Another foggy morning in August captured my attention when the golden glow of the sun’s rays framed the driveway. Ooh…that means it’s time to grab my camera and investigate the messy flower beds I call hope gardens for summer 2023.
I long for the moment I can perfectly frame a photo of any yellow flower. For some reason, yellow and white flowers are more challenging for me to get the pictures I want. But I try.
The foggier and dewier it is outside, the more mysterious it becomes.
As I step out the front door, the planter with marigolds greets me. They’re happy there, all protected from the storms and the critters.
This week I noticed a small and dainty new daisy has reappeared to host the bug that likes to rest on it.
I tried one more time for a day lily photo. I noticed the yellowing leaves and shuttered…a sign of the changing seasons and Fall soon to follow.
The Black-Eyed Susans have finally burst into their party time. I’m so happy they have survived.
Since the Black-Eyed Susans were so happy, I had to check in on the Zinnias – I love their little crowns of yellow.
Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.
Virginia Woolf
Check out this Zinnia enveloped in the winding Morning Glory vine.
The Morning Glories have made their way up and around many of the stalks of the other plants, even on the skinny leaves of the Cosmos Pinkies. They’re on the lattice too, anywhere they can grab on they grow.
I spied the first bud on the Cosmos Pinkie. I can’t wait to see the yellow center as it opens up! Remember how I planted the seeds from an envelope I got in the mail?
As the day heated up with no rain, the garden beds were dry and hard so I watered them. I couldn’t resist grabbing my camera again at the brightest time of the day. I know it’s not optimal for photos, but the zinnia garden was happy dancing in the wind.
As I headed out the door, I heard Mr. saying, “We were supposed to get a storm tonight!”
I replied, “Yes, I saw that on the weather app. I’ll be right back, I saw some very interesting things in my Zinnia garden so I’m heading out to take a few more photos.”
I paused to take a quick shot out the window of the Golden Finch eating flowers. That had to mean some kind of storm was brewing in the future.
I clicked away and thought to myself, “Dearest flowers, we’ve come a long way together this summer. Please survive the storm, I hope you’ll be okay!”
The Cosmos Pinkie bud was opening, and another bud was forming. YAY.
I spied a tiny pale yellow zinnia too. Aw, aren’t you cute?
The remnants of a bud attacked by the Golden Finch. It happens every year.
Then I saw this double-layered Zinnia with a Morning Glory vine reaching for the next best spot to opine about the summer of 2023.
And another click of the camera captures the tiny heart leaf resting on the Zinnia missing a fully formed yellow crown.
I took one last photo before heading into the house. I like to frame single flowers vertically too to see which I like better. How about you? Are you a horizontal or vertical photographer?
After dinner, the storm sirens rang in the neighborhood and the angry messy clouds rolled over the sky.
I took one last photo of the garden across the yard before heading into the house.
The wind blew, and the rain fell hard.
The windy part of the storm didn’t last long. The hail went NE of us. The sunshine returned and left behind a rainbow. I hoped that meant the flowers survived.
Mr. came into the room and said, “Well, the garbage and recycling bins rolled across the yard and the lattice on the clothesline didn’t make it.”
Me, grabbing my camera and yelling, “WHAT? NO!!!!” Through the rain-drenched window, I saw this sad scene.
Thankfully, that was the only damage we had. It definitely could’ve been worse. Silly, ol’ me, I was enveloped in sorrow for the poor flowers as we headed to bed that night. I dreamed of the moments I nurtured them this summer.
My, oh, my how they survived the scoundrels, the drought, and the sharing of the love of vines crawling everywhere. To be crushed in a windstorm.
Sigh…I was thankful for all the pictures I had taken along the hope journey of Summer 2023.
They worked so hard to survive this summer.
Stay tuned . . . next week I’ll let you know what we saw the next morning.
Post Inspiration – Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday – Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “envelope.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy! Along with Terri Webster Schrandts’ Sunday Stills Aug 13 Monthly Color Challenge: YELLOW (any shade) and Amy for Lens-Artists #262 – Framing Your Photos.
