I wish I could say that the weather is beginning to cool off but that's not the case. However, there are beginning to be some indicators that fall will eventually come.
I didn't save the labels to help me remember the name of the bush above when I planted it 15 years ago but it is always one of the first to get some color at the end of the summer.
My dogwood trees, shot above and below, are always the first trees to change from green to orange and red.
The berries will start turning red before too long on the dogwood trees. By late September the dogwood trees have their full fall color but most of the other trees around here are still changing colors in October and November.
At Grace Garden in Durham there are still plenty of flowers but there are also areas where the plants are going to seed like the shot above. Same at Shelley Lake in Raleigh where I shot the rudbeckia and echinacea below. There are still some flowers mixed in but mostly they are going to seed.
The rudbeckia below is one from my garden that still has its flower petals but the center where the seeds form is getting more elongated.
As I said, in spite of early signs that we are moving towards fall, the heat isn't letting up. I recently noticed these little houses the ants had built so they could escape the heat.
I like the way critters create artwork on mushrooms as they eat.
I almost missed the opportunity to photograph the dragonfly who was perched on top of this broken branch that fell from a tree into the bushes.
My hand stopped just shy of the grabbing the branch to pull it out of the bushes.
The dragonfly must have liked posing because he stayed put while I grabbed my camera and clicked shot after shot.
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I've posted shots before of Grace Garden which is a small natural looking garden nestled in a downtown park in Durham, NC.
One of the few things I like about the weeks when I have to work in Durham is the pleasure of walking in this small memorial garden which begins at the far end of the parking lot across from the office.
This week I had to work at the office in Durham. I took these photographs over a few days where after work, when it was at least a tiny bit cooler, I went on a brief photowalk before going home. When it's cooler I like to spend my lunch break in this garden when I'm in Durham but it was too hot for that.
Given the extreme heat it is remarkable how well all the flowers and plants are doing.
The saving grace this summer, garden wise, has been plenty of life affirming rain.
I can't even begin to imagine what it would have been like if this had been one of our dry summers and it had been this hot for such long periods of time.
For flowers around the world, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.
I was tempted to use my colorful vocabulary while caught in rush hour traffic which was made worse by road work. It occurred to me that the traffic cones and church were very colorful. Since my camera was at hand and the traffic was at a standstill, I took the colorful shot below.
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The title for this week's Nature Notes post and the photographs have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
The extremely loud sound of the crickets, particularly in the evening and morning, drowns everything out in my garden. I considered posting a recording of their voices but decided you would probably take my word for it. The male cardinal above stands out against the green leaf cover above. The American robin below blends into its cover a bit better.
For other nature notes participants, please visit the host at Rambling Woods. The new link goes up by Thursday.
In spite of being one of the hottest summers in my memory where I live in NC, the flowers are doing remarkably well.
I think part of why the flowers are surviving is we have had a very wet summer to counteract the heat.
Even with milder summers when it is dry, everything starts getting pretty droopy by August.
The wildflowers above are going to seed but it's time for that.
The shots above are from my garden. The first two shots and the fifth shot are rose of sharon, a variety of hibiscus. The third shot is a tiger lily (my Dad told me ages ago that they called them ditch lilies when he was growing up). I don't know the name of the flower in the fourth shot. The rest of the flowers in this post were taken outside a doctor's office.
As I've mentioned many times on my blogs, I like to take the taste out of doctor's appointments by having photo shoots.
The begonia above and in companionship with the canna lilies below was doing very well hanging out in the planters outside of the office building where I see my dermatologist.
To view flowers around the world, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.
