Today I was in our back yard, as always, enjoying the flowers and keeping an eye on our veggie plants. We have so many tomatoes this year and thankfully the bright yellow marigolds have kept the tomatoes free of nibbling bugs, woohoo ! Alas though, the brussel sprouts ( my husbands fav. blech ) have been invaded by crowds of aphids, boo ! We need a ladybug army. Thankfully the rest of the vegetable plants are aphid free, cucumbers & spaghetti squash doing great, big red onions, plenty of carrots and a good load of runner beans ( which I'm leaving on the vines to dry ). Our blueberries were magnificent this year, so many !! The raspberries were just okay, a nice handful was all we got but they're still quite new to the garden. The comfrey exploded with blooms again and the peppermint & chocolate peppermint filled our half barrel to the max. For awhile I was concerned about the lack of honey bees, lots of furry bumbles though, but finally by the 2nd. week of Aug. I started noticing one or two honey's buzzing among the bee balm & coneflowers, yay ! I think those bees went to give their hive the location dance and now I'm counting up to at least 20 honey bees a day, do the happy dance ! And the dragonflies, such beauties !
Just before nightfall, around 8pm, I noticed how bright the flowers were and decided to take a few pictures. In these shots are Cosmos, Echinacea ( Purple Coneflower ), Bee Balm and other pretties. Enjoy :) Oh, I've also posted a photo of a vintage metal & crystal scale my parents had back in the late 70's. I'm contemplating whether or not to list it in my vintage shop as it looks quite nice where it is in the photo, gives it a bit of a Steampunk/Victorian look sitting on that lush maroon box & backed by the rich grey-blue walls. We shall see !