PS – Are you a fan of watching storms roll in? At what point do you head into the house for shelter? Do you look for the rainbow after a storm? As a child were you excited or afraid of storms? What is your favorite color for Zinnias? Do you think my flowers survived?
All of your flowers are so gorgeous, Shelley! You have captured them expertly! Those first few with the dew and the shades of yellow are beautiful! Great fog capture too! The goldfinch is pretty–he must be lost as they are the Washington State bird! Hope that storm didn’t mess up your beautiful flowers. They will spring back hopefully!
Thank you, Terri, I appreciate your words of encouragement. Someday…when/if I get a different camera with a better lens I might be able to take macros like yours!! Simply STUNNING!!
The goldfinches have been here since early spring, they must be very confused if they’re supposed to be in Washington 😂
The resilience of flowers is surprising to me…!
Depending on your mobille phone, you can get great close-ups with it. I am waiting for a good deal on the samsung S23 ultra–the camera is better than my current Note 10+. I have used my camera on zoom to get good closeups if the subject cooperates, LOL!
Thank you for the tips. I think my iPhone camera isn’t that fancy. My daughter’s Samsung has cameras like you described. I’m not so good at using my phone for cameras – I like my vintage (12 year old Canon) with zoom lens (or regular one) to take photos in the yard. I set it in Manual mode and play until I get a photo I like. Definitely requires objects that cooperate though! 🤣😉🥰
Wow Shelley, you took a huge number of beautiful photos! I hope the flowers survived the fall of the lattice. I love watching a storm roll in, too bad we get so few here. I am a horizontal, or landscape photographer. It’s the same with videos, always capture video in the landscape mode.
Thanks, John, the flowers blooming make me happy I just can’t stop taking photos. Trust me, there are a LOT of duds that I need to delete too. I’m quite impressed with the resilience of these flowers this year.
Is your family experiencing a lot of storms this year? Michigan seems to be a hot spot for storms!
Yes, you’re a great horizontal/landscape photographer. Where you live has so many cool things to see and capture, it wouldn’t do justice to the view if it was vertical. Except maybe of a palm tree? 🌴😉
Right on about the palm trees! Yes, Lapeer has had plenty of storms and.
A tornado happened a couple days ago not far from my sisters home. Scary.
Yikes, that’s so scary – I’m glad to read your sister is okay! I hope the rest of summer and fall weather is kinder to Michigan than it has been.
Thanks Shelley, she is fine thank God. ❤️
🥰🤗😊
The flowers look wonderful, Shelley. I hope they survive the storm. It’s so disheartening when that happens. I love the foggy morning photo.
Thank you, Cathy! I hope so too. I’ve spent a lot of time nurturing the garden this year. The fog is fun here in the summer. The photos you shared for the prompt are so fun! Nice job 🥰😍😉
Thanks, Shelley 🤗💕
You’re welcome!
Like an artist, you captured beautiful colorful flowers paintings, in your garden.
Have lot of sunny summer days , still going on from now.
Hi Anne! I’m glad you enjoyed the photos. I hope the rest of your summer goes well too and that you have many moments of joy to celebrate! It was great to hear from you, thank you!
Thank you Shelley !
Strange summer this year , the weather is rather windy, rainy, hot or cold … Today it was a tropical atmosphere !
I hope we are going to be able to rest in a few days …
You’re welcome!
I agree, strange summer weather indeed. We’ve gone from 46 degrees in the morning to 90 by the afternoon.
I hope you get to rest too – take care, dear! 🤗
Oh, what beautiful garden photos, Shelley! I wish we could have such a thing here. We have had such a dry hot summer even the heat tolerant plants we have in are yard are barely hanging on. I guess we all just need to be grateful for what we have. And you have lovely photos!!
Thank you, Lisa I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers. Our summer has been drier than normal and it’s taken daily watering to keep these little flowers growing. Sorry to hear you’re in the area where the heat has been so intolerable!
You’re right, we have to be grateful for what we have. I hope some cooler temps head your way soon!
