Monday, July 04, 2005

brief relief

Cool, dry weather returned for a few days -- cool enough to sleep without the air conditioner on, and mild enough to let one enjoy the outside without worrying about watering or doing some other chore in keeping plants alive and healthy.

I've never been one to plant red, or much red, blooming flowers, but a few years ago, I planted some red monardia (bee balm) in a corner of the garden. It didn't do well the first year, and I moved a few of the plants to another spot in the garden. Now I have a big wave of tall, red bee balm in close context with white hydrangea. If only there were a blue flower, the garden would be seasonally correct.

We are starting to get to the end of the period where most of the summer perennials are open or about to open. The purple coneflower is almost all abloom, and the rubeckia and summer phlox are starting to put on flower buds. We're away yet from the fall bloomers, and I worry about gaps in the garden's blooming cycles. The Shastas (beckys) are also now completely open.

2 comments:

Kati said...

We had the temporary relief in the humidity too, which allowed me to blow-dry my hair, unbearable without air-conditioning during the dog days. "ooohh, I like your hair," a co-worker said, "you did it..." He faltered. I should have said...who cares what I should have said. We had a couple of cooler days, it finally rained today, the garden is happy and I'm happy.

Don said...

We got 2 or 3 good days of rain. I watered over the weekend and then it rained overnight Sunday.

kati -- I saw a Canadian friend on Sunday (during a weekend of mild weather) and he said that most of the summer days he knew in Canada were mild and sweet.

Shelley -- maybe you will get tropical storm rain/hurricane rain.

I have tried to keep the birdbath full. Even though the air conditioner is running, the cats and dog are mostly sleeping before I even leave for work. AC probably kills all the interesting sounds and smells from the outside that perks them up.