This past week I spent at home. There was plenty of time for a quiet breakfast in the gazebo in the morning.  Then, when The Spouse finally got up after coming home from work after midnight, we would have a cup of coffee together, before he would go off to work again for the afternoon/evening shift. Afternoons were spent walking, reading, shopping, puttering around, taking the occasional nap in the gazebo, gardening, well, whatever it was I wanted to do.

The Japanese beetles are a non event this year. I was all set for mass murder by the end of June when they started reappearing, but then they just fizzled out. I would see a few and then I would see none. Weeks went by without seeing any at all. The other day I came across two and I didn’t even bother killing them. They looked pretty sluggish and ready to keel over without any help from me. I guess like everything else in life, they come in cycles as well and this was not their year. Yippy for us!

A few weeks ago I set the frogs, so carefully raised from tadpoles last year, free in the pond. Days later one of them was caught in the filter. I carefully caught it, only to have it jump out of my hands and into the garden. Oh no, this could be a tragedy. You see, as I have a raised pond, higher on one side than on the other, it might be hard for a small frog to figure out at which side to get back into the pond. I spent a few frantic minutes searching to locate the frog, which I found quietly sitting under a large hosta trying to blend into the landscape. This time I netted it carefully with my fishnet and put it back in the pond. Of course I don’t really see my frogs, except one other time, but early in the mornings and sometimes late at night I hear a tentative croak coming from the pond and I know that all is well after all.

The water lilies, both white and yellow, are blooming daily now. Each day blooms open and by evening they close up again. A flower will bloom for three days and then will disappear, only to have another bud pop up and take over. The dragonflies buzz around all day long and at night the fish occasionally jump out of the water to catch tiny flies attracted by the pond lights.

A seed from a small ornamental gourd left to decay in the garden last summer has sprouted into a plant. It started climbing onto the trellis joining the sweet pea, then it spread out onto the path. The yellow flowers were visited by bees which were soon covered by pollen and now the first gourds are growing on the vines.

These are the lazy days of summers. I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am.