Star Fighters

At this time of year gardens tend to be shriveling under the summer heat. There aren't many flowers that can stand up to the heat and humidity, or lack there of depending on what kind of summer you're having. Oriental lilies bring new life, bright colour, and gorgeous scent to the mid to later summer garden.

I've got the Star Fighter variety in a couple of spots in my garden. (These are in front yard next to the house.) I'm a sucker for a good name. This one makes me think of spectacular battles in space. I want more. In another year or two I'll dig and separate the bulbs in hopes of increasing my supply.



Star Fighter 1 



Star Fighter 2 



Star Fighter 3 


There is another variety called Star Gazer that has little or no white in the petals that I have been coveting for years. The bulbs are a bit pricey though and I haven't been able to talk myself into spending the money on them yet. (Here I am going on about price when they're practically on sale at White Flower Farm. I may go shopping tomorrow.)


Star Gazer Lily 



Casa Blanca is beautiful white oriental lily that I think would go well with Star Fighter and Stargazer but again I just can't bring myself to plunk down the chunk of change for them. (These are twice as much as the Star Gazers.)


Casa Blanca Lily 

Purple coneflower

I've got purple coneflowers growing like crazy in my yard. I planted them in the fall of 2000. Since then I've dig some up and given them to friends once. I may have to do it again next year. I had other things planted near them but they have pretty much taken over the bed they're in. Dead heading keeps new blooms coming well into September. I've even had a few blooms hanging on until October.



Purple cone flower 


Echinacea purpurea 

Letting a few of the flowers go to seed gives plenty of new plants in following growing seasons (as if they needed any help with that). That's how I got these mutants that have no ray flowers. I think the spiky clumps of disk flowers are cute.


Coneflower with out ray flowers. 



Disk flowers with a few vestigial rays 


Purple coneflower is also a favorite with insects. There are two species of bees that I regularly find in my garden.


Species 1 



Species 2 

Garden hitch hiker

I'm pretty sure that I didn't plant this flower in my garden but I like it any way. It's a cone flower from the composite family. I was doing a casual inventory of my garden the other day and realised that nearly all of the plants flowering right now are composites.



Rudbeckia bicolor 


There are also some daisies in these pictures (also composites). I've got two or three kinds of them.



Rudbeckia bicolor 


That's Ethan in the distance sitting on one of their wagon thingies waiting for the school bus.

I really like these flowers so I'll be letting some of the blooms go to seed for planting.

Isaiah in the bird bath

The boys and I waited for the bus outside this morning. I took a few pictures of the flowers that I'll post later. This is the last picture that I took this morning. Isaiah likes to visit the neighbour's yard. Today he decided to explore their bird bath. With my garden trowel (not pictured).

Butterflies

I found one of these in my purple cone flowers this afternoon.



Black swallowtail



Spicebush swallowtail (male)



Mourning cloak (link 2)

I can't really decide which one it was. It was dark brown with larger prolongations on the hindwings than the mourning cloak. There were yellow spots at the margin of the forewings and iridescent blue green spots on the margin of the hindwings. I didn't see any orange spots that would be indicative of a swallowtail butterfly but I was keeping an eye on three kids at the time so maybe I missed it. There are also at least two species of bees in the cone flowers as well.

(Cross posted at Uncle Sam's Cabin.)

Baby girl

I haven't posted too many pictures of Sophia on here. So here are a few from 4th of July weekend at my parent's house. Sophia was 8.5 months old at the time and all dressed up for church with grandma and grandpa.


Sophia loves her bear. 



What a smile. 



Mom, what are you doing? 



Make sure you get my good side. 



Now how do I get off of this thing? 

Song and dance

Here's a shot of Ethan singing and dancing with one of his buddies at school. 

Fresh from the where is Isaiah sleeping now files

Sometime back after going upstairs to check on the kids hubby came down to tell me that I had to go take a look at Isaiah. What could he possibly be doing now? Sleeping on the bed for a change? No such luck.



Isaiah loves his Larry Boy pillow. 



Of all the things in the closet to use as a blanket he chooses my curtains. 



Isaiah's gotten a nice tan though.