An enjoyable tour of your garden through your beautiful photos, Shelley! We have had a hot and dry summer here, looking forward to autumn.
Thank you, Amy, I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers.
I hope the Autumn weather treats you better than the hot Summer has. Stay cool 😎🤗
A lovely lot of flowers Shelley 🙂
Thank you, Brian! 🥰😍😉
Great pictures! I like the big pink zinnia and love those yellow stars on top.
I’m a weather guy from way back, but I do most of my stormwatching through the skylights in the living room these days. I also have an app called RadarScope that shows the radar. Kind of fun to see the big picture….
Thank you, John – I’m a fan of the big pink zinnia too! The dainty stars are so fascinating to me.
I hope you have very strong glass in your skylights. Last month a hailstorm went through Rice Lake area north of us and had softball sized hail – the Walmart skylights were all destroyed and crashed into the store. Houses had holes in their siding and shingles and car windows broken. It was horrible.
The RadarScope app sounds interesting, I’ll tell Mr. to check it out. The Wunderground.com site I use on my computer isn’t as accurate as we would like it to be. 😂
Knock wood, we haven’t had hailstones crash through the skylight. We don’t get the huge hailstones, at least not that I’ve seen.
Wunderground is crowd-sourced: all the readings are from home weather stations. We have one in our area that consistently reports heat indexes of 130 degrees or more, when others near it might come back with an index in the upper 90’s. I think the owner of the one that gives such high temps needs to calibrate his machine…
Yay, I’m glad you live where the hailstones avoid going!
Oh, yeah, that’s right. I forgot that about Wunderground. We’ve figured out that it refreshes at certain times so that’s why it keeps changing between when I look at the forecast and Mr. looks at the forecast. I think we have one of those guys too! 🤔😉😂
Your flowers and the photos are beautiful, hope the storm was kind to them
Thank you, Alice. I hope they flowers survive too!
I enjoyed your yellow photos – very clever selection!!
Lovely examples of yellow Shelley, the closeups of the flowers with their yellow crowns really appeal to me. #SundayStills
Thank you, Debbie, I’m glad you enjoyed the photos.
It was fun reading your post about the winning Matildas!!! Congrats, I hope they win the next game too!!! 🥰🤗🤩
These are lovely photos, Shelley – the flowers are so pretty. I love being out in the fog, it is mysterious.
Thank you, Dan. Yes, the foggy days are mysterious and fun to take walks in.
Your trip looks like it was a great success! Fairfield Inn on Neville Island, favorite meals, fun beverages all remind me of your books! The signature meal of Zach, Billy, Abbie and Uncle Mike—fried shrimp and fried mushrooms. Yummy!
Thanks Shelley!
You’re welcome!
Shelley – what a colorful post you have here. The flowers are gorgeous and my favorites are the Zinnias, something I have never had in my garden. I’m torn between the pink and purple Zinnias as my favorite colors. The Lilies are so delicate. The Morning Glories are so stunning with the deep colors. I never was a fan of storms but was not scared of them as a child. I am scared of severe torms now because I worry about the outcome, i.e. where will I go and I don’t want to start over at my age. My mom was not a weather worrier, but my grandmother was and she would run around sprinkling holy water all over the house when we had a big storm. She grew up on a farm and a neighboring farmer was out in the field and struck by lightning and died, so she had a lifelong fear of storms. I never think to go look for a rainbow after a storm – of late, we’ve been getting most of our storms in the evening or after dark (not a fan of that). I hope all the flowers survived … it’s a shame to see a storm wreak havoc and destroy a garden you have so lovingly attended to.
Thank you, Linda, I’m glad you enjoyed the colorful flowers. Zinnias became my favorites the first year I planted them. You know how hard I’ve worked at trying to get them to survive. The scoundrels seemed to leave them alone once they started to blossom or got too tall to nibble on? Not sure though. Dang wind storm. 😫
Your family’s fear of storms is warranted.
