At the risk of repeating myself...

This picture sums up the weather! 

 I found the statue above, broken, lying in a local dump years ago.  It was Mother's Day and I had just come from church.  (What does it say about me that I would go to a dump on Mother's Day??)   Hmmmm....not sure, but anyway, I saw the statue and had to have it.  So, there I was, teetering in my high heels, trying to hoist this heavy cement into my trunk along with a basin and incredibly heavy pedestal (for this was a fountain at one time) and hoping there was no one around to see a crazy woman.  So much of our 'decor' around here is cast-off stuff from somewhere else but I'm still glad I risked a hernia getting this one.

Volunteer Rudbeckia (thru a foggy lens, lol)

Foggy!!

 

A little better....?

Yes, I know, broken record here, but things are soggy.  I went out with the camera this morning to take some pictures for Fertilizer Friday and the camera lens kept fogging up.  After I carefully cleared off the lens, I still couldn't see very well, and realized my glasses were fogged up, too.  The humidity must be at 2000% out there or something and the mosquitoes are lovin' every minute of it.  I had to speed through the pictures as a chorus of whining was ringing in my ears and my hands were getting bitten up. We got another 1 1/2" of rain yesterday and today is just dark, gloomy and super-humid.  I guess the old adage, 'be careful what you pray for' rings true.  We asked for rain, and we got it.

Echinacea 'Fragrant Angel'

Since it's so dark out I had to try to hold perfectly still so the pictures aren't so blurry, but between trying to swat off the vampires and not wanting to kneel on the wet grass, and hold my breath all at the same time, well, this is as good as it's going to get, sorry!

'Dry' riverbed

The area above used to be a small pond but we took it out after we built the quarry garden.  Anyway, one of my bright ideas was to leave the area lower than the rest of the yard since we spent days digging out the dirt for the pond and turn it into a dry riverbed. Not the best perspective, I realize, so moving on........

The rudbeckias are coming into bloom already, hope they last a long time!

Would you look at the water in the pond??  Wow, this is July!  Normally it would be way down.

The new east berm is filling in pretty well with Dahlberg daisy and 'Imagination' verbena

The hill behind the quarry, if it weren't for the volunteer rudbeckias, there wouldn't be much happening.

Despite the rain, the new clematis are still blooming.

 A bit bedraggled but trying

Darker than ever in the hosta bed, the white shows up!

One of Rosehill Gardens daylily cultivars

My swan planters from Mom

'Kyushu' hydrangea

The front garden

Hemerocallis 'Persian Ruby'

'Magnus' echinacea with 'Baby Blue Eyes' spruce

'Magnus' and 'White Swan' echinacea and oh, yeah, rocks!

This used to be a fountain too-a gift from Carl's folks

The basin is in rough shape, so we decided to just put her in the garden.

Our newest lily, 'Robina'

Russian Sage - due to the wet weather, kind of tired

Old-fashioned Tiger Lily

Loads of Tiger Lilies in bloom

We need an army of dragonflies and frogs to eat the mosquitoes!

Not sure on name here, might be 'Stargazer'

'Kyushu' hydrangea

Screech the Kitty

Ok, with that, Screech Kitty and I say goodbye and thanks for visiting!

Karen

Too Much of a Good Thing

Storm north of us on Wednesday evening

Wednesday's weather was a nightmare for many folks in our area, but not for us.  We have been so very lucky to escape all the violent weather.  Around 5PM, two thunderstorms came rolling through the state, one to our north with high winds, possible tornadoes and hail and the other to our south with large hail and high winds, and of course, torrential rain.  We managed to somehow sneak right through the middle and came out the other side with just another 1/4" of rain. My heart goes out to those who weren't as lucky.  This has been a crazy year for weather.

We had near-drought conditions for the last five to six years here, and would have given ANYTHING for some rain as there were worries over wells going dry and crops were suffering.    Now we have way more rain than we need and it is just as severe.

Our niece, Laura, sent us some pictures from her home, eight miles away, this is the result of 2.5" of rain in less than a half hour on already saturated ground:

Our two beautiful grand-nieces, Katelynn & Paige

Having fun!

There are many people with wet basements to contend with, that's for sure.

Yesterday we had a full 24 hours of sunshine and it was wonderful!  I managed to get the lawn mowed here (and Joel mowed at Mom's) and did some weeding in the afternoon. 

This is echinacea 'Green Jewel' though the green isn't showing up so well in this photo.

