I cry "Uncle!"

When I decided to let the clover re-establish itself in my lawn, I failed to anticipate how much it would infiltrate my flower beds. Also, spot treating the weeds in the lawn last summer was a piece of cake compared to now, when more unwelcome plants are taking root there. So I will cancel that experiment and let the lawn guys take care of the weeds for me.

I did manage to do a lot of weed spraying before the heat wave it. Temps in the 90's, heat index over 100, sunny to boot, but breezy, too. My daughter and I kayaked on Cedar Creek today. It's a good thing we got an early start, as by the time we came off the water, many more folks were heading in. We both did a good job applying sunscreen, so no sunburns. Also, very few bugs, so no bites, either.

We had even more rain before the heat wave, which brought down a limb from my elm tree. My theory is the tree is so leafy that the added weight of the rain water was too much.

I followed through on my threat to pick some of the fruit from the serviceberry bushes and freeze it, but just enough to experiment with, to see if anything is interested in the berries mid-winter. A few days later I noticed that the remaining berries were gone. More than just robins dine on them, but I failed to observe the feast.

I've seen yucca plants in others' yards blooming. About all that is colorful here is the penstemon. I watch the bees climb in and out of the blossoms, and a brief overview online indicates that Penstemon barbatus 'Coccineus' is attractive to pollinators. I'll take that with a grain of salt, as it's difficult to find definitive information anymore on the Web, especially about cultivars.

Clio and I have been walking in the early part of the day (6:30am) before the sun becomes too brutal. Ordinarily, she likes to bake on the deck, then come in and flop onto the kitchen floor to cool off. Lately, the baking is short-lived. Not so for old cat Finn; I think the heat feels good on his ancient joints. Summer has definitely arrived.