected in potager gazing ball...
felt black-eyed susan petals clutch velvety center...
clematis 'roguchi' seed head...
the whippet oversees the late summer proceedings from the deck...
the bees are very excited about the lespedeza blooming...
here is the south side of the house with the lespedeza and crape myrtle blooming...

LICHEN & BUNNY

can't think of a unifying theme today... various things... here's a leaf for sohpie munns...rain beads on a lichen i saw in the woods today very magnified...
bun we spotted trying to break into the potager, i was 10 feet away when i took this...
buh-bye, bunnie...
the potager, which is still producing nicely...
saturday's harvest... the squash is 'fordhook' acorn, a rare variety. i made a soup yesterday, and found the flavor unremarkable, but the texture is pretty good. maybe it will develop better flavor if i let the fruits age more...
gotta have another spider web photo...
bat-winged begonia blooming in the rain... notice how tiny the pot is...
finches enjoy the sunflower seeds...

TRELLIS OF MY DREAMS REALIZED

hubs finally built the trellis of my dreams! miss m was right, a gazing ball was the way to go...here's another detail of the trellis, taken from the deck with the zoom... look ma, no nail holes!
the trellis cost about $200 in materials: 1.5" x1.5"cedar, $150, 0.5" copper pipe, $25, gazing ball, $25 and maybe a little more for the silicone rtv adhesive we used to attach the ball. let's see if the ball stays attached... we did rough it up a bit with sandpaper before glueing.
next spring i'll prune the dwarf spruces to better match the angle of the trellis... does anyone have any ideas of what to grow up it? i'm thinking of an orange peel clematis... your ideas?
meanwhile, the goldfinches are feasting on the sunflowers, but too shy for a close up. sorry this pictures just do not meet up to kerri's.
male on lower left, female on upper right...
female adjusting her position...

and, i harvested the 'shining light' watermelon... which was disappointing (not sweet at all.) i'm going to wait to harvest the others.

BLUE EYED SUSAN

my sister's passiflora 'blue eyed susan,' a gift from our brother, bloomed this week (her photos):
and she has it in such a cute pot!