Philocalist

PHILOCALIST  (n.) - a lover of beauty; someone who finds and appreciates beauty in all things.

August was full of "things of beauty".  How quickly it has passed.  We've been in a drought here so the trees have been showing stress for some time now.  Someone even remarked that it was the first time that they could remember having to rake leaves in July.  Still there is much beauty to enjoy.

This is a picture of the back of our house at dusk.  You can see the volunteer cleome in abundance (what my son refers to as weeds everywhere), and my gypsy rod visible through the golden glow of the kitchen window.  

A view of our backdoor in the daylight.  The tree is actually the three lemon trees that I grew from seed and braided the trunks together.  At one point, back in 2017, they were not doing well and losing leaves like crazy at only about 10" tall.  I put them outside that summer and they rebounded with leaves so I decided to pot them together and to braid the trunks like I've seen done with ficus trees before.  And that pot to the left of the tree is actually a plant called Angelonia and not a shrub as it appears.  It's proving to be a winner with both color, longevity, and especially its resistance to deer and we plan to have more of it next summer.

As I look out the window from my "perch" aka the dining room table I can see our "bird tree" that has pot hangers on the trunk along with hanging plants from the branches.  There is more volunteer cleome there in a bunch.  And I noticed yesterday that the snapdragon plant that we had in a hanging basket that dried up very quickly managed to drop seeds so there are snapdragon seedlings growing on the steps.  I don't think they'll get big enough to bloom this summer, but maybe some of the seed will winter over and surprise us next spring.

Through the kitchen window I can see the bird feeders and the kettle of zinnias.  This is an attraction for hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies.  Not to mention the goldfinches who eat the seeds from the dying flowers before I can try to save them.  We've had both Eastern Black and Yellow Swallowtail butterflies visiting these flowers and more in the yard.

I'm just wondering which of the swallowtails laid their eggs on my parsley plant again this year.  Right now there are about 12-15 tiny caterpillars devouring this plant as we speak.  I know that there is not enough there to sustain all those cats so I put a note out on our local nature Facebook page and I have two ladies coming to adopt some of these critters. 

Our vegies have not faired well this year.  My lettuce and spinach from earlier in the summer never really produced much though it was started in the cool of the spring as it should be.  The deer did get into the area in the back where the raised bed planter is and ate my green bean plants, trimmed the tomatoes off all the foliage that stuck out of the fencing surrounding them, and devastated what was left of the dahlias that hadn't suffered from the heat.  We did get some cherry tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers but it has been a disappointment for sure.  HWNSNBP is going to take my advice and use some pool noodles, dowels, and bird netting to cover the bed so we can plant some fall crops and not have to worry about the deer eating or the chipmunks digging.

We've been stopping at the "corn stop" either on our way to or from the condo on the weekends.  It's always very busy there with people buying their produce.  HWNSNBP grabs a large handled peach basket and I fill it up with corn, squash, eggplant, beans, melons, and peaches.  They have this little patch of flowers lining the driveway adjacent to the stand that looks like a little swath of a rainbow.

I managed to capture one picture of the full moon this month from our front steps at the condo.

And I have a plethora of sunset pictures that I'll save for another time.  

One of the words that came up as the "Word of the Day" this month was PERSE, not to be confused with purse or per se.  I new perse was a word but I don't think I ever knew the meaning - (adj.) of a very deep shade of blue or purple.  Which brings me to the colors of the month as chosen by Marker Universe.  They throw out 2 or three colors each month and offer reduced pricing on markers in those colors.  I saw this months colors and decided to treat myself to some of them.

And I played with them a little in a sketchbook.

I also noticed that my pool noodles are very similar in color.

What you don't see is that something was eating one of the green ones when it fell under the deck.

Because of the lack of rain and the extremes in heat that we've had the last two months one of the plusses has been using our pool.  It was as high as 92º at one point and was at 82º two days ago.  Not sure what it will be tomorrow, but if I do go in, it will be the first time in many years that I've gotten in it in September.  It will be closed up sometime next week as the leaves are now falling and the dang squirrels hang out in the dogwood tree and pick off the unripe berries and don't eat them, but drop them - mostly in the pool.  

Someone said that August in the Sunday of Summer - well, I guess it's Monday now and though I don't have to go "back to school" or work, I feel the change too.  Pool closing, the last concert at the dock this weekend, cooler evenings, sun setting earlier - but there's always time to enjoy and appreciate the beauty in all things Fall too.