Sunflowers - Wildlife - Independence Day -

I know I've been missing from here!  I really have been busy, mostly working in the garden, cooking/eating outdoors, and taking time to stop and smell not only the roses but all the other lovelies blooming around the garden now that summertime is really here. 

Travel planning, birthday celebrations, organizing 'stuff' for the always rather scary future - won't dwell too much on that - and meeting up with friends for a glass of very cold rosé now and then, has filled in the blanks. 

Now we have visitors - several of the four legged variety! 

A feral tuxedo cat who has been hanging around for many months is now a momma and introduced us to her two cute, already large, kittens on Saturday.

Yesterday, a momma grey fox brought three large healthy looking kits to our back garden just prior to dusk and they played for about 20 minutes. They seem to be living under my neighbor's shed. We've had foxes before but it has been a few years so seeing this new family is lovely.

Wildlife entertainment is always wonderful to view.  Photos through the window are not great - all these animals move so quickly - but you can see that all the babies are quite large already. Hoping of course there is no negative interaction of cats and foxes, and that all can live here harmoniously for the coming weeks until they move on!

Do you have big plans for celebrating tomorrow . . . . . if you live here in the USA?  

Whatever you spend your day doing I hope it's fun and the sun shines on you,

your families and friends. Very hot here, close to 100F all week.

On July 5 we'll still be celebrating as Bob will have another birthday!

Celebrating Summer with sunflowers -

OK, you know where I'm going with this!  

Another post on the sunflower 'procession' along the low brick wall
 between my neighbor Bob's front garden and ours. 

Yesterday the first BIG bloom opened - in celebration of 
the Summer Solstice.
I was out there with my camera to get this first photo - I waited until late
afternoon when the sun was not so blindingly bright - and it almost took my
 breath away looking at all those new seeds forming. Nature never ceases to 
surprise and thrill.
I'll definitely be collecting seeds again this year in late Summer for planting
 next Spring. These beautiful blooms last a long time and bring so much
interest to the garden due to their height and brilliant color. 
The bees love them and we must do what we can to help bees.
Also, I know the birds and squirrels will be feasting well once the seeds dry.

Looks like this sunflower patch will be an ongoing annual happening in the
 garden, and it all started with one small packet of seeds tossed along the wall
a few years ago!

This was the budding flower on Wednesday - didn't take long to
 open fully by the following day.

Hoping to have perhaps 15 large tall blooms this Summer, plus a few

 shorter ones - you can just see one of those on the far right.

The tallest have now reached about 7 feet, and I have to stand on the

 low wall to get my closeups of their sunny faces.

 No field of sunflowers as in Provençe, but this is is an ideal spot for my 

mini garden tucked at the base of the wall. Today I fertilized them with

 Miracle-Gro. There's been no rain to speak of for several days, so I also

 watered everything this morning as it's still in the 90's.

My own Bob, and my neighbor Bob, both know to stay far away from them

 when mowing and weed whacking!

Do you grow sunflowers?

Have a wonderful weekend - they seem to come around 

so quickly lately.

Scribble Picnic - Watermelon

Photo taken at Costco - edited to a sketch - watercolor pencils.

I walked into Costco last week to pick up a few items - a salmon, pine nuts and

 olive oil (pesto season is here), healthy greens, red peppers by the bag, 

breakfast berries etc . Costco is just a few minutes drive from here.

Costco, you know how to entice with your attractive offerings. . . . . .and most of

them are way over-sized when shopping for just two, but still we buy and then

 spend hours rustling up recipes, cooking, freezing, because there's no space

 remaining in the refrigerator to store so much fresh food!

Do you do that?

Please tell me I'm not alone.

I think I need to travel more and stay away from Costco!

However, when faced with these, I immediately knew I had a source for

 this week's SCRIBBLE PICNIC theme from Michael - WATERMELON - but 

that there was no way Costco could tempt me to buy one. Taking a few photos

 was all I needed to do.

There aren't many foods I dislike but watermelon is one I really don't like at all.

 No matter how scorching hot the summer day, I have to find other cooling

 foods or beverages, the texture of a watermelon, seeds or not, just doesn't

 do it for me.

Please stop over at Michael's SCRIBBLE PICNIC today - I just know there will

be some great artists who love watermelon and have sketched some beauties!

Today is my dear husband's birthday - he's requesting lunch at his favorite Thai

restaurant. Sounds perfect to me so we'll be heading out at noon for crispy chilled

 summer rolls, spicy tofu Pad Thai, and that always delicious thirst quenching

 Thai iced coffee - who needs a watermelon to stay cool!

Bob thanks you for the kind birthday wishes you left on my previous post -

and of course I thank you also.

Dining out with nature. . . . . . . . . .

Seems like seeds at the source are getting sparse as Summer flowers bake in the hot sun.

 Birds and squirrels perform their usual balancing acts to dig out a last quick meal. 

Sunflowers may be over in my garden, but the abundance of figs on

 my two large trees are feeding many squirrels. They seem to attract many

 birds including robins, cardinals, finches and blue jays. I notice the seed feeders

 are not being emptied now they can feed on juicy, fresh fruits.