Disconnected stuff

Couldn't tell this morning if I was very early or if the sun was rather late. Without a clock to go by, I took my cue from the girls - and they were in no more a hurry than I was to roll out of bed and start the day.

Of course, Flop was upstairs galumphing and playing with the little fake mice in the living room.  By the sounds of it, she was having a GREAT time.  If you didn't live here, you would have thought the living room had been overrun by a practicing circus act.

Cleo and Hobbes were on the bed with me, alternately grooming, purring and dozing.  I was avoiding.  Needless to say, they were far more successful than I in their endeavors.

The house is sufficiently cooled off this morning, due to the lovely sixty degree temps we are dropping to overnight.  Take that, DTE!  You bloodsuckers.

Despite the harsh grooming and the transplanting to a hostile (and completely converse) environment, the Jackmanii clematis has bloomed!  In fact, not one, but two blossoms!  I wasn't trying to kill it, but I hadn't done it any favors with this wretchedly hot summer move...and yet, it surprises and prizes me.  It is nowhere near the size it had been when I whacked it down and buried out back, but apparently the location is perfect.

Everything still requires weeding. [heavy sigh]

Karl had the wonderful fortune to see a hummingbird around the pergola (yea!), but I have yet to see one this year.  Our bats are gone (boo). A good number of yellow swallowtail butterflies have fluttered through the yard over the last two to three weeks - that's always a good thing.

The lovely Japanese anemone have just begun blooming - I do love the look of them - but the hosta blooms are beginning to die back, sadly.  There are so few late-summer flowering shade plants. [heavier sigh]

Two or three showers yesterday have added 'bath water' to the gutters, and the blue jays and sparrows are loving it. You're welcome, birds.

The chipmunks living in the space under our front porch slab were busy over the weekend.  Cheek pouches full as they entered the hole from the flowerbed side.  Flop watched and drooled a good portion of the day, because those little critters are very active.  And the dreadful groundhogs (in residence out back) were busily grabbing at the apples, within their plump reach, from a very large portion of the tree that toppled to the ground over the weekend. 

[groan] That's going to have to be dragged out front and cut back a bit for the rubbish dudes to haul away.

Perhaps I should just crawl back into bed for a few more hours days weeks...just until I can't see my shadow.