July 8......What a treat this morning to look out and see the mother mink playing by the boat slip with her three babies. She has had a den under our cabin for about three years now and we have been glad to see her each spring, though you have to get up pretty early in the morning to catch a glimpse of her, and if she sees you she disappears in a flash. About three weeks ago we spotted her making several trips from further down the lake, carrying something in her mouth and with the field glasses we thought they might be babies. Then she spent the rest of that morning packing back fish, so we were fairly sure she was feeding a litter. This morning the four of them were running back and forth along the water edge and the youngsters were rolling around in the water like tiny otter and having a ball. I wish I could get close enough for a picture of them, but there is very little chance of that. I am grateful that she finds our bit of earth safe enough to raise a family and that we get to see them from time to time.

Later this morning I did a walk about in the garden with Sami, my cat, to see what had to be done. The weather has been so wet and cool this year that things are growing at a great rate, and I decided that there was so much to do that I had to sit down in the shade and contemplate things.

One of the things about living in the country, is the pleasure in seeing the wild-life that lives with and near us. We have a racoon in the rafters of the same cabin the mink are under and the poor guy has quite a time of it. He has a hind leg that seems to give out on him, though it doesn't seem to slow him down at all. It is hard not to interfere with the natural way of things, and I have to be quite stern with myself not to leave food out for him. I am not sure why he lives here instead of in a tree in the wooded area across the road. He knows that there are bird feeders on the deck and some nights he climbs up to see if there is anything going, but I try to only put enough seeds in so they are all gone by mid afternoon. He does, however, tend to leave his calling card, to the disgust of my husband,who doesn't actually know how often this happens, as I try to get out early enough to clean up.

As far as the flowers in the garden are concerned,there are two of notable mention. The Yucca has a huge flower stalk this year for the first time. I can't wait to see the blooms on it and hope they will be out when my cousin from England visits at the end of July. The other one is a rose that has struggled along from year to year with only one or two flowers and usually develops black spot fairly early on. Last fall I put more than the usual amount of mulch down around it and since the thing looked as though it was doing alright this spring, I left the mulch where it was and have many huge flowers this year. They are a lovely salmon color that fade to pink before the petals fall. And so far, no black spot!!! I'll remember to do the same this fall.

July 14..... I have a grand total of TWO apples in the tree outside the kitchen window. They are about the size of golf balls now and I am hoping they do actually grow big enough to eat. I have no idea what kind they might be, so am watching their development with interest. The yucca is flowering and the blossoms are very lovely. Creamy white and quite large with six petals. Some of the flowers hang down like big bells, and some are open wide.There are almost a hundred buds on the stalk, so if they are all out at once, it will be a wonderful show. The phlox are starting to bloom as well, and I have several clumps of them. One is such a pure white that it seems to glow, and the other three are various shades of pink. Because we have so much wind from the lake, I am not, thankfully, bothered with mildew on the leaves.

One of the things that does not seem to be doing very well this year for the first time, is the hollyhocks. I wonder if it has just been too wet for them. The flowers seem small and a little damaged and I have noticed that a lot of the buds are yellowing and falling off. This is disappointing, as they are one of my favorites. I let them self seed and never know from one year to the next what color combinations I will get.

I fished quite a lot of seaweed from the lake this morning. I find that it makes a very good mulch and takes no time at all to break down if I keep it moist. Not a problem this year!!

July 17.......I realized this morning that we have not had to get out the lawn sprinkler yet this year. This must be the first year we have not had to water the gardens. I suppose it is a good thing and everything is growing well, but I rather enjoyed the watering. It gave me a chance to really have a good look at the beds and figure out what I had to plan for to make them better the next year. It also means that the weather has been too cool for comfortable gardening. I like the heat and the smell of the earth and the sounds of the birds and bees around me. With all the coolness and dampness this year, the arthritis is acting up and weeding is a bit of a pain. I am lucky that the perennials are growning so well that the weeds have not been much of a problem. Oh well........maybe August will be more like the summers we are used to.

August 21...... Where on earth has the time gone!!!??? I've been out and started the clean-up of all the things that have gone to seed and the beds are looking a little bare. The whole thing went into jungle form for most of the summer to my husband's disgust. He likes everything very neat and tidy and this year the gardens were certainly NOT that way.

Some new plants have appeared though and that was an interesting thing. I have what I believe to be a "Ragged Robin", though my English cousin Anthea, who was visiting for a week with me, disagrees and thinks that it is a form of plox which is growing right behind. I have also discovered a new color of phlox mixed in with the big patch that is rather pretty. It's a little more mauve than the main bit.

I was disappointed that the one apple on my tree did not amount to much. I suppose I should have sprayed and done all the things that seem to be necessary for the proper cultivation of fruit trees. Maybe next year. I did take the token bite from it when it fell and found it very sour, but then the poor thing didn't have a chance to ripen properly. Probably due to the worm that seemed quite happy in it's middle.

Another interesting thing was the day Anthea and I watched a dozen or so caterpillars climb to various levels on the north side of the house and commence to turn into chrysalids. We determined that they were to become the Mourning Cloak butterfly and though we did get some pictures of the transformation from worm to chrysalis, that is as far as it went. A couple of days later I went out to see what was happening with them, only to find that something had come along and eaten every one.How sad for them and for me as I had promised to take pictures of the butterflies emerging to send to England.

On a brighter note.... the goldenrod and wild asters are going to be really lovley this fall. I do hate to think of it being time for them to bloom though. It doesn't seem possible that the summer is almost over. We never did have to turn on the lawn sprinkler and that was a very strange thing.

I have continued to put a very little seed in the feeders for the birds all summer, just to make sure that they know there is a food source come the cold weather. We've had quite a number of visitors.... nuthatches,robins,blackbirds and starlings, sparrows of all kinds,goldfinches,humming birds,orioles,purple finches,doves, cow birds,red-winged blackbirds,blue jays,and of course my furry friends, the squirrels both black and grey. The chipmunks are great little cleaner-uppers and we have two of them, named Chipsahoy and Chippendale. Sami has had a busy summer observing and trying to catch and has been unfortunately successful a couple of times, but by large the birds take very little notice of her. The squirrels have been nose to nose with her a few times and they, thankfully, tend to leave each other alone.

I do not expect there will be a lot of things going on during the winter months, but I thought maybe I could continue with what is happening to the plants I bring in for the cold months and the house plants. I expect that will all fit onto one page though, and possibly the entries will be rather far apart.

The one project that I had been thinking about for the fall, is to turn the beds by the road into a shrubbery instead of trying to grow flowers there. The soil is not very good and there is a lot more shade there than I thought. It has become a little overgrown with day lilies and a shrubbery might be more appealing for those who pay attention to gardens as they jog past. I shall have to see what sort of shrubs are available and there are a couple that I may be able to dig from another garden where they are in their turn being over grown by asters.