One HOT day while walking in the park, we came across this bed of ferns, and instantly, I felt cooler.  Not sure why...was it the color?  the texture?  or just the feel of the thing?  Whatever, it felt good on a hot day.

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

And on the way home from the Ocoee, as we were entering North Carolina from Tennessee, I snapped a great picture of the Manteo 563 sign.  Just a reminder:  in Manteo, there is also a sign, and it says:  Murphy NC 563,  telling us that our state is 563 miles from east to west.  

 

How lucky are we to have seen both signs in the last two months.

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

 

 

 

We made it to the Ocoee on Saturday:  no rain in sight, and a gorgeous day for a Jeep ride.  We parked on the side of the road, and watched the rafters for a while.  It was a hot day, so there were lots of folks out on the river.  Some were in little kayaks, and hundreds on those 8-passenger rafts.  They all looked like they were having fun.  

 

We had fun just watching.  That's a little more water than I can handle, but I love to watch as they hit the rapids, squeal, and move on down the river.  

 

Go there:  it's fun!!!

 

 

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

 

As I was clearing out a bit of trash and leaves near the garden, I came across this beautiful moth.  It was almost as wide as my handspan, which is 8 inches.  I've seen moths like this before, and remembered that it is an Imperial Moth.  I checked with Seek to be sure.  

 

Of course all moths have larval stages, and the larvae eat plants, but the Imperial Moth caterpillars eat various species of pine, oak, maple, sassafras, and sweet gum leaves.  Not my tomato and pepper plants.  

 

Ok, they can stay.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

And here is our first BIG hornworm of the season.    Fortunately it was not in the garden.  I found it on the extra pepper plants that never got planted in the garden.  They are still in six-packs on the bottom deck.  

 

When I went to water the plants one day I noticed a bunch of chewage on the ends of the pepper plants.  So I began searching for the culprit.  It took a few minutes, but I found him, and look how huge it is...was.  As big as my index finger! 

 

My Seek app called it a tobacco hornworm because of the stripes on its back.  Tomato hornworms have V-shaped lines and red horns.  I love to give you the correct names of the things I find in the garden.  But, whether its "tomato" or "tobacco" I DON'T want ANY hornworms anywhere near my garden.  

 

 

STILL A HAPPY GARDENER!!!

 

 

That is one BIG tomato.  Isn't it beautiful?  

 

Really, I'm just bragging.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

Last week we decided to go for a Jeep ride down to the Ocoee. The Ocoee is only about an hour away, so it's a nice little day trip for us.  We pack a little picnic, put the top down, and go.

 

I know that the river isn't always open for recreation, and I wasn't sure of the schedule, so I looked it up.  It turned out to be a good day to go watch the rafters, so we headed out.  It turns out that even though the river was running, the weather wasn't that cooperative.  We got 5 miles down the road, and the bottom fell out!!  The Jeep doesn't care if it gets wet, be we got soaked!!!  So we turned around and came back home.  Of course, it is July, so getting caught in a rain storm wasn't too bad.  Actually, I thought it was kinda fun.  Maybe we will do that again.

 

Anyway, I thought you might like to have a copy of the schedule, in case you want to take a little trip.  

 

 

YOU'RE WELCOME!!

 

Last week, I showed you the Sumacs getting ready to bloom.  Well, they are blooming now and you can HEAR them before you even see them.  The pollinators are all over them, and the buzz is quite loud.  We saw about 30 bumblers and honeybees on this single bloom spike.  And there are hundreds of bloom spikes on just this one hedge.

 

LOVE IT!!!!

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Can you believe this?  These are the same sunflowers that I showed you last week.  They just keep on blooming!!!

 

I guess there are worse things that could happen in a garden, right?  

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

This just shows you how cool this park really is.  When they rebuilt the handrail for the little bridge, this tree was in its path.  So instead of removing the tree, they cut out the handrail to accommodate it.  I love that!!!

 

Who was there first?

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!