Summer Slowdown

I'm the type of person who likes to get involved in things, especially when it relates to music and gardening. Ever since I took an early retirement, I've added quite a few things to my agenda. It makes for a busy lifestyle. I enjoy these activities, or I wouldn't participate in them. I've made many good friends, and I've had lots of fun.

But then there's summer time. Ahhhh! Many of my activities have gone on hiatus, and my life has slowed way down. It's strange. And wonderful!

Summer lends itself to slowing down, doesn't it? The heat can make us feel a little lazy. It's time to simply relax and enjoy a little quiet time.

Sometimes the garden slows its growth in mid summer too, but that hasn't happened quite yet. It's a jungle out there! With all the rain we've had, my plants are bigger than ever.

I have to admit that it has kept me from constantly buying more plants, as I've been known to do. My current flowers have grown so large that they've filled in all available space. Weeds haven't found much room to sneak in, which has meant less work.

I've had more time to enjoy my quiet hobbies, especially reading. I've devoured more books than usual this summer. But mostly, I've been taking pictures of the garden. Yes, I know that I always do that. However, I've taken a lot more than usual. It's a little overwhelming to keep them sorted out and edited. But the blooms have been coming on fast and furious out there, and I don't want to miss anything.

The endless rain that we struggled with earlier this summer seems to have finally tapered off. We're still getting a little more rain than normal, but it's more spread out now. One week in June we got five inches of rain! Now it's about an inch or so, which is actually ideal.

So I'm enjoying my summer slowdown, that for sure. It's been very relaxing, and very low stress. Isn't that how life should be?

The Summer It Rained

This year has become the Summer It Rained. To most of you, this would not be unusual. Summer means thunderstorms and cloudbursts, right? Well, that's not how summer usually goes around here.

Sometime in June, someone puts up the dome, and the rain simply stops. Storms build up, then pass us by. Just a little north of us, it will rain buckets. The dark clouds will hover, threaten, then move on without giving us a drop. 

 But not this year. It has rained and rained and then rained some more. Streets often flood, crops tend to rot in the field, and the sun rarely shines. This year, the dark skies threaten, then cut loose with torrents of rain. 

I thought it might be a short term thing. I figured that a few rainy weeks would pass, then we'd dry up like we so often do. But not this time. 

It's been nice not having to drag the hose around the yard, like we usually do. And I've never seen so much green! Is this what it's like in the Pacific NW? 

I've missed the sunshine though, that's for sure. The tomatoes are sulking from lack of sun, and the green pepper plants have given up. The weeds are prolific, as you can guess. 

Because our summers are generally dry, my garden is mostly planted with drought tolerant plants. So far they are accepting the heavy rain with good grace. But I discovered that some of my flowers actually like more water. My tall phlox has never had so many blooms.

And the hydrangeas are just loving it. 

On those rare sunny days, I hustle outside with my camera in hand. On this day, I discovered the red admiral butterflies were having a party at my house. I tried counting them, but as you can imagine, it wasn't easy. There seemed to be about 30 of them, and it was delightful! They were so intent on gathering nectar that I could practically reach out and touch them. 

Black Swallowtail

The red admiral butterflies are fairly common, and have been visiting in droves. But many other butterflies visit me here, much to my delight, along with numerous other pollinators.

White spotted sable moth

Viceroy butterfly

Honeybee in flight

As I'm writing this post, yet another storm is building, and heavy rains are imminent. Yes indeed, it is the Summer It Rained. Every summer I wish for more rain, but I guess I'll have to be more specific in the future.

A Garden of Many Colors

We all know that gardens should be planned. There are many things to consider, form, leaf shape, season of bloom, color theme, etc. I've always tried to keep my garden in shades of yellow, purple and pink. 

Yeah right! Oh I try all right. I swear that I should only use the proper color scheme, but somehow, a rainbow keeps sneaking in. 

Some people call this clown pants gardening. Well, I just call it colorful! 

I think it all started with the butterfly weed. Most of my garden is geared towards attracting hummingbirds and butterflies, so butterfly and other milkweeds were a must. And this one blooms orange. Oh well, I'll just sneak it in, no one will notice. Ha! It's impossible to ignore butterfly weed in bloom. The neon orange is like a traffic light! 

So once summer arrives full force, I just try to embrace my rainbow garden. You have to admit it, it's cheerful! 

I even get colorful visitors that add to my rainbow. 

I do actually have a few mellow spots, with more subtle colors. But this one was accidental. I planted seeds, it came out a soft, blush pink. If it was my choice, I'm sure I would have picked something much brighter! Isn't it supposed to be elegant and classy to have pastels in your garden? Guess I'm just not the type. 

What's funny is that I always swore that I wouldn't use orange in my garden. Guess I was wrong. I'm not sure why I made that statement, because I use orange in my home decor all the time. 

I suppose I need to embrace my many-colored garden. It does make me smile, that's for sure. Every time I turn the corner on another rainbow, I have to stop and take a picture. 

I've always been a fan of anything colorful and bright, so I suppose it was inevitable that I'd end up with a clown pants garden. 

And when I found this rainbow shining down on my yard, I knew I was right.