And this happened in our yard today:
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The colors will fade fast, although the peony flowers last well.
Still waiting on a few. The ants are working hard, though.
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The colors will fade fast, although the peony flowers last well.
Still waiting on a few. The ants are working hard, though.
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And finally, my girl-friend gave me many, many flower bulbs and rizomes a few years ago. The irises didn’t bloom until this year. Wow! I can hardly believe this is happening in my yard.
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And I do need to find a heartier type of clematis, that doesn’t die to the ground each year And with a longer bloom time!
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I would be surprised (but not shocked given my ignorance around gardening at low or high temps)to learn there are clematis that can take a hard winter. Even here my The President regrows from the ground each year, though I suspect it is my miserliness with the hose that makes summer it’s dormant season here. The other one I have is a C. Montana cultivar called something like “Apple Blossoms”. Those names are contingent on memory serving … a shaky proposition. Yours looks happy.
I’ve been to a few gardens that had lilacs in bloom but not near me. Wonderful fragrance as I’m sure yours reminds you every time it blooms. And your irises- oh my! The intensity ( saturation?) of the color is off the charts. I only have the Walking Iris from Brazil but it also has amazingly vibrant blue/purple color.
My rat tail cactus and epi cactus are in bloom now. Will try to get some photos.
Love the picture of the fly in shot #2 @Kendel. It is very striking against the pink background. 
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You know my opinion of flies is on the rise. I’ve been thinking maggots are the boatmen who upon metamorphosis ferry as much of our remains back into the living world as they can. I’ll still be murdering in droves the ones that keep checking to see if I’m ready to go, of course. So much for karma.
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I made sure to get a bug, just for you, Liam! Actually, I thought it might be a really tiny bee, but I’m no specialist.
Make sure to enjoy the ant on the peony bud, too. 
You may help me develop a greater appreciation for some bugs, but probably mostly the ones I already think are interesting. Our mosquitos here are awful, and some of the flies that come in the later summer could carry off small children. And they bite, too, but there are zillions more mosquitos. Getting worse as Michigan becomes a (warped) northern tropical climate.
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I was amazed, when I walked out to weed the other day, and the irises were blooming. I had quit looking for them, and had no idea what they would look like. My friend, Sandy, had probably told me, but I forgot, if she had. What a wonderful gift!
I noticed the pictures of these light purple ones didn’t upload earlier.
Those curves! That color!
I just looked for Apple Blossom clematis. Lovely! And also found some hardy for zones 3-4, which more than covers us. I’ll see what I can do with those. There are a few places that would be wonderful with them.
I have a really effective black thumb. So anything beautiful in my yard seems quite miraculous.
Lilacs love to grow around here in a lovely variety of pinks, purples and white. Lots of the rural properties have them where grandma had planted them around the house, which no longer stands, but the bushes just keep going.
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I found that out the hard way, hiking in Hall’s creek at Capital Reef NP probably in Utah but not from Arizona. It was summer and Lia, my stepson and I were in shorts and tees. We barely got down into the canyon and it felt like we were being hit with a high voltage cattle prod. We didn’t pack in much clothing but we scrambled to put on blue jeans, high top boots and our light raincoats including the hoods which we cinched as snug as possible. Fortunately we walked on a ways before considering rescaling those walls and they disappeared. We camped close to the northern end of the slot canyon and never saw them again. When it came time to leave we packed and past the site of the ambush for sun up. The worst part was that you couldn’t just shoo them away. They’d land on my blue jeans and bite through the fabric until I made myself black and blue pummeling them. (Haven’t been back.)
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Yep. We’ve met those flies here, too. Terrible.
Eau d’DEET is my summer fragance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help with the flies.
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So this weird little Aeonium glandulosum I’ve had growing here for several years is blooming. Fortunately it is only one of its three branches as that one will die after it finishes. It should set loads of seeds. I think, though it isn’t fabulously beautiful, it is at least fun in a Doctor Seussie way.
Here is a photo of some growing on a cliff side on the island of Madeira where it hails from. Lots of plants from there and the Canary Islands like our local climate here in bayside California.
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Amazing! Like you said, very Dr. Seussish.
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Definitely Seuss approved!
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This is one of my favourite beetles, Oedemera nobilis or the Thick Legged Flower Beetle.
Not only do they come in this metallic green and have stylish tapering elytra (the hardened forewing), but the males have these massive femora. Clearly not one to skip leg day… 
This one is sat on a buttercup so hopefully that gives you an idea of scale.
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That is one elegant bug.
(and a really beautiful photo.)
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TRIGGER WARNING - SPIDERS
And here is a mumma wolf spider (Lycosidae) hiding out in her burrow. If you are wondering what the white orb attached to her abdomen is, it’s her egg sac.
Lycosidae are wandering spiders, which means they don’t make webs. Instead they stalk their prey, either ambushing them or chasing them down. In some ways, they fill a similar niche to big cats. It also means when they lay their eggs, the don’t hide them in a web like many spiders, but rather carry them around until they hatch.
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It always surprises how many people react to images of spiders the way cats do to cucumbers placed behind them on a YouTube video.
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Sometimes I wonder at the beauty and what evolutionary reasons there may be for the way some things develop or if God just has them be for our enjoyment and delight. (Note that this is a reply to the flower beetle and not the spider. ; - )
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I know right? I used to be a terrible arachnophobe (learned behaviour from my mother). Now I’m a dyed in the wool spider evangelist, so I can kind of see it from both sides.
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Amen, for the flower beetle AND the spider!
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Yeah, spiders are cool. I remember some late nights with a flashlight when I was young watching them travel by going to the top of some low growth and letting out a thread that went horizontally with whatever air movement there was and using it as a bridge to wherever it stuck, sometimes several feet away
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