Beautiful Carolina Sphinx

Great Moth Comes from His Papery Cage

Gone is the worm, that tunnel body. Gone is the mouth

that loved leaves and tomatoes.

Gone are the innumerable feet.

He is beautiful now, and shivers into the air

as if he has always known how,

who crawled and crawled, all summer.

He has wide wings, with a flare at the bottom.

The moon excites him. The heat of the night excites him.

But, where did the dance come from?

Surely not out of a simple winter's sleep.

Surely it's more than ambition, this new architecture!

What could it be, that does it?

Let me look closer, and a long time, the next time

I see green-blooded worm crawling and curling

hot day after hot day

among the leaves and the smooth, proud tomatoes.

Mary Oliver

Summer Blooms Around the House

Softhair Coneflower

I wish I had some yummy looking veggies to show you all, but the vegetable garden is quiet for right now. July, August and September tend to be our hottest months, and the veggies just can't handle those kind of temperatures.

Luckily, we have the wildflowers around the house putting on their summertime show. :)

Beautyberry

American Painted Lady on a Mammoth (Wow! they aren't kiddin'!) Sunflower

Lanceleaf Coreopsis.

Monarch Video

A few moments of peace for my friends.

I hope you're all having a good day. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Screech Owls at My Neighbor's House

Dim Sum Sunday - Grilled Fruit

For this week's Dim Sum Sunday, it's all about grilled fruit.

Yummy, Grilled Bananas Foster.

I was a little skeptical at first, not knowing if I would like the taste of the rum in the sauce, but after the first bite, I was in love! It had a great flavor that went well with the cinnamon, bananas, and the non-hand cranked, non-homemade, vanilla ice cream. My only regret with the recipe, is that we halved it, and now it's almost all gone. :(

For more grilled fruit fun, go and visit Shamu at the Karmic Kitchen.

Wordless Wednesday: Black Swallowtail

Playing at the Beach

Such an adorable little Ghost Crab!

Sea Grapes

Railroad Vine

Garden Blogger's Death Day

My blogger friend Kate, has started hosting a Garden Blogger's Death Day on the last day of the month. It gives all of us gardeners a chance to take pictures and show off our plants that have croaked for various reasons.

So from my garden this month we have:

The Sunflowers which had some sort of rust going on.

My Gold Rush Zucchini, the mildew took them out.

My Golden Nugget Watermelon. Pickleworms and mildew.

And last are my beautiful tomatoes. :(

That wraps up my dead plants for the month.

Don't forget to head over to Kate's if you'd like to join in.

Dim Sum Sunday - Summer Blockbuster

This week's Dim Sum Sunday is, Summer Blockbuster, let Hollywood be your culinary muse. So we take you back to 1984 with the film Ghostbusters.

I ain't afraid of no roast

In honor of this great movie, we present to you, "I ain't afraid of no roast"

No, I did not come up with the catchy title, it's from TBS "Dinner and a Movie".

Yes mom, it is real meat.

(from a cow!)

Head over to the Karmic Kitchen for some more Dim Sum Sunday fun.

Backyard Views

Wordless Wednesday: Garden Critters

Dim Sum Sunday - I Scream for Ice Cream!

For this week's Dim Sum Sunday, I bring you

Fried Ice Cream.

Ice Cream, rolled in crushed corn flakes, and deep fried in 360 degree oil.

Fried Ice Cream, that I didn't really like.

I'm sure it's because I got lazy, and went with store bought ice cream. I should've had Hubs out there cranking us out some homemade ice cream, then it would have been excellent! ;)

Go and visit Shamu at The Karmic Kitchen for some more, tastier ice cream fun.

It's Hot Out!

Okay, it's definitely summer, and my plants aren't liking it at all. The squash and cucumbers are toast and my tomatoes don't have much longer.

Quite honestly it's all very, very sad.

But, at least I am learning which plants can handle the heat and which ones can't. Hopefully this will serve me well when it comes to planning for my next seed order.

I do have some summer stand outs. The eggplants are doing well, which surprises me cause I never have good luck with them!

And the green, purple and pineapple tomatillos are going bonkers in the backyard garden. I am so looking forward to yummy salsas! Hopefully, I didn't just jinx myself. :)

Mystery tomatillo

This is my third sowing of beans so far this year. And this time I'm doing Kentucky Blue and Kentucky Wonder. I've had great success with both of these before, so I'm curious as to how they'll handle the hotter months of the year.

And last, but not least, I still have my wonderful sunflowers.
(Until the conures and quaker parrots eat them)

Happy, cheerful, smile makers. I just love them!

So friends, what do you all have growing?

Dim Sum Sunday - Fun Summer Drinks

Frozen Lemonade

Nothing says summer more than some nice frozen lemonade!

Again today, I had my two helpers who wanted to join in on the fun.

Which was so cool! Thanks you two!

I'm loving my two dollar ice cream maker!

I'm pretty sure though that Hubs feels a little differently about it than I do, since he's the one who has to crank it. ;)

Yummy, sweet and sour frozen Lemonade.

Just the right thing to cool you off on a hot afternoon.

Thanks again Shamu for another fun Sunday