Scarlet bee balm (Monarda didyma) always looks like it’s wearing a party hat when in bloom.

I always carry my camera with me when I step outside this time of year, even if I’m just walking the 100 yards to the mailbox. If I don’t bring it, some butterfly, bee, bunny, or bird does something photo-worthy that I don’t catch if I’m unprepared. These shots are what I caught today.

I spent the morning working in the vegetable garden. I needed to work longer, but the sun is ferocious, the humidity unforgiving. Yesterday, I finally harvested our first squash and first two eggplants. We ate them last night and I can report that they were delicious. Today, I picked another eggplant, decided to give a couple of squash one more day to fill out, exhorted the tomato plants bent low with the weight of green orbs to hurry up and ripen, and rejoiced in sighting the first bean flowers on all three varieties I’m growing. A little photographic documentation follows. To enlarge a photo and see its caption more easily, click on it.

Granadero paste tomatoes on the left, and Sweet Treats cherry tomatoes on the right

Flowers of Jade bush beans

Purple pole bean blooms

Fortex pole bean flowers

To get to the vegetable garden, I travel through the front yard and pollinator gardens. Here’s a sample of what I saw today.

Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis) and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in the boulder garden

Daylily ‘Lady Inara’

In the center of my front yard, the Chinese Pearl-bloom tree commands full attention as it nears peak bloom.

Chinese Pearl-bloom tree (Poliothyrsis sinensis)

We especially enjoy this time of year because of the near-daily emergence of tiny new amphibians from the front water feature. A few days ago in the early morning after a night-time shower, Wonder Spouse and I counted 25 hiding on various plants growing nearby. I suspect that most are Cope’s Gray Treefrogs, but I’ve heard other amphibians singing lustily beside the pond at night too, especially Narrow-mouthed Toads. When they are this tiny, though, I have no idea how to tell them apart.

Check out the remnant tail on the one in the middle.

Practicing its air-breathing exercises

Some are green, but are they different species? I have no idea.

Every day brings new discoveries, fresh food, and hard work. I wouldn’t have it any other way.