You and I both lived through the 80s bad storm so we’re rightfully scared of how damaging the storms can be. You have been having a lot of night storms. Maybe with one of the day storms you’ll be able to see a rainbow.
I hope the flowers survive too. 🥰
I want to see a rainbow Shelley. My friend Ann Marie had a double rainbow where she lives and sent it to me a few years ago – I’ve never seen one of those. Our deluge of 18-hour rain started about an hour ago – storming all tonight they say. Good for flowers and grass. I’ve never seen the grass this green. The zinnias were beautiful.
I forgot to say I take both horizontal and vertical pics, likely more horizontal for landscape and vertical for birds, especially those skinny Sandhill Cranes. They are a “tall drink of water” as the expression goes.
I hope you do get to see a rainbow. I’m sad to say I take seeing them for granted. We’ve seen the double rainbows multiple times over the years.
I bet with all that rain the grass is very green and thick. I’d love to walk barefooted in that!!
I agree on the horizontal and vertical photos. Makes sense!
On a complete side note about cranes – my brother and I saw a field FULL of them when we traveled north to visit my dad. He said, “Look at all the Ribeyes.” I made a funny face and said, “What?” He said there are some people who hunt them because the breast meat tastes just like ribeye steaks. 🙄
You are lucky as you have a clear horizon to see sunsets/sunrises (not sure which you see in your backyard) and a rainbow. In the neighborhood, I didn’t look out for the meteor shower or when we have a Super Moon as there is so much light pollution.
Hmm – interesting that the breast meat would taste like ribeye steaks. I didn’t know people hunted them. Oh my!
Hi – I found your comment in my SPAM folder?! Wow, WP is so strange at times. Yes, we can see rainbows S E and W from our house, and the Northern lights in the N. I hope it’ll be clear so I can see the Super Moon at the end of this month too.
Yeah, I thought that was weird too. I guess it depends on where you live and how hungry you are 🤔😉
Hmm – I went back to look at my comment and I’m guessing it was _________ meat (leaving a blank so that “offensive word” doesn’t go to SPAM again). SMH
You have a clear vista which is nice. You get two bites of the apple in August for the great moon shots, but I think you had lousy weather the first time around; hopefully this time is better.
Many years ago, a new neighbor moved in – his backyard was kiddy corner to me, but at Marge’s backyard but before Marge moved there. Both neighbors were from Kentucky. My neighbor (Jim) liked to fish and hunt and the new neighbor hunted squirrels … we had a lot, in fact tons in his tree (which is the dead tree that lost the branch on the electrical wire). He told Jim he had a BB gun as he “liked squirrel pie”. At that time I had a lot of squirrels in the yard digging and hiding peanuts and one chewed my yard ornament to shreds but I sure wouldn’t not have ever hurt them. Squirrel pie in the city!
Yeah, even WordPress is pulling the SPAM trigger. It might be my Jetpack filter too, now that I think about it more. I’m glad whatever happened didn’t automatically delete your comment.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the moon. I did get a few shots of the first full moon this month, nothing stellar as I wasn’t trying too awfully hard. The next one I hope the weather will be nice and I’m in the mood for trying harder.
Oh, my, squirrel pie in the city! WOW – that’s a new one.
I’ve been meaning to tell you that I rarely get a SPAM comment since I did the closed comments that you gave me the “how-to” … it’s great as at the peak of it, I have 250-300 … not every day, but occasionally and at least 30-40 SPAMS on an every day basis. I wasn’t sure it would work on my “About” page (where I had a lot of SPAM) since that was not a “post” per se, but no more SPAM there either.
I’ve not taken any moon shots – I am not in a good area to take them as they’re too many wires/poles, light pollution … boring neighborhood stuff.
Yes, turned my stomach as to the squirrel pie. This morning I walked out of the house to see a big hawk flapping his way over the trees, likely in pursuit of a squirrel. I heard it chirping so I looked up and saw it.
YAY – I’m glad your SPAM comments have dropped so significantly. That’s great news.
