COLOR is Dancing in My Gardens...

...and it's NOT just the Flowers!

There's more color this year than we can ever remember... 
and we're lovin' it!

Blue...

Orange... 

Yellow Orange...

Lemon Yellow...

Red...

We could get use to this!

Oh My Heart...

Delicate ROSE petals form the shape of a HEART...

on a rose growing in a corner of my gardens.

In your Sweetest Dreams could you ever imagine 

such a beautiful bloom as this?

Oh My Heart Rose

Actually a bloom from a "no name" Rose Tree 
I fell in love with several Summers ago at Costco.
I just had to bring it home!

And its blooms are ENCHANTING!

I guess my garden is just giving a little love back!

Oh my heart! 

Such tender mercies growing in my gardens.

Have YOU ever discovered an OH MY HEART ROSE in your gardens?

Sweet Little LOVE BIRDS in our Gardens ♥

Mr. Lovey Dovey

Mrs. Lovey Dovey

Where you find one, you'll always find the other.

Our resident Love Birds.
♥
(Mourning Doves in disguise.)

For My Dad...

who patiently taught me how to garden...

Outdoor Gardens

Round red radishes pulled from the soil, 

always the first harvest of the season,
but they don't taste very sweet.

Zucchini Squash, large yellow blooms, within days set long and green,

if I sit still long enough can I SEE them grow?

Delicate wispy green foliage 

with the promise of yummy carrots under the soil 

(I can see orange!)... 

how long do we have to wait?

Carefully hoed rows of furrows,

deliver life from living water.
  Can I help make those little rivers?

Picking horn-worms from the tomato plants
  before they can do damage, 

why do they have a horn, anyway?

Warm Summer nights sitting on the front porch,  

marveling how your big thumb on the end of that hose 

makes a perfect spray of water... 

can I try?

♥  ♥  ♥

Memories of Dad (and me) in the garden...  forever priceless!

Thanks Dad, for sharing your love of gardening 

and harvesting 

and life.  

And thank you for answering all of this little girl's questions!

I can feel you watching from Heaven as I garden. 
 

Did you KNOW you were growing more than just vegetables?

We BLOOM too!

Some of the favorites of my gardens weren't chosen
for their beautiful blooms. 

But maybe they should have been!

These bushes are part of the bones of my garden,
providing structure and dimension.

 Each was chosen because I fell in love with their striking foliage.

Who knew I'd love their beautiful blooms, too?

Enjoy them now... because they only bloom for a very short time!

Summer Wine Ninebark

Pinkish white button-like blooms

Dark crimson-red foliage  

Aren't they just the sweetest little flowers? 

Compact European Cranberry Bush

Lace-cap bouquets of white in Spring

Followed by tiny red berries that the birds adore!

I chose these bushes for their amazing orange fall color!

And then there are the weigelas...

                      their blooms are a magnet for Hummingbirds!

 Wine and Roses  Weigela

 Intense rosy pink trumpet blooms

I chose this bush for its deliciously dark burgundy foliage.

 French Lace  Weigela 

Stunning deep crimson flowers

Variegated leaves of dark and lime green stole my heart.

Minuet Weigela

Delicate pink fragrant blooms

Perfect size for smaller spaces... only grows 3 feet tall.

Enjoy their turn to SMILE in the SUN! 

My Summer Love

Summer is knocking at my doorstep and I'm already in LOVE.

Really! 

How could you look into these little blue faces 

and NOT fall hopelessly in LOVE?

If I could choose an official flower of Summer, 

in my gardens it would always be 

Blue Lobelia.

Cambridge Blue Lobelia

These tiny blooms have captured my heart 

for as long as I've been gardening...

and that's a VERY long time.

Crystal Palace Blue Lobelia

Lobelia are native to South Africa. 
I would love to see them blooming in the wild. 
(Maybe my South African gardening friends could post a picture or two?)

In my gardens they are annuals. 

Their little hearts flutter with delight in our Summer climate, 

but would never survive the freezing cold of our Winters.

In my gardens you'll find them peeking out from potted containers...

...and dancing profusely throughout my flower beds.

 

There's just something special about these tiny blooms 

that puts a skip in my step and makes me smile.

They will always be 

My Summer Love!

Waiting with Wonder...

The Journey of a Bloom will never cease to amaze me...

 What's going on inside of there?

 Can you sense the anticipation?

And how does each perfect little petal emerge 

from this tightly wound ball of a bud?

Waiting is such Sweet Wonder!

