Michelle, your potager is great. I thought of you yesterday afternoon as the helpmeet brought in the first wave of tomatoes, lamenting that if we don't get some sun the poor things are going to fold their little tents and give up. Lettuce, cabbage, and brussel sprouts seems to be holding their own, however. :) And I love the urn above; esp. the big, fuzzy Salvia argentea which tickles my fondness for big, bold foliage. Very pretty. I smiled at the bowling ball, amazed by its size... consider that the Compound is in the heart of candlepin bowling, lol. Nice to "read" you, Norma. I figure people are just busy when they submerge for a spell. I know that feeling of being just too far behind to try to catch up; even vacationing I'm still soaking up tidbits I've managed to miss. Like the miscarriage, Martie... perhaps time will ease the loss. You mentioned Abigail Adams; have you read "Dearest Friend" (I've not)? Also, there is a fun book by Irving Stone called, "Those Who Love" that is about John and Abigail Adams. I liked that one, a nice light read. Battened hatches were of no consequence last night. A loud crack of thunder launched poor Spencer from his happy place next to Mummy and sent him scratching around the corner to a safe place. Poor thing was out like a light and it scared the livin' daylights out of him. Vera appeared some time later and wriggled her way under the covers for a cozy sleeping spot. Nolon's camping site for Callie reminded me of something my father would have done. He was forever creating little hangouts for the cats and when he summoned us to witness the cuteness he would proudly proclaim, "look at that cat! isn't he smart to find such a great place to nap?". My brother is the same way, so is the helpmeet. Never waste your time on men who don't like cats, is what I say. The Passiflors are great, you guys. I always note them in garden centers but as a rule I tend to walk past most annuals. It will be fun to see Deanne's reemerge next spring and attain house eating proportions. We put in two hours yesterday morning splitting wood. We made a pretty good dent in the unsplit pile, too. The weather is looking pretty wet today, but if it isn't raining we will go out and put in some more time. I think the pallets are going to be picked up on Wednesday and then we will level and set them in a sunny area and begin stacking the wood to dry. Thinking about getting it done is much worse than actually going out there and doing it. The wood we're splitting now will be for next season and quite possibly several after that. If that ain't a New England vacation, I don't know what is. I managed to get the lawn mown, too. It didn't rain yesterday (some "birdsweat" but nothing major) but the grass was still pretty damp so I opted to mow high and mulch the clippings. Looks better and I'll be sittin' pretty to get it mown again in a few days. Then it was on to more weeding, this time around the pond. My goal was to clear out the weeds enough to identify the Cinnamon ferns, the native Eupatorium, and a shrubby thing that has lemon-y scented leaves (the leaves look vaguely like those of the Magnolia stellata). I accomplished that much and have laid bare the dreadful blackberry brambles (vicious) and uncovered a stealthy move by our resident Poison Ivy population to colonize another spot. Methinks some quality time with some Agent Orange type thing may be in the helpmeet's vacation plans. ;) I believe replacement coffee is on deck. I did something terribly wrong with the first pot, it was pitiful. So bad, in fact, it went down the drain post haste. I have watched some of the Olympics (loved the 2008 drummers!), I like the diving, some of the gymnastics (I'm not buyin' the ages of some of the Chinese gymnasts, sorry!), the swimming. But beach volley ball? (c'mon). I'm accustomed to never seeing the events that I really like (Dressage and Driving), so much of the 'pics means very little to me. But the all night broadcast beats the hell out of infomercials or Poker (how dumb is that?) for an insomniac. Saucy has evolved to papparazzi... it must be the camera. :)

Thank you all! Abies balsamea is a native and takes our summers in stride. Come to think of it, I never have summer problems with any Abies I grow. The ones that suffer most here are Pinus contorta, the mini Picea pungens, and Pinus longavea. Because my house is surrounded by forrest on all sides, no portion of my garden gets more than 6 or 7 hours of direct sun each day, and I think this helps tremendously. So far I haven't had problems with the conifers not getting enough light. Will H, that is a Paw Paw. It's been in the ground for 5 years. The other one I planted at the same time died, so this year when it put out a bunch of flowers, there was nothing there to cross-pollinate it.

Brings back wonderful memories. My father was a farmer, and he always announced when dog days had arrived. He always said that during dog days, it rains more often. He also said the snakes are out looking for winter homes. Seems like there are other things that are supposed to happen during dog days, but I have now forgotten them. Thanks for bringing back the memory.

haha yeah we have the japanese beatles here now... lots of fireflies for the last two weeks as well... it always tickles me to see them come out... we haven't been getting much rain.. but comparing to the average we're ahead of schedule for the year... here in southern kentucky its been similar to phil's situation... low to mid 90's for a few weeks now... with a chance for isolated thunderstorms just about everyday lol... beautiful sunny day the other day.. out mowing on the husqvarna and within five minutes the sky darkened and I was getting pounded with (in the voice of forrest gump) "big rain"..... and in fifteen minutes it was gone lol...just enough to water everything pretty good and deter me from mowing til everything dried... I make a big deal out of watering... I'm a lawnhose junkie.. about 300ft of hose and a garage full of sprinklers and attachments... so all my hostas are still looking strong... though I can see how things will go quick this year... my midsummer bloomers.. mostly lateblooming daylilies and some lilies are all already blooming... I have colocasia thats about 18 inches long already... grown from straight bulb...most of my daylilies have already hit their peak and starting to have fewer blooms... since we had lots and lots of 70-80 degree weather in April...Its going to be a boring fall for gardening... Good thing I have guns lol