Hotter Days

Summer is definitely in its prime stretch.  In fact, I think we have set records this year for the most continuous days of hot and dry.  The heat and the smoke made for more time indoors, except in the early morning and late evenings.  And a few times, at night, under a red moon.

Once in a while we are lucky enough to be visited by what we officially call, "The Tremendous Beetle."  We always scoot him to a safer spot than our walkway and he always yells at us.  It's actually extremely cool to be yelled at by a beetle.  

We are starting to get some delicious ripe tomatoes:

I went out to harvest some herbs and was delighted by how lovely my bouquet turned out. 

Floof bird on the fence:

We are adding some big pots to our front flower garden this year.  The plants we got into them survived the dry and heat much better than the rest of the garden:

One of the few showers made a gorgeous rainbow:

Another broody hen was very happy to hatch a couple chicks:

This poppy variety is huge and glorious, with a bloom about the same diameter as a softball:

Trail doggo:

The dogs love to swim in the creek:

A cool pair of shiny green beetles mating:

We only got a few cherries this year because it was too cold when they bloomed so the pollination rate was quite low.  But the cherries we got were delicious:

The dogs really love playing in the creek:

Mr. Pinchy, heading back into the water:

We are getting some really nice zucchini this year too:

Foxglove:

It looks like we are going to have a lot of apples.  Hopefully they ripen well!

Somehow Craig spotted this giant hornet nest, at least 100 feet up on a tree at the edge of the forest.  We are glad they took up residence where we won't run into their nest!

Green bean harvest:

Craig with a mantis.  We have been finding a lot of them this year.

Piper and Ember enjoying the cool floor and the warm air:

This sunflower volunteered near the barn.  It was very busy with bees until it was eaten by an alpaca.

Once again, the Tremendous Beetle paid us a visit (and chirped angrily at us when we moved it to a safer spot):