Early Heat in June

 When I compare last month's post to this month, the difference is immense. May starts with tulips, a classic sign of spring, but June is fully summer. This year, it's been as hot as you might expect it to be in August. Whew! 

I find myself taking a Florida attitude with the heat, hunkering down indoors with little desire to go outside. I'd prefer to be out admiring flowers, working in the garden, exploring public gardens, but it's just not very enjoyable to me with humidity levels through the roof. We went a full week with temps in the 90's, even getting up to 98 more than once. It isn't normal for central Ohio, and our "corn sweat" humidity makes it so much worse. I did work outside one morning, but by noon, I was over it and overheated. Still, I accomplished what I set out to do. 

You may recall that we're moving away from this particular Nest at the end of the summer. But it's still our house, for now, and I want to leave the garden and yard in good condition. Whether or not they like gardening is a mystery to me, but I keep hoping they'll be inspired. It's probably best that I don't check Google Earth too far into the future, because I'll likely be disappointed. Que sera, sera, as they say. I forgot to mention that all our hard work paid off, and we sold our home in two days! Closing is coming up soon, then we'll be renting here for a bit before fully moving out. It's a bittersweet journey, for sure. I'm sad to leave this Nest, but excited to build another! And we'll be much closer to our family, which is the whole point of the matter. 

Because the house sold quickly, and we then had to wait for closing, we were able to slow down from the frantic pace of May. The only traveling we did was several trips to our new home to scope it out, and to drop off a few things at our daughter's house for safekeeping. While at home, we've been enjoying our carrot harvest, which is my favorite homegrown vegetable. I rarely cook these orange treasures, as I've always been a fan of munching raw carrots. I've also done a bit more cooking, while we work to clear out the freezers before the move. In particular, I'm working to use up last year's garden tomato crop. They were quite prolific, so I'm glad I took the time to process them at the time. But now I need to turn them into good eating. I've already made our favorite garden spaghetti, and will likely make some vegetable soup and chili next. I also received a gift card for The Peach Truck, and once I cashed it in, have been delighted with the results. As of this moment, there's a fabulous looking peach pie sitting in my kitchen cooling off. I'm practically drooling at the thought of trying it. Will post the results soon. EDIT:Seriously, never tasted anything so delicious! If you have a chance to get peaches from The Peach Truck, I HIGHLY recommend it. 

I'm trying not to dwell on the things that I'll miss here in central Ohio, although that can be difficult at times. Instead, I'm looking forward to learning my new community. I've already scouted out the book clubs at my new library, and the availability of yoga classes. I've explored where my favorite stores  and restaurants are located. I've spent time planning how my new decor will look, and where I will place the furniture. And yes, I've already purchased some of the new furniture, and decorative touches. But the one thing I haven't done is  planning for my new garden. I simply can't envision the space I'll have to work with until I'm standing there in the back yard staring at it. That's how I work, I have to be there making pictures in my brain of how I want it to look, with the space right in front of me. Meanwhile, I'm still saying my goodbyes to some beloved flowers here. 

The humidity and heat of this steamy summer have given me cool sunsets to enjoy. Most nights, the neighbors might see me out there taking yet another photo of the sky. No matter what they think, it never gets old for me. 

Thanks for stopping by my Ohio Nest. As I move to my Michigan Nest, I hope you'll be patient with me as I build it from scratch. There might not be many flowers to show in the early stages, but we'll make it work. One good thing, the house does come with a few beginning stages of flowers. I spotted a Miss Kim lilac, and some mystery hydrangeas, which is a good start. And my current container gardens will make the trip with me, giving me a quick boost. We're moving in early September/late August, so I should have a couple of months to enjoy my pots before fall comes. I'm sure I'll manage to sneak some daffodils into the ground this fall, which will give me an early surprise in the spring. See you at the end of July, we'll still be in Ohio then. After that, it will be off to new horizons! 

