Welcome! I hope I bring a spot of calm and happiness into these uncertain times. I blog about my photography adventures, flowers, gardening, the importance of chocolate in a well lived life, or anything else on my mind.
A friend's sister, N, passed away Friday, after a years long battle with various medical issues.
I had only seen her in person a few times (the last time, I think, was 2020), but years before that, she had become my go-to for wildflower ID and she shared my love of history. We emailed each other on and off when I traveled.
Years ago, I did a Wildflower Wednesday feature on my blog, and N was a great help to me. I will miss her knowledge.
I know N wouldn't want any fuss over her due to her passing, so, instead, I will post some pictures of wildflowers in and around my yard. Unfortunately, I have to depend on my iPhone camera app for wildflower ID and it doesn't always get it right. Unlike N, who was so knowledgeable.
Several years I bought some plants from a wildflower nursery and they gave me a wild aster as a thank you gift. This may be a calico aster but it isn't in the place where I planted that gift aster. I apologize for the blur.
White snakeroot. I definitely did not plant this, which I found the other day on the side of my house, and I'm thinking of removing it as I understand it is an aggressive grower. I don't need anymore aggressive growers in my small yards.
Last year I had one of these woodland sunflowers pop up in my back yard. This year there's a bunch of them. I hate to get rid of native plants, but...aggressive. They spread via underground rhizomes.
Finally, a mystery I know N would have solved easily. We planted a lilac bush several years ago. It didn't bloom until this spring. What we thought was a lilac had small flowers this year that died after only a couple of days. These berries have now appeared. Lilac berries? Didn't know they made berries but the iPhone camera plant ID says this is a lilac. I'd love to know more.
It's the 15th of September, and time to join other flower lovers for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.
It's a beautiful, sunny day, and crisp.
We are getting an early taste of fall in my zone 6a garden in the Southern Tier of New York. Yesterday, it never got out of the 60'sF (20 C). Last night they were even warning of isolated frosts. But soon fall will be here officially. So, I have to get out and enjoy my outdoor flowers while I still can.
My front yard:
A fuchsia plant that my son gave me for Mother's Day.
Garlic chives in my overgrown front garden.
Sedum.
Sunpatiens.
Pink tall phlox.
Whitish tall phlox.
Last of the sweet peas. They've reseeded so much that they are going to have to go.
Let's go around the back now to my shady back yard:
Zig Zag goldenrod really took off this year. I'm going to have to thin it out.
Japanese anemone.
Heuchera.
Cuphea "Torpedo" I bought it due to its unusual shape but I think next year, I will stick to "Vermillionaire" or one of the other varieties that hummingbirds like.
Fuchsia "Pink Galore".
Pink turtlehead. I like seeing bumblebees feed on it.
I had toad lilies once, but they seem to have vanished, along with an aster. My back yard has gotten so choked that I have hired a landscaper to thin it out - neither my husband or I, due to physical issues, can manage it anymore. Ditto for my front yard.
As my garden approaches fall, I am also in the season some call the autumn of life. If I need help with my gardens in this season, so be it. As long as I can have it, I will be grateful. Life is too short.
Joining Carol at May Dreams Gardens for her 15th of the month Garden Bloggers Bloom Day meme, as it approaches its December, 2026 end date.
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 ofCurious as a Cathy, Stacy of Stacy's Random Thoughts, Marie (Xmas Dolly), and myself, plus other music loving bloggers.
Our theme this week is: You Pick. But I am choosing as my theme today, last week's theme, which was: It’s the end of the month, summer is drawing to an end unofficially. Share songs that make you think of the end of summer.
Songs for the end of summer, many times, deal with the end of summer romances, or a nostalgic look back at summertime. So here's my selection.
The Boys of Summer, Don Henley, from 1984.
Summer Nights - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, from the wonderful Grease soundtrack.
Summer's Almost Gone - The Doors, from 1968.
Famous Last Words - Billy Joel, from 1993.
Last but not least, out of ideas, I decided to look up the number one song for the week of September 21, 1976 (50 years ago) and came up with this:
Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry.
