I'm going to post a boring account of the weather so I can remember how stinking hot it is. Today we broke the high temperature record, it was 106. It was 105 degrees in 1980.We are at 52 days of 100 degrees or more for the year. Some parts of Oklahoma are way over that, almost 100 days of 100 degrees or more. I have been sitting around a lot in pj's. That makes for a thrilling summer. Looks good on a resume...(too hot for real clothes!) God Bless air conditioning! I water to keep a green patch around the house. It makes me feel better, I suspect the birds like it too.

There was a big earthquake on the east coast today, centered in Mineral VA, 5.9 , caused a lot of panic in the cities. People naturally thought of terrorism when they felt the shaking. Never fear... a hurricane is bearing down on Raleigh NC...due there in 2 days.

Hummingbird or birds have been here and gone. Greener pastures? There can't be much nectar until some of the fall things start to bloom. I saw a hummer , put the feeder up straight away, saw it or another a couple more times and that was it. I hope I get some more before winter.

I planted zucchini seeds a couple of days ago. I figure I still have time to get a crop in. The seed are up already and the first leaf is showing. 55 days to maturity says the packet, but I don't know if that means giant squash or bloom or what. I'm hoping for something edible on day 45!

I saw the first hummingbird of the summer on Marc's birthday, July 14th, enjoying my butterfly bush.

My year is marked by the movements of hummingbirds! They have returned. I put out a feeder a couple of days ago and one appeared shortly after. Lovely creatures! An entire year has passed since I last saw them up close and personal.

My husband has resigned his job as of July 15th and will be forming his own business, working out of the house for now. It's nice to have him around. I hope we can make a new venture work.

We had a great vacation driving from OKC OK to Cazenovia NY and back. Memphis, Knoxville, Warm Springs VA, Scranton, Cazenovia, Cleveland, Bloomington IN, St. Charles MO, OKC. So much to see. So many restaurants to try!

Favorite place on the trip: Jefferson Pools in Warm Springs VA. Incredible. We read a Bailey White story and figured out she was talking about this old fashioned spa/hot spring in VA and we decided we must go there. Been in exhistance as a hot spring for soaking since before 1800, currently it's as it has been for aobut 100 years or more. SO QUAINT! Stayed at the nearby Grist Mill Inn, really nice. Breakfast in bed!

Gabrielle had her braces put on for the final time yesterday. 2 more years and she will be finished with all this pain and torture.

Hummingbirds

I haven't seen any birdies, hummers that is for about a week or more. It is still warm-hot almost so I guess they just take off at the end of September no matter what the weather. It was an extremely dry September after a very wet, actually the most rain ever in an Oklahoma August ! Lots of butterflies still around to marvel at. I am anticipating Halloween already and I can't believe a year has past! We have new neighbors across the street so no more of Lance and Veronica's generous large size Hershey Bars for all 300+ kids!!!

Hummingbirds

I realize I am obsessing about the birdies, but they keep faking me out. I saw one yesterday. We had a front move through today, so maybe today is the day. Some lovely large Monarchs are on the butterfly bush the last 2 days and over the weekend the gulf fritillaries were around en masse. I have 3 black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley in the front planter, so they are still going strong. I am going to go to TLC tomorrow and get some parsley plants . Fall is the perfect time to plant them. I need to figure out where or how to get milkweed.... The Centennial Cattle Drive is in Kingfisher today. I wish I had gone to see it. One of the better events to celebrate 100 years of statehood.

Backyard Buddies

The hummingbirds are still here! A front is coming through today, will they leave with the warm air??? I can't figure out what causes them to leave-fading daylight? Cool air? Lack of food? Can I solve this mystery?

Addio Maestro

Birthday week....holiday week.....worked at the CC on Tuesday, a madhouse. Myrla is a saint. I decided to go to the Edmond Farmer's Market on Wednesday morning. It was good, not great. I got a Frankoma honey pot and some Oklahoma honey to fill it, some tomatoes, peaches, onions and beeswax candles. Today a massive head and neck ache, sore throat, I think it's allergies, but for a while this am I thought I had something more. I was finally able to keep down some Tylenol at 3 o'clock. According to the news ragweed pollen is through the roof.

Today I did see one hummingbird, activity has slowed. I still don't know if there are fewer birds or they are coming to my feeder less. It is windy, hot and humid. It's usually just hot and windy this time of year! We had a little rain yesterday and we will get rain tomorrow. Our front lawn looks so fabulous I just can't get over it. Some years we have had to water almost everyday to keep it alive much less green. I was able to figure out that the noisy amphibians in our yard are Woodhouse's Toads. I snapped a picture of one that was out in the daylight for some unknown reason, probably disturbed by a certain dog....

World news is depressing. Luciano Pavarotti died yesterday. I cried twice today upon hearing nessun dorma from Puccini's Turandot on the various broadcasts ...no one sleeps...now the great tenor does. One of a kind. Osama Bin Laden is rattling his sabre. German's foil a huge terrorism plot. I guess the foiling part is good news!

The Metro

On Saturday instead of going to a party to "honor'" people who donate to a certain charity dear to our hearts we canceled and continued celebrating the big anniversary with a trip to The Metro. Certainly satisfying, relaxing, and better than small talk with people who are nice enough but I just don't know that well. It's back to being HOT! That makes me uncomfortable! Summer here is like winter up north without having to wear all the gear, so I guess it's easier to bear, no shoveling either! It's just that to really be comfortable I need to stay in the AC. That's a foreign concept to me staying in when it's sunny outside. It's the norm here. Go to Sonic, order up and sit in the car with the air on...talk about waste!

Hummingbirds are still here. No more black swallowtail caterpillars on the parsley. Flowers are starting to come back from the early summer heat and more intense sun. My plantings always look best in September. the grass in the front yard is unreal-GREEN! We had several inches of rain just after the fall fertilizer went on and it really kicked in. It usually looks bad at this time, even if it remains green it doesn't look happy when it hasn't rained in months. Sprinkling just doesn't do the same thing the rain does.

How does everyone out there keep up with all the interesting blogs to look at? I just can't keep up....