Gardens and weeds

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The front of my house is a jungle. It's supposed to be a garden, but it has a mind of its' own.

Here is a sampling of what takes over.

The cone flowers are great, but I love the balloon flowers, the purple ones. If you look at the bloom before it opens, it looks like a hot air balloon..

There are so many butterfly bushes, and they seem to be multiplying yearly. There are three distinct colors varying from deep purple to light pink.

Hard to imagine looking at the jungle that it is all bare ground and brown in the winter.

Below is a spring picture this year with daffodils in bloom. The butterfly bushes look like brown sticks.

The sunflowers are the results of feeding the birds all year long. I let them come as they may, and the birds just love them!

I actually thought I could tame this when I first moved here.

Now I just enjoy it, because I realize that the birds and the butterflys are here because of the uncontrolled jumble of blooms and cover.

Tonight I went out just after sunset when the sky was still bright enough to see, and I watched the fireflys creating a fairy-like sparkling across the fields and gardens...awesome. It was too bright to see stars, but I saw several bats swooping and dipping overhead. I love to watch them, as they catch bugs. The horses have been successfully integrated...boys and girls are grazing together. Actually Red looks like the odd man out, as the girls had already 'met' Endeavor and accepted him. They have really put Red in his place today. I kinda feel sorry for the little guy.

One new turtle has appeared, 'E' is the 5th to be marked. Tonights run didn't produce turtles, but I think that it was too late for them. 'E' has a bad crack on the right rear side of the shell.

Tomorrow should prove to be a good turtle day, as today had a lot of thundershowers. The ride to the creek tonight was eerie. It looked prehistoric with all the mist. Smelled wonderfully woodsy, too. Mushrooms are popping up everywhere!

Canned 4 quarts of sweet pickles Friday evening, and Saturday we rode up the Blue Ridge Parkway all the way to the joining of the Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park. We had a picnic lunch along the Parkway, and stopped along the James River. We saw a doe and her fawn. I love the Parkway. Actually I love being outdoors, in the country or the woods.

My bucket list includes seeing all of our National Parks!

Get out there people! Our State and National Parks are ours...Enjoy life, this isn't a dress rehearsal!


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