Counting the days until these blooms smile in the sun!

Robins for Sale... at The Home Depot

The Home Depot... 

THE place to shop for all your HOME and GARDEN needs.

Now selling Baby Robins...

                             ...or so it appears.

Can you SEE me?

Can you see me now?

There are actually three baby ROBINS in this nest.

My recent visit to our local Home Depot, revealed more than just home and garden supplies. In the outside courtyard, there were several very large pine trees for sale. I looked at them and wondered how anyone could ever get them home. As I was walked through the area I spied a Robin tangled in a small piece of plastic wrap near the top of one of the trees.  I watched as she struggled to set her self free, falling from branch to branch down the tree.  After a couple of minutes, she was able to fly to the top of the building and I breathed a sigh of relief.  She sat there for the longest time looking back down at the tree. Wondering what caught her attention, I looked too! And there hidden in the branches was a nest of baby robins. The nest was made of twigs and small branches and... pieces of plastic wrap.  I stood for quite awhile as Mamma Robin made several trips to feed her growing brood. It was a slow day at the Depot and no one else was around to view the scene. I smiled at the thought of purchasing the tree and wondered if the baby birds came with it. Then I realized I don't really need another tree, and I actually have plenty of baby robins in my gardens as well.  So I left the Bonus Buy for someone else to discover. I did show the sales clerk my find.  

I wonder if they raised the price after I left?

Proof that you should always have a camera with you wherever you go. I didn't, so the pics are from my own garden. The birds look much the same... just imaging plastic wrap in the nest.

Monday Morning Melody

Awoke to the sound of this little darling singing outside my window...

Now who wouldn't have a beautiful day 

after such a grand beginning?

Happy Monday! 

And the MYSTERY is SOLVED...

This is WHAT it will become...

Photo by Digilbo

CICADA

This insect's amazing lifestyle has been a source of fascination since ancient times. Several cultures, such as the ancient Chinese, regarded these insects as powerful symbols of rebirth.

"Cicadas are known for their loud, piercing song. Only male cicadas have drum-like membranes on their abdomen that vibrate, making creepy tones. From June through September, adult males sit in treetops throughout much of America producing a variety of rhythmic ticks, buzzes and whines to attract females. Female cicadas produce timed "wing flick" signals in response to male calls. Every species of cicada has a unique call. The frequency of the sound is related to the temperature and time of day.

Cicadas spend most of their time underground feeding on roots. But every now and then they come out. There are annual and periodical cicadas. The cicadas in a periodical cicada population are synchronized so that almost all of them mature into adults in the same year. The fact that these cicadas remain locked together in time is made even more amazing by their extremely long life-cycles of 13 to 17 years."

"Cicadas help the environment. They improve soil, provide food for other animals and prune treetops. Periodical cicadas achieve astounding population densities, as high as 1.5 million per acre. Densities of tens to hundreds of thousands per acre are more common.

Some people even like to eat the bugs! Whether they're curious or doing it for shock value, people are eating cicadas. Eating cicadas is not a new thing. People have been eating them for centuries.

"When you eat them when they're soft and mushy, when they come out of their skin, they taste like cold, canned asparagus," Kritsky said.

Cicadas are harmless. They do not bite or sting defensively, nor do they attack people. If a cicada lands on you, it does so only because it finds you to be a convenient place to land."

♥   ♥   ♥

HUGS to to Ben who was the first commenter with the correct guess. (I'm so impressed!) You have won dinner for three on the Garden Terrace of my back yard.  Bring my daughter and granddaughter please. ♥

And KUDOS to the following:

Joey at the The Village Voice who discovered the very same creature in her soil way far away in Michigan. So nice to know we have such a deep connection.

Holley at Roses and Other Gardening Joys who made me smile with her Mexican Jumping Beans guess.

Beth at PlantPostings who knew it's a big year for Cicadas. Not so much here in Utah but surely in the south.

Christine at The Gardening Blog who's seen similar in her own garden.

Karen at Glimpses of Glory who is a new visitor to my gardens... so glad you found me!

And Susan at Ink and Pestemon whose comments are always a welcome sight.


And for the curious, 

 no... it hasn't emerged yet.  

At least I don't really know. I just leave them in the soil when I find them so that they may fulfill the measure of their creation. (Don't wanna mess with Mother Nature.) 

WHAT will this BECOME???

Uncovered several of these in my soil... 

it wiggles.

What will this become?

I can only guess.

Do YOU know?