The weather is still quite warm and wonderful here, so things are still blooming nicely. And the front porch mums have bloomed.

And I dressed the welcome sign up for the season too.

Of all the butterflies that have visited my gardens over the years, the Monarch still reigns supreme as my favourite. But this year, it remained incredibly elusive. For the first few weeks of summer, I didn’t see any at all. Then, when I did start seeing them, the did NOT want their picture taken. It seemed I was forever trying to gets pictures and failing.

I took consolation in the fact that I was able to get pictures of them in caterpillar form.

In the garden, I have four seperate milkweed plants… one pink Swamp Milkweed, one Orange Milkweed, and two (volunteer) Common Milkweed. (Which I let grow as soon as I realized what they were).

On those four plants, I counted seven separate caterpillars since mid-August. While I hadn’t seen many Monarchs, they’d definitely been making good use of the Milkweed when I wasn’t around.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see where any of those caterpillars went to build their cocoons. (They can travel up to 30 feet from their milkweed plant.)

But last week, I started noticing A LOT more Monarchs fluttering about the yard. I think it’s mostly because of the White Butterfly bush. I dont know if it’s the location, or just the breed (White Profusion), but it’s easily three times the size of the Dark Knight Butterfly Bush. And it’s just covered in blooms!!!

You can see it reaches over the catio fence, which is seven feet high. It’s grown through the catio fence, and is on both sides. It’s wonderful, but next year, I need to move some plants around to account for its size. But back to the monarchs….

They absolutely adore it! It’s not unusual to come outside and find two or three flitting about at once.

They are busy filling up for the long trip to Mexico, and the Butterfly Bush has lots of fuel for them. And I know there’s no way to tell…

But I like to think that at least one or two of them are former caterpillars that grew up in my garden. And letting me get close enough for a few good shots is their way of saying thanks!

A beautiful cat in a beautiful garden… is there any more perfect bliss than this?

Sunday was grey and rainy, and while I could have/should have done some housework, Burton and I got busy catching up on our Blockhead Blocks instead.

With these two complete, we only needed one more block to have enough for a decent size quilt top. So we decided to come up with something of our own.

How about a heart? As you can see, Burton thought it was a grand idea!

And now we have a full 30 blocks, perfect for a nice big quilt. That said, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get this one together. I’ve got to get working on the wedding quilt… not to mention my Hallowe’en quilt! And then there’s that pesky housework I should really attend to as some point…

Once again either the heat, or just a busy day have kept me from doing as much walking as I would like, But I managed to get out on lunch to check the mail yesterday, so here are some random things I saw on the way to the post office…

The welding shop on the corner has some beautifully talll sunflowers. It makes my little volunteers look rather pitiful and I have a bad case of sunflower envy.

Just down the street, there’s a house that has these beautiful planter boxes at the end of their walkway. They used to be in shade, but they took out a tree this summer (sadly, it was the crabapple that I loved so much this spring) and now the boxes get sun all day. They are obviously thriving because of it.

All the red petunias the town planted are thriving. We see a worker from the town going around watering them all a couple times a week, so they haven’t had to worry about our lack of rain. That said, my petunias are doing almost as well – I’ve got a couple massive clumps in the catio… though nothing quite as spectacular as this planter (and all the others about town).

And in the “downtown” where the post office is, there’s a little pub. As soon as the weather gets nice, they block off the side walk for their patio. To compensate, they turned two of the parking spots in front into the sidewalk (there’s enough parking in the area that this isn’t an issue). I love how they have it decorated with the planters. But the really amazing part, is that all that wood is removeable – they disassemble it and pack it all away come winter.

And last… just a little random thing…

… part of this sidewalk cracked, and love how this little creeping weed has thrived and filled in the spaces.

Whenever I’ve had a moment to spare, the knitting needles have been clicking away. And as a result, Wee Liesl was blocked on the weekend and I sewed her buttons on last night.

It’s a pattern I’ve knit twice before (both times for Wren). As usual, I omitted the garter row, because I prefer this smoother look. However, this is the first time I’ve knit it with full length sleeves, and in the smallest size.

I used a skein of Regia for it, and I really wish you could see it in person. It’s lovely shade of powder puff pink, but with subtle heathering of pale blue and mauve. It’s just gorgeous. I originally bought it to make socks for myself, but I think this is a much better use.

I finished it off with some pearl heart buttons, and now it’s ready to be packed up and sent off with the Sweet Pea quilt.

Happy Labour Day! We hope you are all having a wonderful day off, doing something you love. Depending on what the weather is doing, I’ll either be working in the yard, or in the studio, and trying to ignore the long list of housework I really should be tackling

And…

Because we apparently don’t have enough things to do around here… Dave brought home ANOTHER project.

