Summer lull...

 No bears since last weekend.  I can't say I am not disappointed.  There are lots of bees and summer flowers.

Phlox is one of my favorite flowers.  The scent is amazing.  The hummingbird moth is never far away.  They also love the phlox.

The chipmunks planted these petunias.  They are always surprising me.

I have many acorn squash and zucchini.  My carrots, beans,  and tomatoes are in full swing.

How are your flower gardens?  How are your vegetable gardens?  I know I need to stop eating the tomatoes and start broiling and freezing them.  

There are bears in them there woods...

 Last night my husband awoke to the sound of my birdseed bin crashing.  He had been ready, as something had tipped it over the night before.  We anticipated some wayward racoons.  He was not prepared for what he found.

That's right.  A big black bear.  We aren't supposed to have bears here, but I guess someone forgot to tell him.  I'm pretty sure he has been around awhile.  Unfortunately, due to the early hailstorm there are absolutely no berries anywhere.  I don't know what else he has to eat until the acorns ripen.  We watched him for about 20 minutes and then scared him off.  It was truly amazing.  I am blessed we had the chance to watch him, but we don't want him to get in trouble.  My greenhouse is shut up tight, the seed is gone, the bird feeders in the house, and trash can in the garage.  Hopefully he won't find my sweet corn and beans.  I'm sure he will be back tonight, but hopefully he will realize there is nothing to see here and move on.  Still, I am thankful we had a chance to see him up close.

On the road again...

 I had no plans to go anywhere this summer and yet it seems I've been on the road every other week.  Last week I was in Darby, Montana conducting a training.  It is beautiful country with wonderful people.  

Every day I drove by the set of the show Yellowstone.  It takes away some of the magic when you find out everything is only 200 feet off the highway.

This was the same creek.  One side of the island was calm and soothing. Below is the other side which was fast moving and rushed.  

I went for a hike up Tin Cup trail and enjoyed the jaunt immensely.  The trees were monstrous.  I was busy identifying all of the fauna along the trail.

My husband, as always, was amazing and kept my plants watered during 100 degree temps.  He even sent visual proof of his efforts.

Everything was happy and healthy when I returned.  He even managed to sand, stain, and caulk a majority of the west side of our cabin.  This side always takes the brunt of hail, rain, and snowstorms.  I was impressed with his progress.

I had a pleasant surprise on Saturday when my birthday present from last year arrived.  My sister got me a gift certificate for Sutton Iris company.  Needless to say I got them in the ground.  The timing was perfect, as we got a nice thunderstorm last night.

Did you have any surprises this week?  Did you do any traveling?  Any hikes or gardening?  I hope you had a great week.

We survived...

 We survived another week with Aunt Bonnie.   The annual tradition continues.  A culmination of the weeks events was a 7 mile hike up Black Elk Peak.  There was some grumbles, but I ignored them and the endeavor was exhausting but successful.  The picture below is the before photo.  Seven miles later nobody wanted to take a picture.  We were too busy partaking in our perfectly prepared picnic.

The view from the top was amazing, but somehow I didn't get a photo.  It was a perfect day for a hike as it was in the 70's with a nice breeze.

As always there were projects and baking.  We made pies, cookies, peanut butter bars, and (of course) jello for the post hike picnic.

Despite three people in my little cabin kitchen, there were no major mishaps.  We did run out of peanut butter, but managed to improvise.

The weather was cool, but magically warmed up prior to putting the floats in the water.  Somehow we only managed to get three in the Jeep.   We must be slipping, because one year we were able to load 5 inflated floats  and five of us.

The photo below is the girls in back of the Jeep.  A tad crowded.

It was the week of the Days of '76 Rodeo.  The ladies are all barrel racers, so we went and watched the barrel racing slack.  Then played tourist in Deadwood.

We may have taught the girls how to play poker in an effort to keep the evenings lively.  I have to say they caught on quick.

It was another successful week.  I always worry the older ladies will get sick of our tradition, but much to my surprise they are still game.  

Do you have any family traditions? I would love to hear about them.  

Drat...

No it isn't snowing.  It did hail.  I got pictures of the hail, the damage, and my beautiful roses that managed to survive. 

The drat comes from the fact that I did not notice my camera was set on video mode.  All my great pictures are actually 8 second videos.  That is a drat.  I had some beautiful rose photos.  I tried again today, but it wasn't the same.

I also can't show you the before and after of my vegetable garden.  You can't believe how destroyed it looked after the hail storm.  Now...

It is slowly coming back.  I'm very happy.  A long time ago we had a terrible hail storm.  I was so depressed about my flowers.  In the end the flowers were amazing.  The hail had pruned them, which is something I am always hesitant to do.

Just because things seem bad in the beginning, don't assume the worst.  

Despite the hail, it looks like the garden is doing fine.  Maybe I need to take my drat back.  

Do you get a lot of hail where you are?  Whet is your biggest weather woe.

Life and death in the garden...

It is amazing what you see in the garden if you pay attention.  

This little black and red bug, for example.  He seems to be enjoying the daisy.

My peonies, or as they call them in Denmark prairie roses, and columbine are still blooming.

I need to harvest my chamomile for tea.  Mixed with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice it makes a wonderful hair detangler.  Somehow I have managed to keep it contained, as it can go a little wild.

The sun's rays can really set off the poppies and roses.

I've talked about life in the garden and now take a moment to see the opposite.  I happened to notice that the bee in this peony seem to be sideways.

Upon closer inspection I found out why.  He had met his demise thanks to a very cleverly camouflaged spider.

Yup, there it is.  Notice the white spider even has a pink stripe to match the peony.  I wonder what he will do and where he will go when the flower withers?  Does he wander the woods looking for other pink flowers?

Well, those are my observations for the week.  Some good, some bad, but always interesting.  What have you observed in your garden this week?