I looked back and did get a few ‘good’ shots that I’ll share when I get the second moon shots this month. Fingers crossed. Yes, it is hard to get shots when you’re in an area like your house is located.
I think when my brother and I were little and our family was struggling my dad did make squirrel soup. I believe we were told that years later and instead it was ‘chicken’ soup. 🙄
I hope your squirrel buddy found a good hiding spot!
I need to go down to the Detroit River which is just three miles from my house, but it’s not really a neighborhood you want to be before sunrise or after dusk. Marge used to go to Bishop Park on the Detroit River, just five miles from here, but it’s in a better neighborhood and crime was not as bad then.
I worry about the neighborhood squirrels after seeing that big hawk. I hope we don’t have any more squirrel hunters in the hood. At least you didn’t know it wasn’t “chicken” soup at the time. My mom would go to the farm to visit her grandparents and she’d be playing outside and he’d grab a chicken and decapitate it, then take it inside for Sunday dinner right in front of her … no words.
I’m glad you can go to that area during the safer times of the day!
I hope your squirrels survive too. I think as kids we ate whatever was presented to us. Lots of fish, venison, and other meat. 🤷🏻♀️ Perhaps the reason I was a huge fan of ketchup back then. 🤣 Mr.’s family butchered chickens too, growing up on a farm that’s normal I guess.
My father didn’t hunt or fish, but I had food put in front of me and was expected to eat it all and if I didn’t finish my first course, no dessert. I hated chicken livers with a passion, but my father liked them, so we often had them – ugh. I guess you didn’t get too friendly with any of the farm animals or they might be Sunday dinner.
We heard the “there are starving children in China” comment when we wouldn’t eat. Or maybe that was what my mom heard growing up. She regretted hearing that as it encouraged her to overeat and become diabetic. We’ve been taught many poor lessons about food over the years. I bet, in a way, it is nice for you to do your own thing and eat what you want now?
Yes, I never got friendly with any animal that might become dinner. I don’t understand how the 4H kids raise, train, show, and then sell their animals at the fairs. 🤔
I haerd that line about “there are starving children in China” (often varied to substitute “India”) often, but rejecting something (like chicken livers) wasn’t an option. I poured ketchup on them. 🙂 Yes, I do eat rather oddly now – I kind of do my own thing, boring as my food is as I’m not much of a cook and not a baker at all.
I don’t understand that either about the 4H kids. I had a friend years ago and he volunteered to have a seeing eye dog as a puppy and to give him basic training while raising it, walking it, etc. so when it was old enough it was turned over to the Rochester School for the Blind where they would start its formal leader dog training. He was upset when it was time to let the dog go – I couldn’t do that and he didn’t volunteer for any more puppy basic training after that.
Ketchup was the cure-all for nasty food! It was my go-to often. You’re surviving on your cooking, so that’s says a lot!
I have friends that shelter rescue pets for a bit too. I think that would be hard too. What if you really connect with the pet and it has to go to the next person? 😭 Our cats were rescue cats and the family that took care of the whole litter were extra careful about our two stating they were sisters and had to go together or they were keeping them. We lucked out we wanted one for each of our girls and they were the perfect little pair. Notice they were our girls’ cats and we still have them 😉 Dessy has become my faithful companion – its been 2 years since Copper passed and Dessy finally let me carry her to the Tea House! 🥰🤗
That’s right – Copper just had his sad anniversary this month. Yes, I noticed they WERE the girls’ cats. 🙂 I follow a place on Facebook that is actually a dog grooming service with dog spa (???) and the woman has created an non-profit organization where she gets people to donate food/treats for dogs and cats and some toys too, but mostly food, plus she has a vet come in periodically for neutering and spaying sessions. She rescues a lot of kittens – she seems like a kind soul. I like what she accomplishes and she often will have dogs or cats that have come there is someone dies or can’t take care of them and they are brothers/sisters or bonded pairs, so she asked they go together.
Thank you for remembering, Linda. 🤗
That’s a wonderful service – she’s a person who truly loves animals!
You’re welcome Shelley.
