Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Summer's Flying By

The seasons are changing again. Yes, it's still quite warm, summer will technically be summer until the end of September, but the air is different now, the nights are different. I'm not looking forward to the coming fall and winter. Let's enjoy the sights of summer while they're all around us! All photos clickable to enlarge.

This small Monarch butterfly has been visiting my zinnias recently.

I planted bright magenta morning glories this year instead of the blue variety. They're just starting to flower, and like the cool nights of September and October more than the wilting heat of summer.

My now almost nine-year-old "annual" begonia is doing really well in this humid, rain-filled summer.

None of the sunflower seeds I planted this season came up, but this "volunteer" from last year is more than 8-feet tall.

A wild sumac is flowering on Pink Gardens' property.

The "bleu-cheese" pumpkins are flowering quite regularly now, but have yet to develop any fruit. Yes, that's a bee in the center of this blossom. All of our squashes and pumpkins have the same color flowers, no matter what variety they are. Their shapes vary slightly, however.

A pink zinnia glowing on the east side of the vegetable garden. They're so bright and saturated with color it's almost impossible for my camera to capture them.

Black-eyed Susans in the front yard of the house. It has been a VERY buggy year. Every blossom and leaf of every flower and vegetable in the yard has been bitten, eaten and spit out, lol. We keep an organic yard, so no pesticides are used. We just have to think of it as growing a colorful salad bar for nature's creatures, large and small.

One of the strangest variety of Petunias I've ever seen. They're chartreuse and pink, and the blossoms vary from almost solid pink, to solid chartreuse, to pinwheels of both colors. This is a single plant! The flowers are so thin and fragile that if an insect even flies by, they rip and tear. It's planted alongside bright orange single marigolds, a purple tradescanthia, and a pale pink Verbena, which isn't visible in this photo.

11 comments:

  1. YOUR FLOWERS BRING LIFE BACK INTO MY HOME. I DO PRAY YOUR FEELING ALOT BETTER AND BACK TO WHAT YOU LOVE MOST. [ME] J/K FOLK J/K.

    BIG HUGS AND STAY ON COURSE TO BETTER HEALTH. YOU KNOW YOU HAVE FRIENDS THAT LOVE YOU.

    GRANNY

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  2. Beautiful flowers, Casey.

    Good to see you up and posting. Hope you are on the mend.

    Hello Granny !

    Andy
    Malibu

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  3. HI MALIBU, SO GLAD TO SEE YOU HERE TODAY. SEE CASEY A COUPLE OF YOUR OLD GANG ARE HERE CHECKING ON YOU.

    GRANNY

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  4. Hi Woody, Andy and Granny,
    Still not 100% but working on it. At least with all the rain we've had I haven't had to water the gardens. That's a lot of work I don't have to do right now.

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  5. Your yard is incredible.

    Barry

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  6. Can't pick a favorite - the garden is beautiful.

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  7. I always enjoy the butterfly pics. We don't see them so often in the city.

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  8. Thanks, Barry! Flowers have been very important to me since a very early age.

    No need to pick favorites, Annie, I can't decide when I'm looking at the real ones either.

    I hope you had a good vacation, Ish!

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  9. As always, I adore the pictures and will add them to my "flower slideshow" on my pone...
    Know that I am thinking of you often and pray you have a quick recovery...
    mare

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  10. Yes, I feel the air is different too! My neighbor's tree has already turned brown, and the leaves are dropping. I don't know what kind it is, but it goes from green directly to brown, and by early September it's naked.
    I love the chartreuse petunias!
    I'm glad you are feeling better.
    Love you.

    Debbie

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