Just checking in . . . from the middle of the month.
Sometimes, I just shake my head and wonder how we got here. As in . . . how we got to the middle of August already.
August is kinda the conundrum time of year for me. It’s still summer, yeah. But you can . . . sense the shift coming. It’s darker in the morning, and the sun sets earlier in the evening. Here in Michigan, it’s cooler at night now, and we can keep the windows open/the air conditioning off (for the most part).
I’m still wringing every bit of goodness out of the remaining days of summer . . . and there is much goodness to come this month. Our anniversary. A visit from my sister. Plenty of time to sit on the patio. Or the dock.
But I can see the summer waning everywhere I look.
Up north, the loon baby is becoming more independent and losing his baby-fluff. (The baby loon – “junior,” we call him – is the small bird in the water in the photo below. The parent loon has just caught a fish for junior . . . right off our dock.) The ferns are starting to wither and the acorns are beginning to fall. Change is coming. It won’t be long now . . . and we’ll be talking about getting the boat pulled in and taking out the docks. But not yet.
And in my garden, things still look pretty good generally. Still plenty of blooms out there. More butterflies than in the last few years, for sure. And hummingbirds all day long. But there is a . . . raggedness . . . to everything; a look of being spent after a long summer of “performance.” And I have entered my “assessment” phase in the garden: planning for next year, figuring out what I want to add – or what needs to go. Trying to figure out how to manage my (ever expanding) bunny population a little better next year without going full Farmer McGregor (so I can actually get some parsley for myself, y’know?). But there is still much beauty to come in my garden.
The middle of August. Caught between summer . . . and the shift that is on the way.
I’m in a good spot here . . .
to enjoy the rest of the month.
I know change is coming, and I’m okay with that. But I’m going to enjoy summer for as long as it lasts!
How about you?
I know many people love summer, but fall (or at least some slight crispness in the air) can’t come soon enough for me. I love that photo of JoJo in the hostas!
Everything here is raggedy too. I’m waiting for the poppies to dry so I can harvest the seed but I’ve already ordered several different flower seeds for next year. I’m going to try starting geraniums from seed…I’ve heard that they are easy to grow. What a savings that will be if I get it to work! So I’m hanging on to this summer with both hands but I’m looking forward to next summer too!
I was just thinking the same thing yesterday (how did it get to be mid-August already???). I’m longing for Fall, but am trying to enjoy the waning days of summer. Like Bonny, I love that picture of JoJo in the hostas – so cute! I want to have dahlias next year and gladiolas! Everything I’ve seen says to plant in the Spring, yet a local nursery just got tubers and blubs in…I need to investigate further. Enjoy these last days Kym!!
We had a perfect summer, weatherwise and over all it hasn’t been too bad, but YOUR GARDEN! I always blows me away with its eye candy corners (oh, Jojo, so sweet), and stunning mixes of color.
You’ve captured so well the feeling of the waning days of summer. Raggedy is the perfect word to describe the way some of my pots of flowers are looking. It’s time to start thinking about replacing some of them with pots of chrysanthemums.
I’m sad that summer is flying by – we have summer plans every weekend and into the weekdays, well into September. But having just come from a visit to our Alabama kids (it was an occasion – surely sane people avoid Alabama in August) and now returning home to a forecast of 107F today, I will also welcome the crisper weather of fall. We’ve come home to flowers and vegetables that all look a little more baked than they ought, even though the young woman who looks after our yard when we leave did her best. But I do plan to cherish these last few weeks.
I must admit I read your title and thoight ‘oh she’s just a day or two early’ but nope, middle of August just like that.
School is starting in the south, days are shorter but the heat is like standing in front of an open blast furnace. Waiting for late September – early October to arrive. Meanwhile my coleus and salvias are holding on because I water the pots every morning. Some of the coleus have put up bloom spikes and I keep them for the bugs and the hummingbirds even though the plants get ragged faster after they bloom. So august is a balancing act of a different kind in the south. But it’s all good.
I love the photo you caught with JoJo peeking out from the hostas! As far as bunnies and their foraging, have you tried repellents — wolf urine (dried), Lifebuoy soap (I know it is recommended as a deer repellent, maybe it works for bunnies, too?), used cat litter (ugh, I know, but the urine scent might frighten the bunnies). Maybe call your local extension office for their advice. You are surely not the only one with that problem.
I think these are the summer days I most enjoy—particularly because I know they’re fleeting. The whole appreciation of what’s impermanent, I guess. (And I have to admit, I enjoy the cool mornings and evenings!)
Love your lake scenes there…
Same!! I can’t believe the kids will already be in school in the next couple of weks.
OMG, Jojo under that hosta leaf!!
I just noticed last week that it’s no longer light out when we adults get up, which is a bit depressing. I don’t love the heat and humidity of summer, but I do love the longer days. We’ve got back-to-school shopping planned for this weekend, and I’m already dreading having to pack lunches again (she says she’s going to do it this year, but we’ll see if that actually happens).
If you come up with a good way to deal with the bunnies, please share. I just lost my one and only sunflower that survived them, before it could bloom, because something had clearly gnawed on the stem and it just toppled over. Also, what’s the trick to growing a golden Lab in your garden?
Yep, here we are on the home stretch of summer. You describe it well.
My parsleys are in a pot on the patio and it’s the swallowtail caterpillars that are denuding them, not the bunnies. This year they are little late, so the plants have had a good start. So there’s still enough for them and me. But I have to watch carefully when I go out to clip some parsley. They like the Italian flat leaf better than the curly parsley. But they are not above munching on some basil too.
This is where I hold onto August with desperate hands. (Aren’t there still some fresh and lively marigolds out there…somewhere?) I love fall but so soon after comes winter. The anticipation of fall helps prolong it’s actual length so I just sit back and enjoy the last gasp vestiges all around me. And drink summer-fresh Arnold Palmers as if they were going out of style. Pumpkin lattes can wait…forever. (Or at least until the first – no, second! – cold snap!)
I am feeling much the same… on the cusp of shift and getting ready to lean into it a bit. (and digging up a bed in the front yard where nothing has ever really taken off… some compost is going in and a load of “new dirt” and then a rest for the ground over winter and a fresh start next spring!)
Your photos tell a good story about a garden well tended. We are having quite a heat wave this week so the garden looks particularly droopy. As you say, the seasonal change is coming and with it some planning for next year’s garden.