Garden Bloggers Bloom Day July 2026 #WordlessWednesday

It's another two memes for the price of one day - Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Wordless Wednesday.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day has been a years old meme. hosted by Carol of May Dreams Gardens.  On the 15th of each month, flower gardeners from all over the world take pictures of what is blooming in their yard and/or houses.  Carol is retiring from this meme the end of the year, so this is the last July installment.

In my zone 6a Southern Tier of New York, it's hot and dry.  Today, we are also enduring a bonus - wildfire smoke.  I feel for all those affected.  Fire is a terrible thing.  So most of these blooms are from yesterday.

My astilbe didn't make it until today, alas.  And, I also have a confession.  In the last two years, my flower gardens have been neglected (long personal story why) and are a bit out of control. I'm going to have to pay someone to help me get it into shape, but not this hot week.

Much of the blooming in my gardens is from the humble daylily, and I'll be sharing some of my daylily collection in a minute.  But first, some non-daylily blooms.

Bee balm, leaves wilted but the flowers still beckoning bees.

Yellow million bells.

Yellow loosestrife.  Lesson learned from this plant:  when buying a plant from the local extension service plant sale and they warn you, "this is aggressive", believe them, no matter how pretty the plant is.  I started from one plant.  I don't want to count what I have now.

Ditto for these perennial sweet peas, which we grew from seed, and now wish we hadn't.

One of several hosts.  

Now the daylilies 

This is my oldest daylily.

I bought this at the same time, I think.  It was from a mail order nursery.

Thankfully, these beauties don't mind heat or little water.

 

These are my tallest dallies, and good thing, as they are competing with other plants.

I'm going to call it quits now, because I'd like to visit some of you, so have a Happy Wednesday filled with joy.

Linking up with Carol at May Deam Gardens for her #GardenBloggersBloomDay

Linking up with Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.

A Total Eclipse of My Heart #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Why not join us?  Our theme this week is "You Pick" .  

It's my sad duty to conduct another set of inductions into Rock and Roll Heaven. 

Bonnie Tyler, Welsh musician, passed away July 8 after having been in a medically induced coma after emergency intestinal surgery in Portugal back on May 6.  She was expected to recover but it was not to be.    Tyler had a long musical career, including three Grammy Award nominations.

These are the three songs I know from her.

1983's power anthem Total Eclipse of the Heart was Tyler's biggest hit in the United States and I have to admit, as a total eclipse of the sun watcher (three successfully, one unsuccessfully) that this song has been played to death in connection with eclipse coverage.  As for me, I never tire of it.

1984's Holding Out for a Hero, from the Footloose movie soundtrack, subsequently was covered in at least two other movies, Shrek 2 and The Super Mario Bros. movie.

Finally from 1978, It's a  Heartache, was subsequently covered by Rod Stewart. For this tribute, though, I am using Tyler's original.

My next induction is for someone who died way too young.  Lauren Bennett, singer most famous for being included in Party Rock Anthem, died May 29 at the age of 36, but her passing was just recently announced.  Sadly, she had suffered from mental health issues and her father claims she never got the proper help. She leaves a six year old daughter. 

 I loved Party Rock Anthem.  Years ago I took water Zumba classes and nearly every session, we danced to this song.  Here is LMFAO, feat. Lauren Bennett. 

Finally, Paul Wheatbread,  the original drummer for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap, died July 6 at the age of 80.  Causes of death were Alzheimer's and complications of kidney failure.   Here is their hit "Over You" from 1968.

So many heartaches recently, as the rock musicians of my youth and young adulthood pass away. 

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.

Silver Spotted Skipper #ShadowshotSunday

My bee balm plant is in full bloom.

On July 8 I saw a lovely butterfly on it.  I followed it around as it went from flower to flower.  

Thank you for visiting! 

I think this is the first time I've ever seen one of these butterflies.  Or are they butterflies?  I looked them up and, at least at the present time, the skipper family is considered a type of butterfly.  

Joining Lisa at This and That:  A Blog for her #ShadowshotSunday. 

 

Saturday In The Park #SkywatchFriday

On July 4, my country (the United States) turned 250 and my spouse and I decided to have a quiet day.

We didn't go to any live fireworks shows.  We sat back, watched TV, had a simple dinner, and watched the sky.

Except for the last photo, these were all taken during a walk at a local park. 

I went out again about 9:10 pm.

A bit surprisingly, we didn't have as many unofficial (as I call them) neighborhood fireworks shows., but the vanishing light after the sun sent down created layers of beauty.

 It was a nice Saturday In the Park.

Joining Yogi and other sky watchers for #SkywatchFriday. 

A New Mural #WordlessWednesday

A new mural was created next to a favorite Southern Tier ice cream shop this past month.

Closeup.

This mural was completed in June by a local art studio.  These pictures were taken on June 30.

Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday. 

Space Music #MusicMovesMe

It's Monday and it's time for music!

Who are the Music Moves Me bloggers?  We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join!  We are brought to you by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.  

Why not join us?  Our theme this week is "Around the globe early July, World UFO Day is observed. Prompts this week you might consider is anything space related – stars, aliens, spaceships, galaxy, …. Get out of this world wild while having loads of fun discovering music to share!

Let's start with the original Star Trek series, that first aired in 1966 and was on for three seasons.  My childhood was filled with the United States space program, even watching manned launches on television.  I was reading science fiction by the time I was 10.  I was more than ready for Star Trek .

Theme song to the original Star Trek series, 1968 version. 

 Theme to the Star Wars movies.   I saw the first movie with my spouse and a friend in a theater in 1977.

Next, here is a song actually sung in space: David Bowie's Space Oddity, covered by Canadian astronaut and International Space Station  commander Chris Hadfield in 2013.  OK, he's not David Bowie, but this video is a must-see. 

Major Tom (Coming Home), a 1983 sort-of sequel, from Peter Schilling (English version).  I never realized until reaching another music post that this was originally released in West Germany in 1982 as "Major Tom (völlig losgelöst), which means "fully detached".

Europe - The Final Countdown, from 1986. 

Under the Milky Way - The Church, from 1988.   Not about space, but I don't care.

Finally, from 1977, Come Sail Away-Styx, a song that takes a sudden science-fiction-y turn towards the end when we realize it's a first contact song.

And that's a wrap!

Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me. 

Day Lily Season Begins

Here is a collection of my day lilies, taken July 1 through 4.  Their names, of course, are lost to history as I am terrible at recording gardening facts.

Most of these pictures were taken during a heat wave, but day lilies just soldier on. 

This is a reblooming day lily. 

Pink and yellow.

Another orange.

Finally, a large yellow.
 

These aren't all of them.  Several have shadows on them (like my lovely spider day lily) and I may post them next Sunday for Shadowshot Sunday.