I love summer

I really love summer - even when its hot and steamy, I still love it. Garden is starting to look good - knock on wood, since we are ALWAYS under attack by the critters. For now the racoon fear thing seems to have put the woodchuck off his feed and there's been no sign of him for almost a week. I quit with the racoon trapping, for now, but will start up again at the first sign of groundhog.

The daylilies are coming out now - here's a couple of pretty ones that I especially like. First one is a miniature called 'Little Wine Cup' - I bought it a couple of years ago at Bloomingfields Farm in nearby Sherman, CT. It is not quite as pink as in the picture, more a deep winey red color. (Note our calico cat, Tina, stalking something interesting in the background!) Bloomingfields is a great place - you can order on the web, but Don and I took a drive up to visit them one Sunday. They have 11 acres and one large field of daylilies supplies their business. They sell only on the web, and I can vouch for the quality of their plants. Their varieties are many, and just gorgeous in mid-summer! Makes me think this could be another great crop for Villa Mir!



One of my other favorites that is in bloom now - and very nice this season, too - is this lush lemony yellow one. Gigantic flowers with slightly ruffled edges - very pretty in a cool green corner of the garden! Don't know the variety of this one - I bought it years ago at a nursery and unprotected it was eaten almost to nothing by the deer year after year. Finally in the last few years I got serious about protecting it and it is rewarding me with beauty! A fair exchange!

I'm off to France on business this afternoon, which will curtail the gardening for the weekend. Next week I'm back, then off to Ohio!