What's Up? 7.15

Black-Eyed Susans and Northern Sea Oats!

Around here, blossoming Black-Eyed Susans come around the time of our son's birthday.  Generally, they are open within a week of his day -- one way or the other.  Also, they sort of mark the half-way point of summer.   Hmmmm, let's just go with the birthday thing.  I'm not ready to think of summer as half-spent quite yet.

One of the things that I love about Black-Eyed Susans is how they unfurl.  Those petals get so twisted up.  It's hard to believe that they won't stay all knarly.

For a while, we really let these flowers take over the long stretch of garden at our back lot line.  You know who loved that?  The goldfinches.  We had a feeder back there amongst the flowers, and it was their happy place. You should've heard them sing!

Since then, we've thinned that area out a lot as we've acquired other plants.  It's been fun to see where the birds and squirrels have seeded the Black-Eyed Susans though!  They show up all over the yard when we KNOW that we haven't planted them there!

Since we started vacationing in The Outer Banks years ago, we've admired the many varieties of seagrasses that grow there.  This variety is called Northern Sea Oats.  We came across it late last year.  It did "okay" last year, but it didn't really thrive.  Actually, I kind of forgot all about it.  It's planted right next to our Oriental Poppies, so it could've really gotten lost in the shuffle.

One day in the early spring, I happened to spot something that (though not very big) looked established and healthy.  I happened to think of the Sea Oats, and left it alone.  Sure enough!  It came back.

I'm anxious to see how it changes when we move into autumn weather, but I'm not wishing the time away -- trust me.  I'm enjoying this beautiful show of green.  It's right outside my kitchen window, and I love to watch it sway in the breeze!

So, how about you?  What's up at your house?

P.S. For those of you who have been praying... the Chicago Team (and our girl) made it home safely Saturday evening!  We are so grateful to God for his watchful eye over this group of kids, and their leaders -- and for the things they were able to accomplish in HIS NAME last week!