July = garden growing

Every day I am amazed that the deer have not-yet feasted on the hostas. Taken photo so that when the day comes and they are all inside a deer, I can still enjoy them...

The first cucumber!

Crocosmia...

... the first time I ever saw a crocosmia, it was a "volunteer" that somehow appeared in the back garden (aka 45degree wild hillside) in Fair Oaks. The next year, it was twenty. So some of the first bulbs (or are they corms?) bought for this garden were crocosmia of various shades of red and orange. I hope they will multiply prolifically.

July = wildflowers

Flax. A reminder of what used to be farmed on the William Floyd Estate. Now growing by No. 1 Beach, the same colour as the sky this morning.

Please can someone tell me what these amazing flowers are? They are growing next to No. 1 Beach and are stunning... are they wild, or escapees from someone's exotic flower collection? Each flower head is the size of a cricket ball/baseball.

Almost-full moon and the bay like a mirror

Friday evening. Jade ran around yelling, "the moon, the moon!"

FFKAMA karate TV

Just discovered that I can watch recent French karate tournaments (and international-but-with-French-flavour) on the FFKAMA website:

http://ffkarate.cos.eu/CHMONDE2006/CHMONDE2006/film.php

There are a whole lot of videos; take the links on the right of the page. You don't need to understand French.

Tuesday, Tuesday

Morning walk under a glowering sky, heavily grey, warm. Red-winged blackbirds, grey catbirds, and a mocking-bird with a million songs. One ibis lumbering through the air near the wetlands. I thought it would storm, but an hour later the sky is clar, the sun is shining, and the watering-can will be busy later.

July 4th flowers

Nasturtiums in the planter by the front door. Vanilla icecream!

The window-boxes are full of petunias and nasturtiums, and marigold seedlings are growing, flower buds on their way. And so far, the deer haven't nibbled the hostas, which are ready to flower. Maybe they are waiting for the first to open; maybe it's the disgusting rotten-egg stuff (which luckily fades to human senses within a few hours but I swear it smells stronger the longer it sits in the can in the garage).

Red bee-balm; the pink ones are coming up too, but the red is bigger and better.

Water-loving Japanese iris in the right spot at the front of the house.

This hydrangea bush came with the house and is growing bigger each year. The tiny florets in the center are a mix of pink and purple, and the surrounding four-petaled flowers are lavender. It is rather beautiful.

South fork tour

Outer beach, Montauk. Baby daisy plants in the sand. Giant seagulls fighting over catfish. Grey sky but the sun breaking through.

The swing by the lighthouse, Montauk.

We started at the beach at the far west of Dune Road in Westhampton Beach; foggy, mild, children on the beach making sandcastles. Jade braved the water. We walked for a while, then drove the length of Dune Road to the rainbow bridge... and the light became murkier and murkier, it started to rain, and by the time we were on 27 heading east, thunderclaps and lightening strikes were happening simultaneously and the road was a river. Huge storm; if it had happened yesterday, we would have seen the wettest June on record, but today is July and a new count begins.

Late lunch at Nick's in Montauk, rain on the roof. Sweatshirts from the sweatshirt shop (we were not dressed for winter), then To The Lighthouse, though we didn't go in; then to the outer beach, almost wiping-out a cyclist-with-a-death-wish (who in their right mind cycles in front of a vehicle as it is pulling into a parking space???) where the light and the greys and the sand was beautiful but the large raindrops, wet... and then back home to excited Bella-dog and clearer skies.

(It has been nice and summery the past few days, the days that I forgot to write anything... we hoped for the same today but it doesn't matter, it was a really nice trip and a good day.)

My day off for gardening... yeah, right

This was just as the early-evening storm broke. We'd had a major storm in the morning, too much water plus electricity in the air to do anything outside other than put down a little cardboard weedblock and half-heartedly move two buckets full of sodden topsoil. And scatter a few more poppy seeds--orange this time--just in case they feel like sprouting.

A very very humid, sticky, and bug-infested afternoon. Collected a few more names for the census. Took Bella for a walk round the block as the clouds gathered. Fed her, and then it started...

I hope it dries out enough tomorrow to mow the grass.

I am not going to complain. I am not going to complain. I am not going to complain...

(I did get all the housework done.)