I also did some tidying up in the driveway, picking up sticks and leaves from the last storm

After supper, Joel and I decided to trim up some spruce trees for my near-90 yr old mother.  We limbed two big ones up and removed two more smaller ones that weren't doing well in the shade of a black walnut.   I came home with an entire trailer full of brush.  In keeping with Joel's new rule of no brush piles sitting around, he and I burned all the limbs last night.  With it being so wet, there are no worries of starting a fire anywhere else, one good thing about this weather. We were done by 10:30PM which made for a long night, but it sure felt good to be doing something productive which also made Mom very happy.  She was sick of looking at dead limbs and if she wants, we will probably be taking down the two trees entirely and replanting something nice instead.

This morning the rain set in again; and it looks as if we will not get out of the woods until Sunday at the earliest.  They are calling for 100% chance of precipitation and thunderstorms; it's almost as if we are stuck in this wet weather pattern the same way we were stuck in the drought.  I took these pics just as the rain started up:

  Well, sitting here, watching it pour again, I guess I will be working on something other than gardening today, and tomorrow and the next day.....sigh.  I know, it could be much worse, and at least there's flowers still trying to bloom despite the 10" of rain we have had since the first of July--not to mention the incredible rains we had in June.  I started gardening in the first place because of two things, my love for growing things and the lift in spirits it gave me from depression.  So, it's depressing not to be able to work at it---but I know, this too shall pass.  I really wish we could share this overabundance of rainfall with those who really need it.

Brighter days are around the corner. 

Karen

Soggy

 Rain every day.........almost every night...........everything is completely saturated................I think I'm mildewing sitting here. 

Yesterday the sun did shine for a few inspired moments before it decided to go away again for good.  There was a storm eight miles away from us that dumped 2.5" of rain in less than an hour, causing major flooding.  Last night there were several more storms, nothing strong, but the rain amounts are staggering in some places.  We lucked out with 'only' a half inch.  Our entire county was under a flash flood warning all last night and today doesn't look much better, with a 40% rain forecast.  Yesterday's forecast was only for 20%...so hold on to your life jackets, you may need them!

The only flowers in the yard safe from really high water are the ones in the tall plant stand!

I'm getting tired of trying to weed or deadhead or do much of anything else outside, it's just too wet.   I never thought I'd say that--especially after the last six summers in a row where when we would get rain, it would be barely enough to settle the dust and then weeks would go by with nary a drop.  Then I spent my days hauling hoses from one location to another, watering by hand.  This year, the hoses are neglected in coils by the barn.  So, ok, that's one perk of this relentless rain.

 There are a few lilies to come yet which is a good thing, because it seems as if everything bloomed all at once which will leave us with a lot of summer with nothing left to look forward to. ( Remember I said I like flowers in bud almost more than full bloom?)

We are lucky here, because our soil is very sandy and drains well, at least in most parts of the yard (the vegetable garden is not in a good drainage area).  There is a five foot deep tree spade hole left from when we had the last tree moved out by the veggie garden.

There isn't anything around this hole to give it any perspective, but the water is over 4' deep and it's not going anywhere; the soil is completely saturated.  Less than a foot away is the veggie garden which has this much water underneath it.  No wonder it's giving up!

I'm ashamed to post this picture, but here is what the tomatoes look like now, after almost a foot of rain in a few weeks.  They were grown from seed and doing so well at first.  We didn't spray this area and the mosquitoes are unbelievable too, coming in droves whenever I pause to take a picture.

There is one tomato still clinging to life---I hope it survives.  Oh, well, on to prettier sights:

We were given a gift certificate to a local gardening store and this aluminum eagle caught my attention so here he is, perched on the east berm overlooking the quarry pond.  I hope he can fend off the herons when they come in to harvest our frogs and fish.

The rudbeckias are doing very well but then they are planted in nearly pure sand here, behind the quarry.

Even the 'Pixie Meadowbrite' echinacea is looking pretty good despite liking much drier conditions.

So dark out today, taking these pictures I felt as if it were dusk instead of early morning.  It hasn't rained yet, but it will.

The hydrangeas are taking the dampness hard too, though they are still doing their best to bloom.

Dawn Redwood in the rain.

Despite everything, the lilies are still going strong, and they smell heavenly.

The drain holes in this flower pot were plugged a few days ago and the plants looked awful.  After fixing the problem, they are rewarding me nicely.

Daylily 'Spider Man'

I had to cut the picture session short due to................you guessed it.........Rain. 

Until tomorrow, Karen