"A summer's sun is worth the having." - French Proverb

It's HOT.

Yesterday was hot too.... and the day before. This is when I go looking for reasons to love summer.
I found my two new Daylilies blooming for the first time. We bought them last year but I don't remember the names. The yellow/pink one has ruffles...

...that sparkle in the sun as if each ruffle carried water from the plant and overflowed just a little at the end of the flower.Maybe it is nectar that is oozing out of the edges of the flower. What ever it is, the edges glisten with it.

The other one is like an Orchid and ruffled. I love the color which is outlined at the edges of the flower.

How can there be so many different flowers? How can there be such a variety of amazingly beautiful works of art?
These two Daylilies are protected by a high round of chicken wire. The deer love them and we had the audacity to plant them outside the fence, across the driveway. The deer feasted on them last Fall, when we planted them. until we put up the wire fence. They have eaten the tops off of some other Daylilies near the fence that they never touched before. I guess they are animals of whim.... creatures of "lets see what we can chew on to aggravate Farmlady today."
If the deer are hungry they will eat anything. They have even eaten my Iris when food is scarce elsewhere.
I lost my "Bambi" mentality the first year we moved up here. I planted roses. YEP! We had no fencing at the time. YEP! The roses were doing beautifully and had wonderful buds on them. YES THEY DID!
It was May, I think. One night the Deer came to dine. The next morning all my roses were "pruned" of their flower buds. I sat on the porch and cried. By Fall we had our fence up and they had to go find some other naive, country bumpkin to terrorize.
So the heat has arrived and plants like the Rose of Sharon (or Hibiscus Syriacus) are thriving.

Bursting into flower next to the porch.

As much as I hate to admit it, the heat is what creates this perfection. Only in the passion of Summer's intensity does this loveliness appear. It's a love affair of nature with the sun. The flame of a sun's flare reflected in an exquisite scarlet blush of an adoring and waiting loved one. Plant passion.
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What can I say about Summer?
The evenings are beautiful outside.
The nights are wonderfully cool.
The bee's are flying from one flower to the next in frantic gratitude.
The tomatoes are growing and my mouth waters at the thought of home grown in the salad again.
The hills are brown but there is moisture underneath from the late rain that,hopefully, will reduce the fire hazard.
The goats are happy.
The chickens are eating watermelon rinds.
and .... I love my AIR CONDITIONER.

She's doing better...

Mom went into the hospital again last Monday and had 18 lbs. of fluid removed by Lasix treatments. She came back to the rest home on Thursday and is feeling so much better. The family is very relieved that there is still something that can be done to make her comfortable.
Her brother arrived on Wednesday from Susanville, Ca. She was so happy to see him. His two daughters drove him down here just to see Mom. They really enjoyed talking to each other and it was so nice to see our cousins again. It meant so much to Mom to see her "baby" brother ( he's 85 yrs old) again and I know it gave her a bit dose of "happy" medicine.

ON Thursday we got Mom settled in and Sis cut her hair for her. She was delighted with the haircut. She said it was really good to be "home" and..., "take a shower". We left her in good spirits. The doctor told her that he would see her again in a couple of weeks because the fluid will build up again and she will need more Lasix to help her body get rid of all the fluid. At some point this won't work anymore, but until then, they can help her. Mom is being so brave.

Sis decided to follow me home, yesterday afternoon, for the weekend. We drove into Sutter Creek for lunch today, but little else. The temperature is hovering right about 100 degrees . Summer has definitely arrived. I watered and "dead-headed" the flowers very early this morning. It was beautiful outside so early. Everything smelled so good. Only the sunrise and the windless air gave a hint to how hot it would be. This afternoon all the birds and even the lizards have found a place to hide from the intense heat. Annibel, our cat is stretched out in the garden, the dogs are in the house enjoying the air-conditioner and the goats are looking at us like we did something to bring on all this hot weather. They weren't happy when it was cold. They weren't happy when it was raining and now..., they're upset because it's too hot. Spoiled goats....

Tomorrow I will continue the saga of Carl's first trip to the Mokelumne River and, also, tell you about a special package I received in the mail.

Long, hot day selling gourds on Hiway 49

Summer is here! Too fast, too soon. This is the third day of almost 100 degree weather and I spent the day with three other members of our gourd group selling ( or trying to ) gourds. I've decided that people are being affected by the recession.
We were there this morning at 7.00 a.m. and closed up at 5:00 p.m. It was a long, hot day and people were just not spending their money on much of anything. Other vendors were complaining too. The heat was definitely a factor and there was a car show in Jackson... and it was the weekend of the Calaveras Frog Jumps in Angels Camp, so folks had lots of choices. Those that came to Sutter Creek were having a good time and they certainly wanted to know all about the gourds. They just didn't buy anything. I sold one pin all day. That's discouraging. I worked on finishing and packing all day yesterday. That's not much of a return for the time invested.

We recommended that the 2nd. annual festival, next year, be on a weekend with less going on ( especially something like the Frog Jumps, which are so popular ), and maybe a week before Mother's Day so folks would have more incentive to buy.

So I'm going to take my hot, tired and discouraged body to bed early tonight. It needs to sleep.