Butterflies

I  am now spending part of the night in  my kitchen recliner. After about 3-5 hours, I  wake up and feel  stiff and sore and change to the chair and  it goes away.  Strange, but it works.  Usually I go back  to sleep very quickly but often read a while first.  It may not be the deep sleep the doctor says I must have but it is  working for me.  His muscle relaxants were useless.

For some reason yesterday I saw three varieties of butterflies on the zinnias.  I  tried my best to get some shots but they were almost too fast for me.

This is a Spicebush Swallowtail:

and this is only the second Monarch I have seen, missed getting the open wings,

and a Tiger Swallowtail:




and this morning was the real stunner.  I saw dozens of them.  I did my best but it was none too good.  I haven't mastered this new little Canon.

They made my day! 

I managed about an hour of outside work this morning.  I think I have finally finished the front ditch on both sides of the drive.  They are not photo worthy.  I have just trimmed/mowed/sprayed all weeds but some perennial and ground covers.  The goal is to have all good plants so that I can just let it go and do its thing!  I have enough plants that should do well in that environment (I hope).

I see out the window my poor Long Island Cheese plant is wilting in the hot sun and that is with a l inch rain two days ago.

The beetles seem to be fewer.....but I still find them on the roses and rose of sharon.  I am  at the squishing and drowning stage with them.

First Week of August

We are getting a light shower this morning. The heavier rains seem to be missing us.  We are grateful for all we get.

Catch up time on the farm

We finally got the entire farm brush hogged.  They put up some hay but it was so late, the quality wasn't good so we decided to just clip (brush hog) pastures and buy hay if we need it.  We did have some carryover from last year.  We hired the work because we don't have an air-conditioned tractor and the heat has been really bad with extremely high humidity.

Yard and Garden

Not much exciting to talk about.  We are getting lots of cucumbers and a few tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.  Also some greenbeans.  The Japanese Beetles have been a constant challenge.  They seem to like everything.  So far, they haven't bothered tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers or herbs.  They are voracious on almost all ornamentals and fruit trees.

Speaking of fruit, the varmint got all the pears yet again.  I did manage a few peaches that I used to make jam.  I bought a 1/2 bushel from a nearby orchard and froze them.  I will also buy apples next month.

Household

During the first year of owning my Frigidaire range, white streaks appeared between the glass on the oven door.  I couldn't clean them since they were inside.  I just hated seeing those streaks.
One serviceman told  me I would just have to live with it since a new door would cost a $l000 or more and that was the only solution.  Well recently the oven went out and when the serviceman came I mentioned that I almost bought a new range just the get rid of that awful door.  He told  me just to clean it!  I was stunned.  He said to just take the door apart that it was not insulated with a seal.  Well, I did it; it was a simple thing and voila! a new clean door,

I haven't taken any photos for a few days but here are some taken recently:

I have mentioned how I can't bear to pull up a good plant......this is from my Halloween pumpkin of (I think last year or maybe the year before).  I placed a few on  a bale of straw by the screened porch.....a seed germinated (I just left them to decompose).

and it is bearing fruit,

Another FYI, my BIL told me the sunflower seeds used in bird feed would be sterile; wrong!

and the little yellow canaries are already perching upside down to eat the immature seeds,

This is my zinnia bed run amok,

These were from packages of cheap seeds on sale from the hardware.  I see some colors are missing.  Next year I will buy them by the  color.

Notice  the tomato plant at the front edge.....It is doing gangbusters, but no fruit yet.