Summer Days

Since I have this blog to refer back to, I can refresh my failing memory about where I was at last summer. There's no way I'd ever read back over much of the text of this rambling blog but it's interesting how I can go back and a title or a photograph will make me remember. One big difference between last year and this year is I'm enjoying the lazy summer days. I'm not in a hurry for the chilly weather to re-energize me like I was last summer. I still complain about the heat sometimes (not so much on my blog but in conversation) but in general I'm enjoying the slower pace of summer. I can still walk if I get up early enough but I can also limit my gardening to garden photography because it's too hot to garden but it's not to hot to step out for a few pictures. The main thing I do in my garden of late, besides take pictures, is walk around with a watering can and toss a few splashes hither, thither.
About the time I despaired of whether anything would survive the heat and lack of rain we got some nice soaking storms over several days. The top picture is of my crepe myrtle tree in the height of its glory when the blossoms were almost red. The second picture was from a few days ago. The crepe myrtle blossoms are fading to a pinkish color and the red cardinal no longer tries to blend into the blossoms when it sees me coming. What's the point now that it's so much darker than the fading crepe myrtle blooms. Instead it perches on the shroud (pvc pipe covered in burlap to be literal) and pretends to be a flower of its own. Okay, I'll admit that may just be what I think its doing because it fooled me until I looked closely. I literally wondered if a flower was volunteering through the burlap but I was pretty sure the PVC pipe wasn't full of dirt to support such a volunteer.It was so funny to me how it perched perfectly still and then turned very slightly as if posing for the next shot. I think I may be enjoying this summer so much because I don't feel any compulsion to get much done besides work. Since the work I get paid for is done inside on my computer, I have the luxury of letting the garden get wilder and wilder and it continues to provide me with plenty of photo ops. I think crepe myrtle trees rank up there with my favorite ornamental trees. They are interesting all through the year, especially a big bushy one like mine. Some people top them and that style has its own charm but I like the way mine has different leaves in different seasons. The fall leaves are almost as pretty to me as the blossoms and I love the way so many different birds like to get deep inside the covering of leaves and blossoms.
It's funny how different people are about something like a tree. I was walking not to long ago with a nice lady who lives several blocks away from me. She's never been to my house but I've admired her garden and when we were both walking in the same direction we've ended up walking together a few times. I was talking about how much I love crepe myrtles and she said she can't stand them. She said her next door neighbor has a crepe myrtle that grows over the fence into her yard and makes a mess. I had to struggle not to burst out laughing because it struck me as so funny that someone who I enjoy walking with on occasion, and whose garden I admire, would have it in for a crepe myrtle. She said she's going to start cutting the branches that grow into her yard. I did say that I have a crepe myrtle that's a bit of a trespasser but that my neighbor is welcome to cut any guilty branches. Moving right along to another subject on a leisurely neighborly walk.