Another antique radio. We got this from our favourite used shop. It’s another RCA and we think it’s a little newer than mine (which was born in 1937). It’s in much better shape than mine was – really just need some veneer work, and it’s guts hooked back up. He’s already started on it… though I have no idea where we are going to put it!

I can’t say much though… because I came home with a few things myself.

The bird and butterfly houses came from Dad on my last visit. All were made by my grandfather. The butterfly house will get some decorative painting, and the bird house on the end will just get a sand a refresh of varnish. The one in the middle was painted by Mom, with some cute little stencils, so it’s just going to get a clean up, and a fresh coat of clear.

The plant stand has already got a good cleaning (thanks to Dave) and will get some new paint. And that lovely lady on top…

She was once part of a fountain or pond. I’d like that to happen for her again, but that’s a project way down the road. For now she can just hang out in the garden. I just have to find the right spot!

Last week, I showed you a bunch of tiny creatures in the garden. But we’ve also got a rather special LARGE one that’s made herself quite at home.

Yup… a big beautiful Praying Mantis. She showed up in the white butterfly bush on the edge of the catio around mid August. I only noticed her because I was inspecting the bloom spikes for the dreaded Japanese beetles.

As you can see, while she stands out against the green leaves, she blends quite nicely with the fading bloom splikes.

I check for her every day now, and she’s almost always in about the same spot of the bush. I’ve never seen her actually eating something, but the hunting must be good if she’s stuck around for this long.

She can be tricky to get a picture of, because of course, she sees REALLY well and she doesn’t like it if I get to too close. If I try to move a branch or leaf out of the way to get a better picture, she’ll move deeper into the bush.

But otherwise, my prescence doesn’t seem to bother her much.

And for bonus content:

The grasshoppers seem to love the butterfly bush too!

September isn’t my favourite month (October is), but if I had to choose my second favourite… it would be September. As a child, I always loved the excitement of back to school… even if I didn’t love school. I loved getting new notebooks, binders and pencil crayons! And of course, I loved getting a new outfit and new shoes!!!

There’s no back to school for me any more, but I still enjoy September. The weather gets so much more comfortable, and a September garden is a wonderful place to wile away the time.

And there’s still so much in bloom. September, at least here, isn’t much different than August, other than the temperature is more tolerable, and the days get noticeably shorter.

All my favourites are still blooming, if not quite as strongly as the previous months.

Like many of you, my coneflowers suffered from the lack of rain. They start off ok in first bloom, but then the colours fade to a dull imitation of their best. Next year, I’m hoping to invest in a couple of rain barrels to help over the dry days. At the townhouse, I watered almost everyday, but water was included in our rent. Here, I pay for every drop, so I’m trying to be mindful. I watered at least once a week, and could probably do it more often, without breaking the bank, but I’d like to conserve where I can, so rain barrels should help with that.

The daylilies are very drought tolerant, and did amazing. Autumn Joy, which you see above, is a late blooming day lily so we still get to enjoy it after all the others are done.

September is also usually when the roses put on another show after resting for the hot, humid height of summer. So far, Chrysler Imperial is doing the best, but the others are looking pretty good. In October, they will get some extra protection against winter, to help baby them through.

All the sunflowers I got this year were volunteers, and a few are still blooming. I’m looking forward to trying again next year to get a better variety. I may invest in a small greenhouse to help my seedlings along next year. I had a very poor success rate this year.

Except where the Cosmos are concerned. I managed to get seven seedlings into the garden, and they are showing off now. I will probably sow them directly next year. I planted two types this year… the big, blowsy ones you see above.

And this smaller version. While the blooms are smaller, they have more petals, but the plant is absolutely HUGE. This one in the catio is taller than me and I’m 5′ 7″. As you can see, it’s a favourite of the butterflies too… (and you can get and idea of the size of the blooms)

And this time of year always gets me thinking about what worked this year, and what I need to change for next year.

For example, this is the catio garden… and as you can see, the Blanket Flower and the Sneeze Weed have grown so big they block the right hand path. They will both have to be moved to gardens outside of the fence next year to give them (and other plants in the catio) the room they deserve to shine.

Speaking of that Sneeze Weed….

It’s finally starting to bloom. The flowers are quite small, but there are going to be A LOT of them. The plant is just covered in buds. This is a great addition for a late-season garden (given you have the room!)

And last… Dave and I were at Home Depot the other day, and I picked up some small Mums for the porch boxes out front. The Impatiens and Calibrochoa I planted were looking a little ragged. It was time to switch them out for something more seasonal.

They haven’t quite bloomed yet, but each box has a yellow, a rusty orange, and a burgundy purple. They will provide a nice pop of colour out front for the next couple of months.

Inside…

… or outside…

This cat just needs a cave