Sunday Stroll - Skyward

There is lovely color in my perennial gardens in these days of mid August, but the "wild edges" are almost stealing the show as golden rod bursts into bloom.

I am enthralled, as I am each year, by the humble joe pye weed. It stretches toward the sky, cloudy and blue-gray on this hot, windy day, some of it taller than my 5 feet 2 inches.

Limerick and the boys have faithfully planted and tended a vegetable garden while I focused on my studies this summer. Things are progressing slowly, but steadily.

While some things, like this pretty sweet potato vine creep along the earth, the slow-growing sweet corn reaches for the cloudy sky.

The milkweed has set pods and seeds are forming for next year's milkweed. The milkweed borers are hungry, but not stealthy at all. It is hard to be mad at anything with such handsome antennae!

Monarchs have been visiting the butterfly bushes, now at the lush peak of their bloom. Their honeyed fragrance scents the humid evening air as a storm gathers in the west. Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you happy wanderings!

1) casa blanca lily 2) star gazer lily 3) blue balloon flower and golden rod 4, 5, 6) joe pye weed 7)roma tomatoes 8) pepper 9) cabbage 10) pumpkin 11) sweet potato leaf 12) sweet corn 13) milkweed pod 14) milkweed borer; Tetraopes Femoratus 15) butterfly weed and western sky

all photos by Aisling, August 16, 2009