Not only is it hot and disgustingly humid again… but now we’re not even getting the rain. Rain has been on the lighter side this summer – but we were getting it regularly. But not now. We’ve had a sprinkle here and there but not even enough to refresh the parched ground.

I generally don’t water the flower beds. I’ve tried to plant things that can hold their own. But when we don’t get rain for over a week, I’ve got to help them out a little.

The signs of stress are just starting to show – mostly on the coneflowers.

They are still going strong, but their colours fade fast. Interestingly, some of the fancy hybrids seem to be doing better, which isn’t always the case.

I planted some zinnias over in Potager Parlour, specifically for cutting.

But they look so cheerful and pretty there, I can’t bring myself to cut them.

I’ve got some more that I’ve just planted out here and there in the garden, but it will be a while before they start to bloom. They should provide nice colour through fall though.

The cosmos are just getting started. The one on the right is a new one – it’s called Seashell Cosmos and you can see it has pretty double, scalloped petals.

The Black-Eyed Susans look amazing this year. And I’ve got clumps throughout the gardens.

The perennial mums are starting to show off. These ones are a little different than the ones you get at the grocery store (though I have them too). These ones are taller – on par with the coneflowers, and bloom earlier. The plants also live longer – the grocery store ones generally only live three years or so.

Globe Thistles are among my favourite flowers. And as you can see, I have them in blue and white. The leaves are on the prickly side, but not as bad as the purple thistle. And they turn into seed heads the birds absolutely love. And before that the blooms are a pollinator favourite!

Last, I’ll leave you with my favourite fun fact about sunflowers. Solitary bees often use them a beds for the night. It’s not uncommon to find a bee or three curled up on a bloom at dusk, or early in the morning.

One of my goals every year is to get pictures of these guys!

It’s a Snowberry Clearwing moth. I showed you the caterpillar the other day – now here is what that caterpillar turns into.

I’ve seen them described as “Flying Party Shrimp in a Velvet Jumpsuit” and I can’t think of anything more apt!

They are quite tricky to get pictures of. The move VERY, very fast. And they don’t sit still at all like the butterflies do. These pics were captured by holding the shutter button down and hoping for the best. I probably trashed 80% of the photos I took.

As long as I get a few good pics, I’m happy.

We also get Hummingbird Clearwing moths (they are a little bigger and have pale green heads), but I’ve only seen them in the evenings this year so no pics In fact, Lemmy caught one a few weeks ago – thankfully I got it away from him before he destroyed it. (But Monarch murder count is up to six)

Now this beauty isn’t a Monarch. It’s a Viceroy. You can tell by the line through the bottom wing. I have seen them here before, but not for a couple of years, and never in great numbers.

I hope they become more regular visitors.

And last, I’ll leave you with one of my favourites! It’s been so nice to see it around often this summer.

I showed you a look at my new stitching project last week…

I’ve actually had the pattern for several months. I went looking for a Quaker-style sampler ages ago. I’ve seen a few of you do them, and I just love the simplicity of a single colour project. Well this popped up in my search, and you know… I just HAD to have it. It’s not exactly a Quaker… but it’s a definitely me! If you look closely you’ll see it’s actually two colours – black with a little orange.

The original pattern was done on 14 count aida, but I really liked the look of my butterflies done on 18 ct, so I decided to stick with that.

Burton and Lemmy helped me work on it several evenings over vacation.

We made good progress. I’d say we’re about 50% done the first section. But I’ve got socks to knit, so stitching will once again be relegated to weekend only. That should still give me enough time to get it done by the spooky season!

It was driving me nuts to not have finished the Wildflower quilt top all in one day. So the very next day, Lemmy and I got to it.

We had to get the rest of that grey sashing on.

It didn’t take too long. Then all it needed was a couple of borders. Lemmy tagged in Burton for that job and left for a nap.

And Burton, you can see, was very excited for the finish.

I think the simple layout showcases the embroidered blocks nicely.

I’ve got a lovely grey paisley for a the backing

And more of the green for the binding! So I’m going to have to make a date with Mom to get this one quilted!

We’re in a bit of a lull in the edible garden right now. I can harvest carrots if I want, but I’m leaving the rest to get a little bit bigger (though I might pick some to roast up with dinner tonight).

