I promise. I'm not really bragging about my Adonis like body
(I'm living proof Adonis did not age well). It is just super hot down here. It started early in May and has rarely let up. I know, I know. Just a few posts ago I was complaining about all the water. Now I'm complaining about the heat. I just can't ever be satisfied. I'm not completely complaining. There have actually been some benefits to both the extremely wet spring and the summer that followed. Look below.
Lovely critter, that dragonfly. We have had massive swarms of dragonflies this year. I don't think I have seen so many before in my entire life. Any place where there is the slightest semblance of an open field, there will be swarms of hundreds. The bad news is, it has looked like an alien invasion. It has gotten scary a time or two to have massive B52 sized dragonflies come up and buzz you, or smack against your shoulder. The good new is the mosquito control has been much better this year than in previous years. Dragonflies love mosquitoes even more than I love pizza
(I know! Astonishing that anything could beat my passion for pizza!). All of the rains provided excellent breading grounds for the mosquitoes
(An alien's favorite dinner!). I think having a hard winter this past year also kept the fish from eating the dragonfly eggs and larvae. This has all resulted in an almost mosquito free summer, thanks to a swarm of aliens. That beauty up there was flying around another wonderful result of the spring and summer weather.
The beauties above are our Lady Neva day lilies. Some of you astute readers
(Okay. There's only two people following me. Maybe one of them is astute.) may have picked up on the fact that these are Lady Neva's and my wife's name is Neva. I was searching the internet several years ago for day lily providers. I like day lilies. They produce beautiful flowers, and require very little work, other than the initial planting. I was browsing the web site for a provider and what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a lily named after my lovely wife. It even has a flaming red patch on each petal to match my Neva's red hair. I purchased six lilies back then. As you can see from above, these suckers multiply. I say, "The more, the merrier!" These lilies started blooming in mid June. The last bloom died yesterday. That's a pretty darn good show if I do say so myself.
You might be asking yourself, "Self! What's going on up there!?! Those people seem to be saluting a funeral pyre." Self is going to tell you that they're saluting a US flag. Remember those floods that happened way back on May 1 & 2? Well...on that Saturday, Joseph's Webelos den was supposed to have an Arrow of Light ceremony. The Arrow of Light is the highest rank a boy can earn in Cub Scouts. It is also the only rank he can continue to wear on his uniform as a Boy Scout. Anywho, it took a while, but after much consternation, constipation, tempers flaring, and such, the Boys were finally able to have their ceremony on June 18. That was two days before heading off to summer camp, and almost two months after the original scheduled date. Better late than never. We almost thought we were going to have to cancel again! It started raining, and raining, and raining. Well, several of us decided we were going to have the ceremony, even if it was on a raft. God heard us, thought the raft was a pretty stupid idea, and stopped the rains.
We started the ceremony off with an official US Flag retirement ceremony. We have an official retirement center at our church. It was built as an Eagle Scout project several years ago, and dedicated to the memory of my father. Even when not in use, it is a great place to collect your thoughts.
The night ended with the traditional burning Arrow of Light. The little red headed boy is not worshiping the great arrow. He was just warming his hands. After all, it was a chilly evening in the low 90's. It was a perfect ending to a looooooong day. I think it might have even mended a couple of fences that started to break down in the process of finally getting there.
Dragonflies aren't the only critters we've seen about this summer. We walked out on our front porch one afternoon to find this fine fellow sitting around and having a good rock in the rocking chair. Unfortunately, I think he might have been a little camera-shy. As you can see below, he was doing his best to avoid the paparazzi.
We have 4.5 acres out here and nary a garden. Oh well. We do have a big flower pot on the front porch with some cucumber vines. Joseph looooooooves dill pickles. Christina is pretty fond of bread-n-butter pickles herself. We certainly don't get enough cucumbers off our little setup, but it is still fun to pick the ones we do get, supplement them with some store bought cukes, and end up with something like this.
Joseph and I canned 7 pints of dill pickles today. Since we made 'em they are chock full of garlic. Each jar has a clove of fresh garlic, as well as half a teaspoon of granulated. In a few weeks the two of us will open up a jar and partake of this manna from heaven.Umm! Umm! Good!