I was just reading a post by her tonight before I came here. Someone rescued a litter of kittens – only three survived. The Mama cat had evaded a trap and was pregnant last time it was seen, then was mauled by a dog and died. The person looked where the Mama hit the kittens and brought them to this woman … they are bottlefeeding them and she took pics too to get people interested in adoption when they’re larger. Yes, she is an inspiration. I follow another woman on Facebook – she runs a rehab place/sanctuary in Lansing called “Nottingham Nature Nook” and she rehabs different animals, mostly fawns who lose their Mamas, but also fox, squirrels, groundhogs. Cheryl takes care of them all.
Your lilies are beautiful. And your zinnias – I love those as there are flowers within the flower.
Thank you, Anita. The lilies are so beautiful but don’t last long. Yes, flowers within flowers! I love how the zinnias keep blooming until fall.
PS – I enjoyed your post about the winter of life. 🤗
Your flowers are beautiful Shelley! I remember at the beginning of spring you were worried the Zinnias wouldn’t make it. Hope they survived the storm. I really like the photo of the yellow flower with the dew on it. Very peaceful feeling.
Thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers. Thank you too for remembering about my spring of worry. The Zinnias fought hard to make it this far. I hope they do rebound.
The day lilies love the dewy mornings – as do I. It’s a magical and peaceful time of day to me. I wonder if the neighbors grab a cup of coffee and watch me wander all over the yard wondering what the heck I’m taking pictures of! 🤣😉
Hahaha! The crazy neighbor is loose again…. let’s watch!
🤣😉😊😁 YES!
I love your flowers, especially the morning glory with the zinnia!
Thank you, Dawn, I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers! It’s been fun trying to get unique photos of them. 🥰😉
I like your flower photos. I find it difficult to get a good picture of yellow flowers, too. You’ve inspired me to plant some morning glories with the zinnias next summer. We have a spot where zinnias thrive, so maybe morning glories will too. 🤔
Hi Ally! I’m glad you enjoyed the flower photos and found some morning glory inspiration. Where Zinnias thrive is an excellent place to try them. Plus their both flowers, just like marigolds, that you can harvest seeds from for the next year’s garden. 🥰
Hello! I love the pictures you’ve shared of the garden – especially the morning glories. it’s the first time i’ve seen it and it’s amazing.
I’ve meant to comment about it before but since it’s part of the post in your photos, I have to say that wooden fence looks very very well-built and leveled. there was care in that construction.
Archer
Hello Archer – thank you for your kind words of encouragement. I’m glad to read you enjoyed the morning glories and the fence. Yes, it was built decades ago and has stood the test of storms and time!
Thank you again – I hope all is well with you!
These are great. I am really behind on all my commenting and just couldn’t seem to get a post together for the celebration theme, so I’ll just make the rounds and comment instead..lol.
Thank you, Kirstin. I’ve been there many times, don’t be hard on yourself, it happens to all of us bloggers 🤗 I appreciate you stopping by to say hi and check out my post, much appreciated! Take care!!
Your garden is beautiful, Shelly. Zinnias represent Virginia woolf’s quote aptly. Thank you for sharing such delightful photographs of all the flowers – the picture of the Goldfinch eating the zinnias is a lovely capture. And so is the Black-eyed Susan in full bloom. It’s terribly sad that all it takes is a storm to destroy so much beauty and that, too, one that has been through drought and heat to survive.
Aw, thank you, Smitha! I’ve enjoyed my garden this year – plenty of photos to look back on this winter when everything is all white. I appreciate your feedback. I enjoyed your post with your painting and your poem – you’re so talented, I wish I could paint and write like that! 🥰😍🤩
Thanks, Shelly, for appreciating the poem. I had fun writing it. Thank you for your kind words on the painting ❤️🙏.
I feel the same when I see your photographs😊 and read your posts. Beautiful pictures and fun to read posts.
I can tell you enjoy the process of creating, that’s a gift to treasure!
Aw, thank you too, Smitha – you’re so encouraging – much appreciated!! 😍