It's hot

Sure, not hot hot, like some places are having.  But hot by my definition.  Probably because of the humidity, which is hanging somewhere near or above the temperature, you can sweat even if you're not doing anything.  That kind of hot I have trouble with.

There's occasionally a breeze.  And last evening, a big thunderstorm passed right by here, without stopping or dropping a drop of rain, or even cooling things down at all.  I had hopes for it, but all for naught.

We usually don't get this until early August.  It's still June.

So, trying not to exert myself.  Trying to stay away from bugs.  Something bit me on the knee a couple of days ago, and while it's not swollen or anything, I can see the bite mark, and it itches like mad.  Mosquito.  I guess the neighbors' mosquito control spray isn't working this year.  They all get their yards sprayed.  I don't, because of the dog, and because I have a reaction to the spray.  Nasty stuff.

So here we are.  We've altered our walkies, cut it down to three a day from our usual four, by eliminating the before dinner walk.  So we go out pretty much at 7am, noonish, and after dinner.  Last couple of days, we've been having our usual noonish route for the early morning tour, and the other two walks in the neighborhood across the busy street.  More trees there, so it's a tad cooler.  Or at least, shadier.

And sometimes we go to Pablo's Park, it's open again, and if we get there at just the right time, it's not too busy.  Not heading for the bigger park, because that one is always busy.

Meanwhile, my nopales are blooming, I think they're early.  I have tomatoes on my tomato plants, and I have peppers on my pepper plant (a first for me, I've never had any success with peppers).  And I just noticed this morning that the butterfly bush out front has started to show purple blooms.

Things progress whether I'm out there sweating or not.

I'll be happy when summer is over.  It's never been my favorite season.  Except for the flowers.  Those are always nice.

They're back!

In the neighborhood across the busy street, where you wind up after going thru the rabbit hole, there's a white house with red shutters that has been for sale for a long time.  I've been sorely tempted to look at it, but really, the price was a bit beyond what I could manage, so I didn't go look.  No point in wanting something I can't have.

Anyway, in the last couple of weeks, the house sold.  Someone was there, throwing out old stuff.  I got the feeling that it was owned by an older person, and the stuff left behind was just old stuff, due to be thrown out.  I hope whoever cleaned the place out put anything good to good use, but that's not for me to know.

Seems like now the new owners have moved in, or are in process of moving in.  They've done a ton of trimming up of the overgrown yard, the piles of trimmed out branches and such are tremendous.  And someone has been digging thru old stuff in the garage.  Which brings me to my point, here.

Back a few years ago, when I had just moved to this area, and had Pablo to take on walks, we found the rabbit hole, and liked to explore the neighborhood on the other side.  The white house with the red shutters wasn't for sale then.

That part of that street has a line of huge sycamore trees along the street - that's why it's nice to walk there, they have shade, which doesn't exist on my side of the busy street.  On my side, all the street trees were torn down when the town put in sidewalks.  Which is a whole other discussion, and we're not going there right now.

So, near the house in question, there are three of these huge sycamores, right in a row.  And, walking with Pablo, I noticed that those three trees had faces.  Maybe silly, maybe a tad creepy.  And one of the faces only had one eye. 

And then, one day, the faces were gone.  I have no idea where they went, or why.

But I bet you anything the faces were taken off and put in a box and stashed in the garage of the white house with red shutters.

Because they're back! 

On our morning walk on Monday, I was looking at the huge piles of trimmed out branches, and happened to look up a bit, and voila!  The tree has a face!  And so does the next one!  And the one after that, but it's face is missing one eye!

That made me ridiculously happy.  So of course, I had to take pictures of them.  And here they are.

I don't know if they have names.  I'll see if I can ask the new owner of the house.  But I'm very glad to have the faces back.

Finally!

My red roses are finally open!  There are literally zillions of them!  And the apricot ones are all over the place as well.  I'm frankly amazed that the wild thunderstorms we've had the last few days haven't knocked the blooms all to pieces.  It's been kind of like monsoon season with flash bang effects thrown in for "fun."

At least Bandit doesn't appear to be bothered by the noisy weather.  As long as he's not out in it, getting wet, he's ok with it.  Pablo used to be scared any time there were loud noises going on outside.

Now, if it would kindly be a bit less hot, I can maybe get outside and do some cleanup in the gardens.  But I can't if it's as hot as the last couple of days have been.  And I still have a few things I need to move/replant out there. 

