Blood Red Lake Huron

 Recently Lake Huron turned blood red (well, kind of, sort of blood red). Regardless, it was striking and almost biblical, imo. These are not photoshopped or tampered with in any way. This is really what Lake Huron looked like. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

I suppose I could weed more in my garden but then I would miss out on some of the happy bouquets that serendipitously happen - like this view of dahlias, cow thistle, and Queen Anne's Lace. (Queen Anne was one of the very best monarch in England and under appreciated and rated in my own opinion.) Isn't this peaceful and pretty!

Totty and Pila are good friends - sometimes. Of course they are both older now so the rivalries aren't as strong as they once were. Still there; just not as pronounced.

This very pale blue flower is sometimes called "Wild Petunia"; it's not really a petunia, just a wild flower, Ruellia. It's rather small and not invasive but it does appear (and disappear) from time to time in my garden and I love it. I'm sure it came here as a seed or a seedling along with something I transplanted from Royal Oak many years ago now.

This old fashioned garden plant is an amaryllis like plant - Lycoris llily. It produces a few thin strap-shaped leaves in the spring which disappear before the heat of summer. Later, amaryllis-like, a thin stalk appears and produces some small pinkish flowers. Not at all spectacular, but it is a hardy perennial this far north and I appreciate its novelty and attempts. Often the dogs knock the stalk over before the flowers can open. That's OK.  After all, it is their yard too and my rule has always been - you have to be tough to survive the dogs and the weather this far north, if you're not, too bad.

The sunflowers below are annual. This one is a volunteer. Below those two photos are some shots of Silphium perfoliatum sometimes called the cup plant. (The stalks seem to grow through the leaves, hence its scientific name.) It's a perennial wildflower and self seeds. The silphiums came as volunteers from my Royal Oak garden too - probably hitched a ride as a seed along with a garden perennial. It is slowly spreading, which I really like. I love both kinds: - the annual large common sunflower and these wildflower sunflowers. Bees love both kinds of sunflowers. Which do you like?

The backbone (shrubs) of the late summer garden? Rose of Sharons, a shrubby Hibiscus. Hibiscus are easily identified as such by their flowers.

Last night one of my geraniums was visited by a sphinx moth also called a hummingbird moth because, unlike all other moths, they rapidly vibrate their wings and fly, or hover like hummingbirds. (As green caterpillars many feed on tomato plants. I never kill or remove them because I know what they will become.) I know they will only appear as a blur, as a shadow in these photos because they move so fast and the shots were take at dusk. They often avoid the heat of the day (and daytime predators). Can you "see" them?

Autumn is sedum time and this is one of my favorites. Most (many) years it is chewed down to its nubs by rabbits so it doesn't actually flower. So far this year the dogs have been very successful at preventing rabbit damage. Might it have something to do with them having ganged up on a large rabbit and killing it - I know, I know. Nature! A few years ago there was a buck, a many pointed buck, that would jump my fences, especially at night and in spite of the dogs and feed on my succulent garden plants. Then two years ago it was hit and killed on the road  in front of my property. I do have something to remember him with but I do not miss him.

Kit Today

 Whenever possible regardless of the reason I like to keep any of my Icelandic Sheepdog pups that are returned to me. Icies bond with their "owners" and I think it's probably hard for most of them to easily adjust to yet another new home.

Kit came back to me at about two years old. At first she was extremely shy and would hide from anyone who visited. It took about a year for her to accept that this was going to be her real new home. She is the smartest Icy I have ever had - and I've had a lot of very smart Icelandics. We are doing agility and rally now but even if we don't actually title, we are having a lot of fun together. I'm getting kind of old to be running around the ring doing obstacles with her. Class is fun. And maybe - probably - enough. The drive to class takes just under two hours each way so it's a commitment. My other Icies don't appreciate being left at home - even though some of them also go to rally class, again almost four hours on the road. Traffic ranges from non-existent to very light do that's not the issue. It's more the gas and the travel time.

Speaking of Kit, here's "my" cat (get it? Kit Cat??) This is one of the feral cats that hangs around my yards.

The smoke from the Canadian wildfires continues. I wonder how that's affecting the health of folks, especially those with compromised breathing issues. Most days I don't notice issues but on heavy days I have throat problems. This is Lake Huron this morning.

There are at least three pairs of House Wrens raising families this summer. This house is close to my windows so I have a "bird's eye view" of their comings and goings. One of the babies is seen at the entrance so I'm guessing that soon they will leave home. Each time one of the adults, they share feeding and cleaning chores, brings back an insect, the nestlings poop and the adult carries the poop out of the nest and drop it far away from the nest box. (To keep the nest clean and to draw predators away from the actual house which could end up kind of smelly perhaps.)

Speaking of birds, this substantial (chunky) nestling crashed into one of my windows. I'm guessing a Whip-Poor-Will? Any help? It was only stunned and flew away soon after.

Of course some garden photos: -

I have several Cornelian Cherries (Cornus mas) around the yard. This is a type of dogwood that produces edible fruit (hence the name Cornelian Cherry!). The yellowish fruits on this shrub aren't ripe yet. Last year the birds got all of them. Of course. I don't mind. Really. But it would be nice to taste a least one, wouldn't it? I believe this species of dogwood comes from the middle east, Turkey perhaps?

August On Lake Huron in Michigan

At San Salvatore it's raining today, a nice pleasant kind of rain wherein all the plants get what they need. Before it started raining I went again to nearby Lexington for their annual art fair. Pleasant trip and a nice experience in a touristy village. I have tried to make new friends here - unsuccessfully. I do reach out to people I think might be nice to know. I hope that the reason I'm ignored is that they already have all the friends they need. 

It is what it is.

I've been ordered by my dermatologists to avoid the sun which means I must do my gardening and garden walking early in the morning and/or late in the afternoon. I miss puttering in the garden outside. Some recent shots - clicking on photos will enlarge them.

Some long landscape shots. I love these best because these photos are simply and sweetly a riot of plants and flowers blending together as if they were a painting, a living and everchanging painting. Looking carefully at my gardens you'll see some unusual companions. There are rhubarb plants throughout the garden. And blue, white and purple Vinca minor. And Lily of the valley. and several varieties of Brunnera. Et Cetera. Why, you might ask. Because, even though some are "aliens" and should be actively discouraged, deer and rabbits do not like them. I believe that having these bad tasting plants mixed in with more palatable ones protects the tastier plants from deer and rabbits. I don't really know if that's true, but it seems, so far, to be working. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.

This year instead of interspersing the Dahlia tubers among the perennials, I planted them all together near the back of the north garden. Easier to care for there. I don't cut apart the tubers and plant them. I just dig a hole and plant last year's entire underground tuberous plant. It's just a lot easier. Surprisingly a few of last years dahlia tubers that I had left where they were actually survived the winter and started to grow and are now flowering. The secret? I know that the tubers are tender and will die if frozen but I think they must have been below the freeze line and therefore survived. Most of my Dahlias are the burgundy shades. They are really loved by the bees and they are strong plants. They also have mutated so, although I started with 'single" flowers, I now have some streaked with white and some semi-doubble and some truly double. "Life's a bowl of chocolates." Regardless - the dahlias this year: - 

And some daylilies. Kind of bittersweetly? I have one daylily from Jim Langhamar that he called Autumn Orange. It is the last daylily to flower and it continues until late in the fall - but it always makes me kind of sad - winter's coming. And, it has started to flower now.

Langhamar's Autumn Orange

Volunteer Sunflower

For Jon

For Tracy

The Hummingbirds have successfully fledged their babies and they are now competing for nectar (aka sugar water here). There were at least two families fledged this summer.