July rains bring…August mushrooms

August is usually a brown month. The plants are spent and dried out, the ground parched. Not this year. An unusual amount of rain has kept everything nice and green as well as brought up an array of mushrooms around my town that I might not typically see.  I’ve got mushrooms on my mind lately because of the recent release of the remake of “The Beguiled,” a Clint Eastwood movie I saw on TV when I was a child that did for my feelings about mushrooms pretty much what “Jaws” did for my feelings about shallow water at the beach. (I’ve yet to see the Sofia Coppola-directed remake but I absolutely will – eventually.)

I’m too lazy to look up their names so here’s some interesting and nameless mushrooms that caught my eye.

Follow the leader?

What a color!

I liked how they formed a mysterious circle. “Crop circle mushrooms?”

 

p.s. I am still having internet issues so forgive me in advance for not replying promptly to any comments. I do still like ’em!

Come on in!

In my last post I wrote about the importance of passions to happiness or contentment. One of mine which is incredibly satisfying is gardening; that is, making nature beautiful (or more beautiful if you will). I love both the working part and the enjoying part. Creating a gorgeous garden is like creating art and in the end there’s something to look at, just as with a painting or sculpture. It has a calming effect and delights me. Even a small yard can have many charms.

In the fall a large nearby tree came down (it was pretty much dead) and its absence gave me more sun which means brighter flowers and even a crack at vegetable growing (veggies need a lot of sunlight). I think the 2017 yard is the most beautiful it’s been. When I look out I am sometimes taken aback by it. I took these photos on the last day of July.

MUST have a screen against mosquitoes

 

On the right, a fabric shower curtain to block a not great view

Lydia, the one-armed watering girl

BASIL!! My favorite

The coloring on this moth is fantastic

This is a prize. It’s a dipladenia (an annual flower that’s supposed to die) I bought in summer 2016, wintered inside and brought back out and BAM! Gorgeous again.

Silver Arrow grass plant, a garden star

The grass plant kept getting bigger so I dug/wrestled a piece out and potted it

The Bathing Station (for the birds not me) 2017

Trying some different basil types, Purple, Thai

More basil types, Lemon, lime

Tomato attempts

This guy kept a beady eye on me