Knockout rose star of the show

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. ~Emma Goldman

I checked the weather forecast for the rest of the week.  A slight chance for rain, clouds and after todays temp of 100, in the high 90's.  Other areas of the country have too much rain and we are praying for any moisture at all.
My gardening enthusiasm has waned and I don't even want to pull weeds that have sprung up full grown, I swear!! Where do they all come from? I have a great tool called a shuffle hoe, that is great for fighting weeds in a standing position in the gravel path. 

That said, I am slowly, slowly getting used to my Bloggie.  One problem?  It will get hot in my hand if I take more than 10  pictures while the temperatures are so high.  I am shopping on line for another as I think if I had a second one, I could get a few more shots in before I get too hot. Conversely, the camera also doesn't like cold temperatures.
This thing takes fantastic pictures!  Especially if I wear glasses to view the shot first.  I think a lot of my "blurry" shots were due to my vision and hand shake.
These pictures are less grainy due to my learning a simple (duh) fact.  The more pixels, the sharper the image.  Helps to read the manual................

This is my version of Facebook.  I want to be able to come to my blog and recall the fun and frustration of learning to take pictures.

A profusion of pink roses bending ragged in the rain speaks to me of all gentleness and its enduring. ~The Collected Later Poems of William Carlos Williams

Getting the hang of my camera

Don't forget to click on photo for larger views

"All your renown is like the summer flower that blooms and dies; because the sunny glow which brings it forth,soon slays with parching power."

-  Alighieri Dante

Today is Saturday,   yesterday was odd with cloud cover keeping temperature down until late afternoon. Still with humidity at 80%  sweated a lot.  Today will be 99. The  breeze was cool and I had every intention of working on the weeds and watering. The bees were busy and I went in the house and got the Sony Bloggie camera. It is getting easier to capture what I want

 My son would be so proud. He kept telling me to just take pictures and it will get easier.

Hotter than the dickens

It pleases me to take amateur photographs of my garden, and it pleases my garden to make my photographs look professional.  ~Robert Brault,

 Yesterday, I decided that instead of fretting and mulching and watering and sweating, I would do something fun.

Knockout rose that gets no attention.

Same bush, pale petals and dying leaves, wow

 My garden is my favorite teacher.  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon,

 

My red Knockout rose. I have to move these plants to a friendlier location!

It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening.  You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not.  ~W.C. Sellar & R.J. Yeatman, Garden Rubbish, 1936

Butterflies

Don't forget to click on the photo for larger view

I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border.  I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error.  ~Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988

Today is Wednesday

I think this is the first day in weeks I have not spent at least a few hours taking pictures.  It gets too hot too soon! 102 for today.

Fingers now scented with sage and rosemary, a kneeling gardener is lost in savory memories.  ~Dr. SunWolf


 I have a memory of rosemary several years ago, quite a few in fact.  The stories are not intertwined in the memory, but every time I brush the plant in my garden, memories come flooding back.

Years ago, hubby and I drove to Fredericksburg on the bluebonnet trail.  While walking about in a park in the city, I spotted a bush and wandered over to it.  I didn't even know what it was, but determined I would have one.
It was the beginning of my love affair with rosemary.  I have a plant of one sort or another since then.

In the midst of this writing, hubby came in and told me that the Lantana was full of butterflies.  Well, what can I say?  He watched the spectale while I took pictures. Probably of the same butterfly as yesterday.

 

Coffee.  Garden.  Coffee.  Does a good morning need anything else?  ~Betsy Cañas Garmon, 

In less than 15 minutes, I had several lovely pictures. Not like a week ago when I was struggling to catch one!

This is the ubiquitous flower that has captured the butterflies

No let up in heat

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.  ~Mrs. C.W. Earle, Pot-Pourri from a Surrey Garden,

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Don't forget to click on picture for larger view.

"You are the kind of FRIEND who would overlook my broken fence to admire my flowers."
 

Gardening is not a rational act. ~Margaret Atwood

Heat or no heat (100+), I have become so compulsive with picture taking and puzzle solving of flowers on our place.

The above caused a bit of a stir for my sister and me, trying to decide just what this plant is.  Her knowledge base is, interestingly, above the Mason Dixon line.  It seems that plants get different names in different area?
Anyway, after several e-mails back and forth, I have decided it is the Maximilan sunflower. It has an ancient history.  It also has several spellings. I am not the only one who ponders how many l's is correct.

A happy accident, don't know what the little critter is

 Yesterday, I sat out in a semi shady spot by the Lantana in the front yard. It is a large plant now and butterflies and bees are on it.  Too bad they wait to go looking for food in the HEAT of the day.  Two hours of many, many pictures and much sweating, I left them to their feeding.

Giant Swallowtail

Two in one shot! Don't know the name of the one with the folded wings

This is probably one of the Fritillaries

 One more surprise that I have to mention!  Wandering around yesterday morning, I heard a thud on the ground close to me.  Voila! A peach.  Birds and insects found it probably way up in the top of the tree. There was enough meat on it for a bite for me and one to share.  It sure brought back memories of last July and the miraculous bounty of peaches.

August ..... heat.....pattern?

One day I shall burst my bud of calm and blossom into hysteria.

Funny thing, July was hot and not too hot, and rainy.  I hoped we had skated by the weather gods this year.
Not so.  The remains of this week, this is Thursday, over 100 every day.  This was the time of year last year that the rabbits came in to chomp the coneflowers to nubs.  I remember well, on a day that reached 108, my grandson was visiting from Illinois and seemed content to stay inside and play with those new gadgets I cannot get my mind around and visit with grandpa.
He came inside after a bit of leg stretch in the yard and said "Grandma, did you know you have rabbits eating your flowers?"
Bless his heart, he heard words from his grandma I am sure he didn't think I knew.

Hubby had purchased me my very own pink bb gun.  Grandson and gun patrolled the area and mostly just scared the begeebers  out of the bunnies.  While I, on the other hand, proceeded to round up some chicken wire, any sort of post I could find, edging, rocks, and cable ties

I frantically, and a little madly, threw up a crazy looking fence and secured the bottom with edging and rocks.
The fence worked for the rest of the summer to protect the young plants that were for some odd reason growing.  It may have been watering that germinated the dormant seeds, or even roots..........

That was then, this is now. 102 today, Friday.


It is utterly forbidden to be half-hearted about gardening. 
You have got to love your garden whether you like it or not.  

On top of the heat, I am having camera problems. Actually battery problems.  Ooops! I learned  today my Nikon requires a battery charger that does not plug into the camera.  $30.00, a spare battery at Best Buy (what was I thinking?) $40.00.  On line, $26 .00 .

No such thing as jumping in the car and picking up a spare!

All this aside, my son gave me a Sony Bloggie camera that I am not crazy about. Out of desperation this morning, (I have become obsessed with taking pictures of the bees)  I dug out the Bloggie and took this.

 
What can I say?

PS: I want to thank those of you who took the time to comment.  I appreciate your kind words.