We've walked a bit less, the last couple of days, between the heat and dodging downpours.  Got caught in a shower this afternoon, my hair is still damp from it.  And Bandit is laying out in the back yard, taking in the late in the day sun.  He loves just being out there.  I guess that goes back to his having been a street puppy before the rescue picked him up.

I've always been more of an indoor type.  So it's nice that he doesn't mind being out in the yard by himself.  And he knows I check on him thru the back windows, and sometimes talk to him (usually to tell him to not chase squirrels) thru the windows.  More surprisingly, he even listens, tho he doesn't consistently act on what he hears.  Kind of like having a kid, I guess.

Are pinecones like acorns?

Do tons of pinecones mean a harsh winter, similar to how tons of acorns indicate that?  If so, we're going to be in for a doozy.  Look at the pinecones on this tree!

I'm also wondering if there is any way to turn them into food.  Marinate and barbecue?

Meanwhile, on the next block, the white roses have opened.  Kind of looks like a wedding or something.

Lots of lavender around the area, too.  I'm surprised it really doesn't smell like anything, tho.  Ornamental lavender?  Is there such a thing?

It's nice that the irises match.  Everybody's irises are blooming like crazy this year.  Except for mine, which have done almost nothing.  I think I had two flowers, and they're long gone.  Not sure what the problem is.

These are (maybe) Siberian Irises....or some related variety.  There are some that I know to be Siberian Irises on the next block, but they are a lot shorter than these.  Same flowers, tho.

People around here do pretty gardens.  Or more likely, they have their services do pretty gardens.  I doubt many of the homeowners actually have much to do with it. 

Which is probably why I'm not up to speed with a lot of them.  I have to do it all myself, and honestly, a lot of the time I hurt too much to do much outdoor stuff that involves bending and kneeling and lifting heavy things.  So it mostly doesn't get done.

But I can still enjoy the fruits or flowers of other people's labor.  Best thing is, it's all free to look at.

A mystical being

Ok, so maybe not quite so mystical, but...

First walk this morning.  We encountered a guy who we run into once in a while, walking his dog, who we also run into once in a while.  He's turning around, and taking pictures of something with his phone.  It's a deer.  Seems it's been following him for a while.  A deer following a dog.

Deer sees a second dog, mine, and decides to take a short cut thru someone's yard.  When we get to the next corner, we see the deer crossing the street, diving into another yard.  Then it comes out right in front of us.  And stands there, looking at us. 

Bandit is barking, intermittently.  More of a 'what are you' bark, rather than a threatening bark.  The bark he uses on people who he'd like to approach.  Deer just stands there, looking at us.  We're in the middle of the street, deer is on the sidewalk.  So maybe 30 feet apart, it's a narrow, residential street.

 Apologies for the photo quality, or lack thereof.  I was using my phone, which has days like this, for no apparent reason.  I need to go back to carrying a real camera, now that we're in critter season.

I took a couple more pictures of her, I think it's a her, as we tried to keep walking, and she just kind of stood there. 

Then, as we walked away, she started following us.  She followed us for a couple more blocks, then we turned a corner, and when I looked back, she wasn't there anymore.  She might have been just standing in the street, or who knows. 

I'm wondering if this is the Mom deer who belongs to the fawn we saw yesterday.  I thought at first the fawn was a fox, it was about the size of a fox, a bit smaller than my dog.  But no tail, and those spindly legs...definitely a baby deer.  Didn't get close enough to get a picture.  That's where I again need a real camera.  I do get tired of carrying a lot of stuff, tho, and warmer weather clothes don't have enough pockets, and all my jeans are so loose they might fall off if I load too much stuff in the pockets.

Or maybe it's a young buck, whose antlers haven't sprouted yet.  Because if it's Mom deer, where's the fawn?  Of course, we do have a whole herd of them around here, so it's possible the baby was with the sitter, or this Mom isn't a Mom at the moment, or any number of other possibilities. 

I fear for my Asiatic lilies, tho.  The ones whose buds are so tasty.  Something has already eaten or otherwise killed off the marigolds I planted to protect the lilies.  Gotta go get more marigolds, maybe tomorrow.

The upshot of the deer thing, tho, is that Bandit was so excited that he almost forgot to poop.  It took him till almost the end of our 2 mile walk to remember that little detail.  That's why it's mystical.