In the Hive

Thomas snapped this picture at sunrise today - he loved the colors! He's back! I love this color morning glory!

I went out on our deck to take a few of our sunflower heads to a friend, when I noticed I had a little visitor! As I pulled out on the camera shot, I noticed he or she had a companion! Looking on the internet, I discovered it is mating time from grasshoppers!

Michael spotted this sunflower the other night - he thought it looked like it was laughing and covering its mouth with its hands! Maybe it was laughing at the rain storm moving in behind it - after all, it is a sunflower!

We came home Saturday from North Carolina. While we were gone, I was worried my sunflowers would topple over, but they were fine! My friend Karen came by and you can see my flowers are towering over her! She tried to get taller than them by climbing on the table, but that did not work!

Michael spotted my sleepy sunflower as he left for work today! Sometimes, it is tough to get going in the morning. But, not for the bees!

I teased my friend Karen that my bee balm is taller than her! Karl is a bit taller than her at 5'4", and now it is outgrowing him too!

I planted this whole pack of seeds, but only one poppy plant came up. It's a beauty though! It is called Poppy Lauren's Grape Seed, and I ordered the seeds from here .

Here are the rest of my shots. If you wish to see the slideshow larger, click the little person icon in the lower left screen, then double click on the album name. That will take you to my picasa album. From there, click the top left slideshow button to view it larger!

It was the second year anniversary of Mom passing away. I spend some time in the garden, in the rain, laying bricks and thinking about Mom. It was a hard day. I snapped some shots from the garden and between then and today I sewed up some new pillows! My Governor Lupine: My green wizard was one tiny plant last year, now it is taking over! My new baby poppy! Michael picked the fabrics for the new pillows!

I love seeing the daffodils at this farm near us every Spring! Click for a closer look!

I am feeling a bit down this week, so Michael got me flowers to brighten up the hive.

What a fun day. I got the boys a HUGE Whitman's Sampler. Michael bought me a lovely bouquet of flowers. Andrew made chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. Our elderly neighbors also surprised us and gave us a bouquet of flowers for helping them out when they were having health issues.

My old flowers were started to get a bit faded.  Michael bought me a bunch of Gerbera daisies today. They are one of my favorites, if only we lived somewhere where I could grow them year round!

These flowers were all blooming at my house until last week, when the cold air and frost set in.  It is sad to see them go... and the boys' pumpkins started to rot in the wet weather.

Along with a blue and black butterfly, we also had this large bumblebee moth in the garden today.  Thomas and my friend and I all thought it was a bee at first!

Tom was busy with his legos again! My lily bloomed! Busy Bee! Orb Spider by deck - YIKES!

We had three interesting storms today, the first two had plenty of hail!  It looked like Christmas! My hummer came to visit, and was fighting with another hummer in the air! Our friends gave us some bricks (a LOT of bricks) , so we attempted to brick in the world - well at least our little section of it!  Thanks Kathy and Art! We spotted some monarch caterpillars on some dying flowers.... and we have one very confused flower in our beds!!