Do you see what I see?

WARNING! This picture of a creepy-crawly might not be for the squeamish.  I myslef can't keep for looking at it.  Think "deer in headlights" followed by lots of eewwwwwws and ahhhh-geeeeezzzeeee!
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'Cause I almost missed her! We came back from vacation and I went to do a little gardening (poor garden has been a we bit neglected lately). Nose buried in plants, I looked up and was far to close to Charlotte here. Trust me when I say she is larger than a silver dollar. It seems she eats like a horse too. I've seen her down rather large dragonflies in a couple hours. I'm really, really hoping she's not "eating for 200". She's useful (when she isn't eating my dragonflies), but I'm gonna freak if I see hatchlings when I'm letting the dog do his business.

She's a pretty harmless garden spider, unless you frighten her then she'll give you a nice welt I'm told, so I'll of course leave her be.  I messed her web by accident before I saw her and tried to get a video of her remaking her web.  It really was magical- and freaky.  Each time I got within 8 feet of her with my camera she froze.  That was kinda freaky to me.  I mean really.  8 FEET!!!!!  How the heck far can she see?!?!?!?

Digging a Path

What a hot and humid summer we have had!  I think the only ones who enjoy it are the humming birds and butterflies.  I was reading about butterflies and apparently in addition to preferring milkweed for laying their eggs and butterfly bush nectar, they love being in the sun.  Glad something does. :)

Like the rest of the country, we haven't had much water fall from the sky this summer.  Our backyard gets the full blast of the sun the entire day.  This means that the grass really hasn't got a chance without some regular rainfall.  This is the second summer where we've had huge patches of dead grass.  That combined with the fact our corgi isn't as mobile as he used to be, I cried "UNCLE".

After our family reunion in Maine, my in-laws stayed the following weekend to help get rid of dead grass.  DH dug it up and DFIL shook out the dirt to help lay the slate path.  Even if it hadn't be a tough summer, the slates had been taken over by thorny weeds and needed to be dug out.

Here's the finished product.  My DFIL predicts that I will expand the gardens the path meets.  Maybe next year.  This year we're off to get some drought tolerant grass seed to spread when summer is done.  For now Cad is excited to not have to dodge thorny weeds as he gets off his ramp and I am excited to have something pretty to look at instead of dead grass.

The butterfly bush was the biggest it has ever been this year.  9 1/2 feet!!!  I can actually see it through my kitchen window and it's scent is heavenly.  To help the guys I trimmed back a bunch of the stems (the gardens were sorely in need of attention anyway) and brought them inside which made working at the island simply lovely.  My DMIL was reading, I was coloring some images, and we both listened to her eldest nephews fiance do an NPR radio show live from Pittsburgh.  (If you can follow all that remind me to tell you about what I heard about Ferris. LOL!)  Ahh, the wonders of streaming!  This is one of those times where technology brings family together. :)

I'm fluttering by with this post here:
Outdoor Wednesday
Garden Tuesday
Cottage Garden Party

Happy Wednesday!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ever find you have been so busy you don't have a chance t stop and smell the roses?  My DH and I have been so crazed these last couple of weeks that just this weekend we noticed that the back gardens look AMAZING!

We both thought "take pictures"!  All of the day-lilies are from my mother's house.  My DH and his dad helped me dig them all up when we sold her house.  It was quite an ordeal.  We had to tranlplant all my mom's plants at my in-laws until the following year because we knew we were going to move in November and the plants would never take if they went in the ground that late.

Our backyard gets sun the entire day, so in the few years we've lived in this house we've already split the day-liles once and will need to do it again next year.  It is lovely to have a bit of my mom here at our place.  The entire backyard was a blank slate when we moved and she would have loved what we did with it. :)

These lucky little gals were rescued from the bulldozer and have gone to town!  Looks like the bugs think they are tasty. :)  They were a little upset the first year they were planted, but geesh- they will need splitting next year too.

Hope these pics brought some cheer to you.  If you have some pics of your flowers, please let me know!  I adore "walking" through the gardens of the blogosphere. :)