Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Thursday’s Thoughts #12.
Good morning everyone! It’s a wet morning, some thunderstorms have been going through the area since at least 2am. Hopefully some of this rain will fall on those forest fires. Unfortunately there has also been a lot of lightning which can also start new fires along the edges of storms where there isn’t much rain. Guess we will find out over the next couple of days. The rain seems to have kept things rather quiet around here this morning. No gulls have shown up, Slim hasn’t been around, and only one chipmunk has been here this morning, and that was Coffee. He seemed to be quite happy having that pile of peanuts all to himself.
Slim wasn’t around much yesterday, so the chipmunks had a good day gathering peanuts for winter storage. My poor flowers are having problems this year. They did have a good start, but things happen. Right now they are drowning with getting too much rain in a short time. My dianthus are not getting anywhere. It seems that Slim and at least 2 chipmunks enjoy eating the flower buds, so I’m not getting any flowers, just green leaves. Then there is the spider mites. I have never had a problem with spider mites on plants outside, only on plants inside. That’s because outside there are other bugs that eat spider mites.
Obviously those bugs are not around this summer, so the spider mites are taking over, and even though I am spraying them regularly with my homemade solution that works great for killing spider mites, it doesn’t seem to be working this year. Although I might be winning now. They did kill one of my dahlias, and the rest of the dahlias are not looking too good. And the spider mites have moved over to the geraniums now, I have never had spider mites on geraniums before. Usually they are quite bug free and disease free. Oh well, things happen. Muffin has certainly not been a happy kitty this morning, though she has stayed with me during the thunderstorms. They have stopped now so she decided it was nap time. Hmm, Sir Charles just showed up for his breakfast, but Sir George and Sir Henry have still not come, very odd indeed. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin. (top featured photo, a sunny but smoky day at the river)
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve And Muffin’s Wildflowers #49.
Hi again everyone! Today’s wildflower is the “wild mint”, also sometimes called “field mint”. Each individual flower in the cluster is only 1/8 inch (3mm) in size, but there are usually 20 or more flowers together circling the square stem. The leaves have a very strong mint scent when crushed and also make delicious mint tea. This is a native wildflower that thrives in sun or partial shady conditions. It likes moist soil and is usually found in moist meadows, thickets, and along the shores of streams, rivers and lakes. They bloom from July to September and can grow up to 24 inches (60cm) tall. The clusters of flowers grow up all along the stem and begin blooming at the bottom. They can be found all over N. America, except the southeast US. There is a similar variety that is common in Europe as well. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 