Ah, Summertime!

Finally we have arrived, it's summer! It was a struggle to get here weather wise, but we have made it and most of my trees did too. The Parrotia Persica is up to it's Hamamelis family tricks and playing dormant. It's cambium is green, I wonder if it is a fight to survive, I am hoping so and I have seen it happen before in August. All of a sudden it leafs out, then it dies again, for good. I gave it a another dose of acid soil, I have another Parrotia in another garden, I guess I will have to watch it grow.

What spring, beginning of April was like July, then the temperature dropped to frost just as many fruit trees were blooming and some were lost to frost. That is what happened to my Robin Hill Serviceberry. It bloomed in the morning and that night it was hit by frost. The leaves never opened, I kept watering both Robin Hill and Parrotia while talking to them, worshiping them. I planted them in April and it was just last week, the 3rd week in June that Robin Hill showed leaves. Whew!
While all this drama is going on I have my camera at the ready and here are some photos worth showing, well, if you like butterflies and such... One of the great things about working outside is that you see the most amazing network of living specimens around you and some are so colourful, I can not help myself.
Mourning Cloaks on Silver Lace Lilac blooms.

Over a week the Mourning Cloaks emerged and fed like crazy on the Silver Lace Lilacs, these 2 offered some great shots.

I am amazed by the patterns I see in the wings, eyespots etc. Such as this female Silk moth, Antheracea polyphemus. Only around for a week or so, as they do not eat as moths, so it's all about sex at this point for them, I hope this one was able to continue the family DNA.

The blue was a very iridescent azure blue, the whole combination was very stunning and richly so. They live on oak leaves as caterpillars, but do not worry as hardly any of them make it that far in the food chain world. It's seems as caterpillars, they are a feast for anything and everything from the size of a pin to birds and bats. This could be the moth of the summer for me.

Then there was this spider on a an apple sapling, it was from outer space. If anyone questions where they got an idea of what aliens look like, just look at this spider. I have find out what kind of spider this is, the orb spiders I know are out in September, his legs are really long. I bet he hunts other spiders with those legs. I was just walking by and he was there at eye level. Amazing...

Then I am happy to report of honey bees at my poppies. They are busy out there every sunny day.

Some days I will take a little longer drive home, an alternate route through the woods, a summer road. It is beautiful, now I am sure because of the rains there has been a wash out on the road. But the views are stunning. The photo at the beginning of this post is on that road, I love it, and so does Bo!