The Cause of My Blog Neglect

I think this has been the longest stretch I've gone without posting with no really good excuse. It's not like I've not been home. My mornings are pretty occupied. First thing I do of a morning is go out to the garden. The garden LOOKS good, for the most part. BUT it has not been a good harvest this year. The squash started to do well till the squash bugs took over. And all the other plants are green and pretty, they're just not producing.
This was my harvest today and is really more than what I've had many days. The arugula has been my best crop so far this year. Last year about this time I was blogging about a Bountiful Harvest.

When I finish in the garden I get on my bike. One of my grandson's rode with me one day earlier in the summer. He asked if I was going to take "that", meaning my cart. I inherited this cart from my son and didn't get the attachment to connect it to my bike, so it is bungee cord strapped and not easily removed. So, YES, it goes with me. I carry all sorts of things in my cart. My bike is old and is a challenge to ride. I have two of 10 gears, 1st and 6th. I don't use 1st. The brakes work, but really squeak, so I try not to use them.

Here is my route. The X in the lower right hand corner is my house. My daughter assures me that this route is two miles. They checked it with the car when she started walking for exercise several years ago. The route is a challenge because the roads are paved, dirt & chert. There are also slight inclines along the route. Currently I ride 3 laps.

When I get home I scratch on the back window to let dh know I'm home then I go out to the pool, turn the stereo to NPR and get changed into my swimsuit to cool off, stretch and relax in the pool. Here lately the water has been REALLY cold getting in, but once I get used to it, it's really nice. I'm going to miss the pool when the weather gets cold.

And then there's yard work. Mowing and trimming and just general keeping things looking nice. The grass has stayed green all summer and I haven't watered it once, which is odd for as hot as it was.

This shot is from the backyard shooting just opposite from the front diagonal. Lots of work I still need to do, especially in the back. The sandplum thicket needs to be cut back so I can cut the trees out of it. And I need to clean things out from behind the shower house. I still want to build a leanto on the back of it.

My flowers were sure pretty. The loofah haven't produced anything yet, though they have had plenty of blooms.

My giant sunflower have gotten very heavy heads. I need to get them before the birds and other animals do. The birdhouse squash was suppose to have grown up over the top, but the heat stunted it's growth. I do have one squash though. You can see it hanging at the bottom of the sunflower toward the center of the picture.

My container plants on the porch didn't get all bushy like they did last year and the morning glory are thinner than I've ever seen them. I need to sand and paint my stair handrails yet this summer.

But I'd say the biggest cause for my neglect of my blog is this...

...way too much time on Facebook!!!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful summer. Kids are back in school here, I wave at them when I see them on the playground as I ride my bike. Into another season we go.

Insects and Flowers

A few days back I was getting ready to get in my pool when I noticed the surface was covered by insects and they were getting sucked into the skimmer. Not knowing what they were I didn't stop this process.
Later I emptied the skimmer on a piece of paper so I could get a better look at what these were...

Looking on the Internet I believe these to be Five-banded Tiphiid Wasp -

Description: Five-banded tiphiid wasps are parasitic wasps
that are about 11/8 to 13/8 inches long. Adults are black with
yellow on their head and thorax. They have yellow bands
around each segment of the abdomen and yellow legs.
Their antennae are black.

Benefit: Larvae are parasites of May beetle, scarab beetle,
and tiger beetle larvae. Female wasps lay eggs on
burrowing larvae in the soil. Larvae penetrate the host and
feed until the host is eventually killed. Adults feed on nectar.

Management: Commonly found in southern Nevada,
homeowners may find five-banded tiphiid wasps in or around
their home in the fall and winter. If disturbed, the wasps may
sting. Five-banded tiphiid wasps are not harmful,
if they are found in your yard, encourage them to stay.

Looks like I should have tried to save these. The next day I found just as many floating on pool, heading to their demise in the skimmer. So I got the net and fished them out. There's been a few since, but not the hundreds there were the first couple days. I wonder what drew them to the pool like that?

My flowers are sure looking pretty. It's kind of hard to see them all in the picture. Check out the sunflower below, hiding behind the other flowers.

You know how everyone uses the little heart symbol? I "heart" my kids, that type of thing. I want a heart with an international "no" symbol over it. Than I can do a "I do not heart"... squash bugs. It's bad enough the squash bugs are eating up all my squash plants but now I even have to watch for the stupid eggs on my arugula!!!

If you can't see what I'm talking about then click on the picture, it should get big enough for you to see them.

