It's a jungle out there!

The heat wave finally broke, so I took advantage of the lower temps and overcast sky to mow and trim and weed a bit, mostly in the front yard. I tell myself to just pull a garden cart full of weeds each day and the yard will look halfway decent, but like housework, it is too easy to say mañana.

In previous years, I have complained bitterly about the lack of blue berries on the Viburnum dendatum 'Blue Muffin'. For whatever reason - polar vortex? rainy spring? heat wave? = it looks like it will have a bumper crop this year. For the same or different reason, the bishop's weed had very few seed heads while the yarrow decided to bloom.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the butterflyweed looks good this year AND now I can report it is doing its job of attracting monarchs. This fellow hung around just long enough for a couple of decent shots.

I was equally happy to find (bumble?) bees on the bee balm, aka monarda. Many years ago I had plenty of this in the so-called meadow, but somehow it all disappeared. I'm happy to have it back with its unique scent.

In an unrelated note, I am attempting to improve my drawing skills by rendering one flower a day, in a range of mediums, mostly colored pencil or markers. Needless to say, my first efforts are obviously first efforts. For days when the weather is uncooperative, I am capturing some closeups of blossoms, so I can continue this pursuit indoors. The drawing results are posted on my IG account, under bittenbyknittin.

Here's hoping the milder weather continues for a while.