The cucumbers are behind where they were last year, but I should be able to harvest some more this coming week.

This time last year, I was starting to harvest cucamelons.

I’m not overly worried about that because they will produce right to the first frost.

My yellow pear tomatoes are looking good – but obviously aren’t quite ready yet.

My beans are still looking small and sad.

But I did manage to get one bean! I’ll take that as a win in the bean department this year.

My peas are mostly done, but I’m still getting a few small pods here and there. They get eaten right in the garden.

One of my Sugar Babies broke off the vine,

It was nice and dark and dull coloured, and sounded hollow, so I thought it might be okay to eat – if not as sweet as it could be. We had some friends over so I decided to crack it open.

And sadly it was still white inside! One of the friends still gave it a try… he said it tasted like a cucumber! I’ve got five more on the vines, so they will stay there for a good whole longer. I also thought these were seedless, and as you can see they are not. Next year I’ll have to find a seedless version.

Still no pumpkins, but I’ve got a few gourds coming…. still lots to look forward to!

It’s full on sunflower season here!

I planted four types this year and they are all doing well.

This one is called Vanilla Ice Cream and it starts as a lemon yellow and fades to a creamier shade.

Velvet Queen is always a favourite of mine. This one is right by the front steps, greeting all visitors.

The sturdy Black Oil Sunflower is always bright and bold and this one is holding court in the middle of the island garden.

And last… my new favourite.

Cherry Rose! I’ll definitely be saving some of these seeds for next year!

The look you get when you promised them time in the studio… but you’re still sitting in front of the TV.

There’s a reason Burton looks so excited! The hot and humid weather has returned, so we finally got back in the studio yesterday. I took all the embroidered blocks and trimmed them up.

I framed them up with a lovely green floral. Then I got started with the sashing.

We managed to get half the sashing done before I had to pack up to head out to pick up prescriptions and get dinner.

Hopefully I can find some time before vacation is out to finish it up. Burton is pretty excited about this one.

It seemed like the butterflies arrived late this year, but they are definitely here in force now! I think it may be the best year for butterflies in the garden so far.

These Tawny Emperors are regular visitors.

As are these Hackberry Emperors. They are very close the Tawnies, just more brown than orange.

Speaking of orange, the above Pearl Crescent is only distinguishable from the Northern Crescent by the lighter patches.

The Northern Crescents are nice and bright orange.

It always takes a while for the Skippers to arrive, but arrive they have! Above and below is the same Fiery Skipper.

They look so neat from different angles.

This one is a Silver Spotted Skipper.

They don’t often open their wings when feeding (at least that I’ve seen) but managed to capture it.

And I was thrilled to capture this one in better shape than the last time!

Eastern Black Swallowtails are definitely one of my favourite butterflies.

This Red Admiral was in beautiful shape. I’ve been seeing a lot of them this year. I always considered them a more early season butterfly, but not this year!

These tiny Sootywings are new to the garden this year, but we’ve seen them several times! I’ve since learned that Celosia are among their host plants. I love Celosia and always have it in the garden now, so that’s probably why I’m seeing them.

And speaking of host plants…

I’ve discovered that my Honeysuckle is the host plant for this guy… the Snowberry Clearwing Moth caterpillar. He’s going to turn into one of my favourite visitors to the garden!…

These super cool guys!

I just love that my garden is part of the ecosystem!

While there wasn’t much time Friday or Saturday, when my company was finally gone on Sunday, I made myself comfortable on the porch and got stitching…

All that was left were the French knots, but there A LOT of them. I set it aside to make dinner, then worked on it a little later in the evening until bedtime, but it still wasn’t done.

Monday morning I worked in the garden until it got too hot, then I joined Burton in the a/c and he helped me get through the last of the knots!

We got it done fairly early in the afternoon so I decided to start block 20 (the last block!!!!)

It was a much simpler pattern, with far fewer French knots… and by dinner time, it was done!!!!

So that’s Block 19 and 20 complete! There’s no more blocks to make! Can you believe it??? I still have to turn them into a quilt, but I am sooooo pleased to have the embroidery all complete.

Because… it’s Augtober now and I’m DYING to start a new stitching project…