Pretty Sky Things

I have this fancy camera now that I don’t really know how to work (yet???). It’s been really humid, but yesterday we got some good rain all day and now this morning the sun is out and a lot of that humidity is being burned away.

Everything is still dripping with rain/dew and it really makes for a beautiful scene with the morning sun rising up and catching it all at a slant.

Unfortunately, my camera skills aren’t great and in most shots my shadow shows up and ruins it, but I did take these photos of our coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) that’s winding its way along our deck trellis. The hummingbirds have found them along with the feeder and they tend to go back and forth between the feeder and the flowers.

You can see our linden tree (Tilia americana) in the background right under the flowers there, dutifully protected from the rampant suburban deer by a large tree cage. Last year, its cage was inadequate and the deer reached right over and completely defoliated him. But, he came back strong this year. I don’t think he much likes the compacted, clay-ey soil in our yard though, and especially not its poor drainage. He tends to get some yellowing in his leaves, possibly from too much moisture at his roots that then causes chlorosis. Also, the Japanese beetles love to eat his leaves. T. americana is really such a great tree, but he has it tough around here apparently.

Also in the background, behind and visible to the immediate right of the hummingbird feeder, you can see a bed with some purple flowers (an Agastache that I love) sticking up. I have a few roses and a swamp rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) there that the deer also love to eat, so we cover up that entire bed every single night in order to protect them. I uncovered it a little early specifically for these photos. . .

So artistic with that framing, right?