Fourth of July Barbeque

This past weekend felt as though we were on the bbq. The heat like being on blazing hot coals during the day, then thick smoke Saturday night. I don't know if the smoke was from the fire in Bladen County or is something more local. Just to err on the side of caution I walked down to the pastures at 11 pm to make sure our woods weren't on fire. Thankfully on Sunday morning the wind came up and the smoke dissipated.

The peppermint spray is deterring the deer so far. The culprits were the doe and yearlings twins that have been living here for over a year; my guess is that the doe lost this year's fawn and rejoined her youngsters from last year. The yearling buck looks so grown up already; he's much bigger than his mom and sister and has a sizeable rack of antlers. His mother is still the boss, however. She will nip him if he gets in her way.

I never thought I'd be such a daylily fan, but each one has their own individual loveliness. And unlike orange ditch lilies, most have the good grace not to have very much foliage.

'Beautiful Edgings'

'Hudson Valley' has huge fragrant flowers.

'Lavender Stardust'

Unknown, obtained in a trade

'Ada May Musick'

'Jedi Blue Note'

Noid I got in a trade. It's grown on me.

'Hyperion'

'Pandora's Box'

I absolutely love this daylily.

When I pulled the tag I got this:

Typical, but I'm surprised there was a tag at all, since I wanted to know what it
was. There were enough letters that a Google search turned up the name right away.

'Trahlyta'

A picture from later in the day, showing some changes in color and just as lovely
as it was in the morning. I like the combination of moody plum and vivid purple.

'Easy Ned'

'Shady Lady'

'Lavender Deal'

A beautiful fragrant daylily from Wayside. The tag was lost long ago.

Those water droplets are from the hose, not from rain. I hope we get some rain this week. All of the little bumblebees working so hard in the garden are drinking from the puddle next to the water trough. They land on the surface of the water with legs outstretched like a water bug, drink, and then fly off again. Much of the day there are half a dozen bees quenching their thirst at any given time. There's even a couple of water frogs living in the puddle too.