This song has nothing to do with the end of summer, but it carries a lot of nostalgia for me. My spouse was undergoing technical training for his military job. We would go to the enlisted persons' club and listen to live music and perhaps eat supper there, and this is one of the songs the cover bands played a lot. Call it an end of summer song.
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
Today, for #ShadowshotSunday, brought to us by Lisa at This and That: A Blog, I'm featuring some shadows from two late August walks in a park.
Picnic bench.
Trees and clouds.
A wildflower that my iPhone photos app identifies as heal-well.
Update: since my Friday Skywatch Friday post which mentioned the 2026 tornado count in my state of New York, that number has been updated to 22. I hope September is calmer.
Have a shadow photo? Why not join us at Lisa's link above?
Where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, it has been a stormy week. But we've escaped a lot of the severe weather that the central and western part of the state has experienced in the last few days.
As of last night, we've had 18 confirmed tornadoes so far in New York State since the beginning of the year.
I took these pictures on August 27.
Thunderheads.
Let's zoom in.
Pinkish sky right before sunset, taken through trees. Sorry for the blur.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had on and off torrential rain. We got at least four inches, and my spouse and I were caught in one of the downpours trying to get to an appointment. A bit over an hour away, the New York State Fair had to close because of flooding.
Our storms Wednesday night came after sunset, and I wasn't going to go out there at 10pm with lightning flashing and lighting up the sky.
These are pink turtleheads. I bought one plant at a farm market in Asheville, North Carolina in 2012. I also bought a white turtlehead but it didn't survive. Turtleheads are a native wildflower to where I live, but I found out recently that while the white turtleheads are native to where I live, the pink ones aren't. However they are native to where I bought the plant.
Finally, (hiss boo) Japanese knotweed in bloom. It's lovely when in bloom. But: it was brought over to the United States as an ornamental and erosion control plant around 1873. By the 1930's it was considered a major problem. It reproduces vegetatively and is found on all continents except Antarctica. The only good thing I can say about it is that the honey bees make from it is delicious.
After the rains of last week where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, we cooled down a little but the past three days we returned to the heat and humidity.
July 30, puddles on the road after a deluge.
August 5, hot weather sky and a mural in a Southern Tier downtown.
August 6, mid day skies taken at same time in two different directions.
Yesterday, the weather report called for afternoon and evening thunderstorms. They passed to the north of us, but I took these pictures right before it started to drizzle.
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 ofCurious 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 "In ancient
times, “Dog Days of Summer” was connected with bad luck, mad dog
attacks, unexpected thunderstorms, heat, and drought. These days gained
the “Dog Days” name because they are connected with a star in the Canis
Major (Greater Dog) star system known as Sirius. Nowadays, “Dog Days of
Summer” is associated for summer’s long hot days. Based on these
interesting tidbits use your imagination to find music that’ll make us
howl on the dance floor!"
Summer always makes me think of several songs dating back from my New York City Childhood. I've had them on my blog before but I hope you enjoy them as reruns. But before I do, it's time for another induction into Rock and Roll Heaven.
Freddie "Boom Boom? Cannon died July 17 at the age of 89.
I best knew him for his 1962 hit Palisades Park. Palisades Amusement Park was a now-closed amusement park in New Jersey, which I went to several times growing up in New York City. They were famous for a huge salt water pool and their musical entertainment, which included famous Big Bands, and, in the rock era, the Four Seasons, Bill Haley & the Comets, the Jackson Five, Diana Ross & the Supremes and yes, Freddie Cannon . The property is now occupied by high-rise condominiums but New Yorkers of my age fondly remember it.
Nothing says "summer" like amusement parks for many people.
N
His first hit was Tallahassee Lassie".
And now, to our theme.
Summer in the City - a 1966 hit for The Lovin' Spoonful.
Dancing in the Street - a 1964 hit for Martha and the Vandellas.
Two more, from the 1970s:
Hot Summer Nights - Walter Egan, best known here for his 1978 hit Magnet and Steel.
I almost didn't include this, as I'll bet others include it, but here's a song from the movie Grease, Summer Nights, sung by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. This was a big hit in the summer of 1978.
Tell me more? No, I'm fresh out of words.
And that's a wrap!
Join me again next week for another episode of Music Moves Me.
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.
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.