A June Full of Weather

We had lots of interesting weather in the month of June. From May into June, we had a month long drought, followed by a week straight of pouring rain, followed by gloomy cool weather with frequent light rain. Currently, we're under an air quality alert from the Canadian wildfire smoke blowing our way. There really wasn't any "normal" weather mixed in. In June, I expect perfect warm, sunny days, with a few storms mixed in. But we got none of that. As it is now, I'd just like to be able to see the sky again, and to feel safe breathing in the outside air. But the garden carries on. The plants that prefer lots of sunshine are struggling. Some just bloom anyway, and laugh at the weather. 

In late May and early June, the roses really do their thing, blooming away with abandon. It's the time of year when I really appreciate my rose garden, and decide they're worth the trouble. But by the end of the month, there are few roses to be seen, and they mostly fade into the background for a couple months. That being said, they look nothing like this at the end of the month. It was a mild winter except for that sub zero spell at Christmas time, and I suspect that's why every single rose cane died back. But they came back quickly and strong. 

I thought it was worthwhile to revisit a few of the containers I featured last month, because they've changed SO much. If you want to compare, you can click here to see last month's version of these. It happens so slowly that I don't generally notice until I compare how they looked last month at this time. I am a big fan of the container gardens I fill each spring. I have to admit that I am not disappointed in any of them this year, and if I were, I'd remedy that by editing their contents. You'll probably note that my color theme was yellow this year.  

It was very exciting to me when I finally spotted my first monarch this year. At the time, there was an arborist here, but the monarch pulled me away immediately. Luckily hubby was still there to finish the consultation. It was a female monarch, and she did leave me a few eggs, which quickly morphed into these two caterpillars. There were probably more than these two, but I never did find them. Since then, I've seen a few more monarchs, plus a few other butterflies. They've been quite skittish this year, and often don't let me get near enough for a decent photo. 

There are plenty of other critters hanging around my nest this summer. Not pictured, the stray mama cat and her three kittens who showed up one day! Very cute, but I can't keep them. 

Ruby Throated hummingbird

Look close to see two baby wrens

Hoverfly

Spring Azure butterfly 

Bluebird 

Fritillary butterfly 

Clearwing hummingbird moth 

Still on veggie watch here. The radishes are gone, and the lettuce is going to seed. But we've been harvesting plenty of sugar snap peas, and the first round of carrots. Both were delicious! There are green tomatoes on the vine, but no sign of fruit on the cucumbers, green beans and zucchini. 

And now we are at the part of my post where I simply show off various pretty flowers doing their thing throughout the month of June. Some of these have already faded away. But new things pop up to replace them. By next month's post, we'll see hydrangeas, zinnias, and maybe sunflowers. 

Duchess of Albany clematis 

Duchess of Albany clematis seed heads

I did find a short window of decent weather to spend at Inniswood Gardens. Their container gardens are always wonderful. When I went, the roses were still full of blooms. I usually wait until fall to visit this spot, but I'm glad I went in mid summer this time. 

Now that the busy garden month of May is behind me, I found more time to return to some crafting. First you'll see some decorative stones I painted as a gift, although I might have kept some for myself. You'll also see I worked on my beach tray some more, then switched it to a 4th of July theme at the end of the month. The Swedish style Christmas afghan was actually worked on over the last couple months, but this month I finally finished it by adding the tassels. It will be used for my own holiday decorations. The cording wreath was fun to braid, and lives in my craft room. And if the fairy stones look familiar, that's because I made some very like that last year. But they disappeared from the garden, so I'm working on replacements. I guess I'll keep these close at hand where I can keep my eye on them. 

And here we land at the end of June. Summer is speeding by! With the unstable weather we've had, the sunsets have been interesting. This first one comes from a wildfire smoke day. The other smoke days we had obscured the sun completely. One of the sunsets below came from Pickerington Ponds, can you spot it? The rest all came from home. I'm so glad that I have a clear view of the sky, I love that! I've always been a sky watcher. 

Thanks for stopping by Robin's Nest, I appreciate you very much! See you again in July.