Monsoon season?

We weren't home when this rain arrived, but we were caught in the storm on our way back from Manitowoc this evening.  I had picked Carl up after work and we went to a few more antique stores on the lakeshore where we bought a garden bench and chairs and then out to eat.   I had to drop Carl off at work to pick up his car and he then followed me home in a complete downpour.  We crawled along the road at barely 30mph for miles before we drove through to the other side of the storm.

We were relieved just to get home in one piece.  Here's the lawn on the west side of the house, or I should say, our lake.  We had an inch and a quarter of rain on Wednesday.  The downpour tonight gave us another 2" + in a very short time, which led to the creek rising.  Of course, the ground is so saturated that it is not soaking in. 

Luckily, at this point, the culvert was still handling the stream, but once it gets choked with excess water, it rises and goes over the road.   I'm writing this at 1AM, and the rain is still coming down quite hard....I keep my fingers crossed it won't last all night.

I can only imagine what the gardeners who are scheduled for the big garden walks, namely the Green Bay Botanical Garden walk and several others in the area, are going through about now.  With all of this rain and the mosquitoes, getting a garden ready for this weekend would be a nightmare.

 Joel left on a trip to Michigan early Wednesday morning with his friends for a few days and Dave is having car trouble, so things around here are a bit hectic with deciding who is driving which car and who will be home for meals, etc.  I wandered from one project to another outside always trying to stay one step ahead of the mosquitoes.  After talking to several friends of ours who have had good luck with spraying for the varmints, I think we are going to have to go the same route.  Remember I talked about the mosquito 'eater' the other day?  We bought one tonight for a fairly cheap price and hooked it up in the rain.  Now we'll see if it works or not.  I don't imagine it will fix all of our mosquito problems, but even if it made a dent in a few of them, it would be worth what we paid. Maybe with a combination of spraying and the machine, we'll be able to enjoy the yard before frost again.

Ann stopped in tonight and we did some planning and stacking (ok, churning) the stuff in the garage.  We need to have it ready as soon as possible.  The mosquitoes just put a damper on the activity for all of us, so we're going to give it another try in the daylight.  

The sun did shine for a little bit today:

Nasturtium 'Empress of India'--try as I might, I just cannot get a great picture of this plant, but I won't give up!

Lilium 'Tiger Baby'

Daylily 'Joel'  (A favorite of ours!)

We bore folks to tears by telling them to touch the petals of this daylily, but they really do feel like heavy plastic.

Balloon flower in bud and.......

Open!

Lost the name, but a beauty nonetheless

Not sure, could be 'New Horizons' ?

The daisies are blooming their hearts out, but the wet weather will make them look bedraggled all too soon.

Trumpet vine coming into full flower

Look closely at this daylily............see anything odd?

This colorful spider has two fly victims already lying in the bottom of the bloom.  Since this is a daylily, he/she will have to close up shop by nightfall and get ready to start over in a fresh flower tomorrow.  I wonder if he can change colors for the different daylilies?  Perhaps it is a chameleon spider??  

Ok, off to get some rest and hoping not to get toooooo much more rain.

Karen