I usually take a walk out around my garden in the afternoon to see what is going on. Yesterday, I found this butterfly resting along the path. The color goes well with the purple, doesn’t it?

I took this shot yesterday, but really am not seeing many butterflies in my garden this year. This is the first day cool enough to work outdoors, so I am going out this morning to see what I can do to make the garden a little more attractive to butterflies and dragonflies. Swallowtails and monarchs are in the area, I see them in the air, but nothing is stopping. Maybe creating a few wet spots will help, and the fact that more things are blooming each day now, might bring in a few more. Last year, I had an abundance of flying things in the garden with me, while I worked.

Another subject-my friend Carol up in Phippsburg, Maine wrote me yesterday to say that she still has her northern orioles. They are feeding out of the hummingbird feeder. The hummers don’t seem to mind them, even though they are quite messy. Does anyone else have this going on?

The farmer cut the hayfield last Friday. This is the last shot I took as I walked the edge of the grass, which by the time it was cut, was almost up to my shoulders. All those lovely wildflowers have been baled into gigantic circles of hay, stored away somewhere until winter. There will be another crop before fall, in fact the fertilizer truck has already started preparing the field, producing a really nice odor to go with this hot humid weather! Below is a shot I took during the haying process.

I have a section of my garden that never gets watered. The plants back there have been picked off drought tolerant lists. I have several varieties of yarrow, liatris, also several kinds of blanket flowers, hyssop, coreopsis, echinacea, lavender, and day-lilies. I might have missed a few, but that is basically it.
I bought a burgundy blanket flower last season that I can’t find. It was a tall stringy plant, so am not surprised. Guess I can’t say that one is thriving! The plant below is one grown from a packet of wildflower seeds, many years ago.

Taken at the edge of the woods behind my house. Click on photos to see larger views.