I hope you're all staying cool or at least out of the sun. Drink plenty of water, we'll be complaining about the cold before you know it.

Princess Birthday Swim Party

This year the Princess decided to have a swim party and since there were so many pictures taken, I'm just going to insert slideshows. The party started in the afternoon with swimming, of course.

The pool pictures are from both before and after the cake and presents. After an hour of swimming everyone got out of the pool, and after drying for a bit, all took seats at the tables in the studio. First there was cake and ice cream. It was questionable as to whether 12 candles would fit on such a small cake, but she got them all on there. The Princess was certainly ready to blow the candles out when the birthday song was over.

After cake & ice cream is was time to open presents...

The last slideshow has pictures of hotdogs grilled at the firepit, miscellaneous shots and picture after dark when the the movie was showing on the big screen and the glow sticks had been handed out.

The only bad part of the party was the mosquitos. Other than that, everyone had a wonderful time.

Happy Birthday, Princess!

4th of July

I've been so busy and spending so much time out in the yard and garden that I haven't had time to update my blog. We didn't have as large a gathering as we have in the past for the 4th but we totally enjoyed those that were able to be here. The weekend of the 4th was a rainy weekend, but not a stormy one. The rain was bearable without the wind and craziness. We set up the tables in the studio for games and eating...
Two long tables lengthwise out from one wall...

...one long table lengthwise for the food and the third table out lengthwise to the center for use as needed.

The ladder, above, was so the older kids could climb up into the loft to free up more room below.

Below is how you get a fire started with wet wood. You just need a good bellow to get a hot fire.

The rain stopped just in time for the kids to start lighting their fireworks.

The big kids were ready to voluntarily get wet.

Also notice in the picture below the large white area above the pool. That's the screen for the movies.

Here's a shot of the yard. You can see the barbecue grills under the canopy.

The pool is new this year, the one we had for 5 years finally bit the dust. The new pool is much larger and came with a volleyball net and ball which the kids soon put to use.

A lot of energy was exerted having fun.

Then darkness fell and the light show began. This was on the street and went on for quite some time.

The city fireworks was shot off the night before for the school's 100 year celebration that was going on. It was still raining off and on and I didn't take my camera outside because of it.

Members of our family had bought some nice fireworks...

...and there were other families in the neighborhood shooting theirs off, too.

I like this silhouette shot.

The person in town that shot off the city fireworks had a few of the same to shoot off for the 4th. There was a whole series of ones like the one below....

...with one like this between...

...another like this.

The rain was really a blessing because it hadn't rained in a while and things were rather dry, easily burned. So the rain made for a very safe 4th. We all had a wonderful time, missed those that were elsewhere but felt their presence.

Falling Behind

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted. It's not that I don't have anything to post, it's just difficult to post and do yard work at the same time. My white lilies were really pretty this year.
I've been getting a lot of nature shots. This hawk and small bird were flying above us when we were at Kingman for a T-ball game. Not real sure what kind of a hawk it is, but I don't think it's a redtailed. I think it's small than that.

With my trees getting so large and the bounty of mulberries and sandplums, I've been noticing birds and butterflies that I noticed before. Below is a Brown Thrasher. They're suppose to be timid but this one was so intent in his bug hunting that he allowed me to get fairly close.

I'm not absolutely positive, but I believe the butterfly below is called a Question Mark. ?

Father's Day was the first without my dad. Two of my granddaughters had spent the night and both their father and mother worked on Father's Day so I had the girls make cards. When their mother went to work she dropped their brother off also and he got in on the card making too.

A few weeks ago when I went out to get the paper and mail I found a baby Bluejay sitting on my sidewalk. Days following I saw it in various spots in my yard but more often saw it's daddy flying around and dropping into hidden places in the yard.

Then a couple days ago I spooked a young jay out of my Rose of Sharon bush and up into the maple tree. I don't know if this is the same bird of one of it's siblings. It became interested in the beeping of my camera focus and even came in closer but those pictures didn't turn out real well because he kept flapping his wings.

My garden is coming along, planted late again. This picture is a week or two old, I need to get some new pictures to post.

The pools seen quite a bit of action already this summer. Can you see my cherry tomato plants along the top of the pallets? If they manage to survive I'll need to put them in bigger pots.

And then there's been the T-ball games. I have lots of pictures I need to post from these. I'll probably make slide shows from the games and post them all together in one post. PK has really been enjoying herself playing ball.