Wren up date and summer is here

We still have infrequent night visiting wrens.  Most of the time I don't even obsessively watch the dusk deepen in hopes to catch tiny bird settling in for the night.
These bits of nature are what keeps me interested if not actually as garden crazed as when temps are below 80°.

Summer is hard on us all. Aging knees, back or hands seem to be a good excuse to put off quick dressing and slipping out before hubby wakes.

That said, there are still things of beauty in the garden.

Summer 2015

Another essay I forgot to finish.  Since this writing, the zinnia has given up.  The tough Artemisia that comes back year after year may not. Had moved a number of sprouts to pots and the pots got so hot, I think the roots cooked?

Tiny tough zinnia are about the only blooming thing in garden

 The good thing is; the house inside is clean because too hot to work outside.The bad thing is; the house inside is clean because too hot to work outside.  Texangardener.

 I just came inside from what remains of my gardens.  I am fighting a losing battle and still cannot seem to just let it all die.  Maybe this morning, a bit more of my brain woke up.  Here I was, sweating 80° and not a breath of air stirring.  Coughing from allergic reaction to one of many dying weeds. The air feels thick with dust or pollen?

"Why am I even out here?"  came to mind when I stood up with a heavy watering can in my hand and felt sharp pain in lower back.
"This is hopeless."  So I wiped the sweat from my eyes and came inside.  Even though it is overcast this morning and easier for me to work out there, other things are waiting to be done.  All the crafty things unfinished, all the sewing waiting, all the mending waiting.

All gardeners face this situation at some time in their lives.  It can be anything from hail, flooding, insects, rodents, and even a tornado or illness.

We get sad, we get mad.  We rail at nature, critters and sometimes God.  The garden is still dead.

My plan before it gets to hot (106°  this afternoon), I am going to go to Hobby Lobby and buy some pretty artificial flowers for a basket.

Butterfly weed survived spring rains, lost all its leaves and came back.  Losing its leaves again.

 “Summer has set in with its usual severity.” » Samuel Taylor Coleridge

If I was smart, I would just raise zinnias.  This is one small plant and still has buds

Time to do some planning for garden design.  Who knows, I may even look at the garden magazines for ideas.  Unfortunately most of the magazines I have are for northern climates.  We cannot even be called desert here in North Texas.

Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones. ~Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir

Early morning after rainy yesterday

Yesterday was a damp and sometimes sudden downpour kind of day.  I think I
have taken enough pictures of zinnias and then my obsession kicks in.
These are some I have edited to share here.



 The grasses are Ravenna grass
that looked so sad this spring. A little faith, fertilizer and rain and it is a good background!



Click on a picture to enlarge.
Enjoy!

Even dying, zinnias are so photogenic

I am not sure how I got this one. A combination of dew and a flash?

I had intended to pick "just a few", but why not an album of such beauty in MY GARDEN

A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. ~ May Sarton

 

.A garden never knows when its over. ~ Paula Deitz