The Long Days of June

 When I went to gather my thoughts about June, I discovered that I had taken more sunset photos than usual. You see, June is when sunsets are easily seen from my front porch, so they're hard to miss. And with all the steamy weather we've had, those sunsets have been especially vibrant. But if you assumed unstable weather brought us storms, you'd be mistaken, because in our little corner of Ohio, we're in drought conditions. My garden hose is getting a workout, but we don't try to keep the lawn alive. It's just too big to bother. As a matter of fact, there's a storm headed our way right now. But I won't get my hopes up, it usually dissipates before it arrives. I will share one sunset here at the outset, but the rest of them will go at the end as usual. 

Definitely saw an uptick in butterflies this month, along with various other interesting critters that visit my garden. Speaking of critters, I do have my small water garden set up, but I've had trouble keeping the goldfish alive. I'm not sure why exactly, but about ten of them still hanging in. We'll see if they make it through the summer. And the monarch chrysalides I showed you last month have all turned into butterflies, and were released out into the world. 

Swallowtail caterpillar

Pipevine swallowtail

Question Mark butterfly

Red Admiral butterfly

Alianthus webworm moth 

Crab spider

Summer Azure butterfly 

Silver Spotted skipper

Great Spangled Fritillary 

Snowberry Clearwing

Comets/Goldfish

Monarch butterfly

Monarch butterfly

The veggie garden has grown by leaps and bounds this month. Whew! But it's been hot and sunny, which is the favorite weather for veggies. We're enjoying the harvest of our spring planted crops, and soon we'll have summer veggies to enjoy. First up will be zucchini, it's almost ready to harvest. 

I thought some of my containers were worth revisiting in June, as they have much improved. It's interesting how some containers look good right away, and some need more time to develop. 

I did notice that late June produces something of a lull when it comes to my flowering plants. Many of the perennials that already had their big showy blooms are now resting, leaving me with blank spots of plain green. I'll be giving some thought about how to improve that, and if I can't come up with ideas, I'll just plan for more annuals to fill the gap. This doesn't mean that there aren't any flowers in bloom, trust me. But some spots are just plain green now, and that's not what I prefer. Keep in mind, many of these photos come from early June. Like I said, their big show is past now.  

I haven't been doing much indoors except reading good books. I've made it my mission to read more this year, and I always have one audiobook going, and one regular book. A couple of favorites from this year have been The Warmth of Other Suns, Remarkable Bright Creatures, Tom Lake, Democracy Awakening, and Sitting Pretty. I didn't finish any craft projects, and I didn't cook or bake anything of note. My focus has mostly been taking care of the garden, but I did update my tiered tray. 

I did visit a few of my favorite parks, including Inniswood Gardens, Chestnut Ridge, and Dawes Arboretum. The stifling heat has made it difficult to enjoy the parks, so my visits were short. 

Inniswood

Inniswood

Inniswood

Inniswood

Inniswood

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Dawes Arboretum

Dawes Arboretum

Dawes Arboretum

And here we are the end of the month. Hard to believe it will be July tomorrow. 

Finally, here are some of the sunsets I told you about. It's a nice way to end the day, standing on the front porch watching the sky. Our house is on a small rise at the highest part of the subdivision, so I have a pretty clear view. It's one of the things I love best about this house. Thanks for coming by to visit Robin's Nest this June. I always appreciate my blog visitors, few enough that there are. See you again at the end of July!