Golden time

As most wildflowers have disappeared or turned brown, we move towards the golden days. There is a lot of yellow now, lots of goldenrod, some scattered blackeyed Susan remnants and some other leggy yellow flowers that look like blackeyed Susans but without the black center.

Even some of the leaves on trees are beginning to go yellow, but we have had so little rain until just recently that those may just be drying up. We are not yet to the colors shown in the above photograph, but soon it will be that beautiful on the river.

Our flowerbeds, mostly wildflowers, also are looking pretty scraggly and sad, with the exception of the patch of sedum (hens and chicks) that Helen gave us last year. I didn't expect it to survive the winter, but it not only did that, it has come up flourishingly and is now beginning to show some purple color. I'm tempted to get more so that we have something to look at after the wildflowers have peaked and gone.

Even without new flowers, though, our trees will make the place beautiful for a while. Already the tine crabapples are showing color -- but they are only about the size of grapes.

On the fauna side, meanwhile, there were two dead mice on the carpet this morning and part of another mouse tail. The traps have been pretty full this week, too, another sign of the weather turning.

I just stepped out front and a hummingbird came buzzing up and hovered about a foot in front of my face for a few seconds. I guess he wanted to make sure I wasn't sipping his nectar.

And don't get me started on the flies!