I am soo tired this morning! I think it is all this rain! We need it though so I won’t complain. Everything has been so dry and parched that a few days of straight rain will do everything good – for the farmers, for the gardeners, all manner of flora and fauna.
I can say we have some very happy bees! I have no idea where these ladies live but they are loving our lavender. It’s amazing how alive a yard can be when you stop and look. Sadly Billy told me that if you pay attention to your car’s windshield, you can tell just how reduced insects are these days – remember road trips and having to wash the dead bugs off the window? Do you still need to? Anyway we try to do our part over here in helping the insect and animal populations – we have so much life out there in our yard. Sometimes too much, but that is a story for another time. But we have little baby praying mantids, katydids, grasshoppers, jumping spiders, a blue jay nest with blue jay fledglings, possums, and I am sure some other nighttime creatures I don’t know about. And of course, butterflies and caterpillars. I do give them a helping hand, we have established a pretty good food chain out there so I bring some in. Some for the predator insects, some to help grow and release.
Speaking of little creatures, my little tadpoles are all tiny tiny toads now! We only have two left, and I have named them Simon and Garfunkel. They are still way too tiny to release, so for now they live here. We are enchanted by them and how very wee they are. How do these things make it in the wild? I am sure that is why they have so many eggs and tadpoles, it is definitely a numbers game.
Last night I spent a rainy, relaxing evening with my friend Kelly. We talk everyday but don’t always get to get together in person and it was good to just hang out. I got to visit with her daughter Tadpole girl, who showed me some of her new cool things she made, and then Kelly and I got to just sit and chat. I also got to check out her tadpoles and toads and insects and plants. She has a bunch of cats but has a large house and you never even realize there are more than one or two or three most of the time. I only saw three last night, Cecil, the buff old guy in the first photo, Buddy on the chair by the window, and then Pal, who is still sort of new to the house. Buddy and Pal were stray cats until this winter when it got really cold and Kelly let them in to warm up. I said, well, they are yours now, they are going to get comfy and that’s it. And she was like “No, no, we have enough cats, these are my outdoors buddies I feed..” Mmm hmm. Looks like I was right, and these cats have landed in the lap of luxury. Buddy in particular looked super cozy. And those toads are both girls, nothing going on there in that photo!
This has started already – homeschool planning for next year. I have a pretty good idea of how our structure and routine is going to work. I have all of the curriculum bought, and I am busy reading through it and looking at what we can do to enrich our studies in the fall. We are going to start a small version of summer school July 10th and do that for about a few weeks or so, then take another small break before we start up again for good in September. We are not super hot day people and it keeps us busy inside during the hottest hours. We have zero shade in our yard and it feels like the surface of the sun in the summer! We won’t be going all out schooling but it’ll be good for both of us. And I love my new planner from Schoolnest, and I also very nerdily like that the tabs match so well.
Annnd my cup is empty! Time for a refill! So not too much exciting happening around here, just…life, I guess, and that is perfect honestly.
How are you all doing? What is going on in your world?
Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.. 
beautiful kitties and pictures! your lavender is lovely indeed.
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Thank you!
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My lavender is covered with bees, too, I love it. It’s out in the front, which is more of a little yard than a garden but south-facing, so sunny. I grow different colours of buddleias in the back garden as they’re so hardy, which bees and butterflies also like.
Our temps have gone down a bit so I’m going up to the top rooms of the house this afternoon to move some stuff and sort out some stuff – the front one is going to turn into my husband’s study in September and needs to be cleared out before then!
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It’s just so full of life! Oo I will have to look into buddleias! Your garden sounds so beautiful!
I chase the coolness too, when doing tasks. Or shade, if I am outside. Lol. I am not a fan of having to go through my stuff and weeding stuff out but I am always so satisfied afterwards. We redid my office a few years ago and I got rid of a lot of stuff, but now I love the room!
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Great photos! I love that chair with butterflies on it…and a kitten curled up.
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Isn’t Buddy so sweet? Can you believe that he was just wandering around as a sad little stray? That chair is really cool, I agree. She has great taste.
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Oh, you can send some of that rain our way! It is really, really dry here. I have always wanted to plant lavender…maybe on the hump!
I’m glad you were able to chill out with your friend and her kitties. I love cats, but I’ve somehow had dogs for the last several years.
Have a fabulous week, Erin!
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Oh no!! We have been going through that too, this rain is much needed!! I hope you get some rain soon too. Ooo the hump would be a great place for lavender!
It was a fun night!
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That sunny yard must be unpleasant for the hot days — but it’s doing really good things for your plants and insects. Thanks for sharing them with us!
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Yes! I think the yard mostly belongs to them right now…. lolol.
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Glad you were able to spend time with your friend! Love the kitty laying on the chair. I love that planner too, it’s so pretty and I’m a matchy person so tabs that match is a must. I love butterflies and rarely see them in my yard.
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I was extremely excited about those tabs. LOL. I am glad that someone else gets it!
I went nuts at the beginning of Covid and lockdown and just planted a ton of host plants for butterflies. Now though we have lots of butterfly friends visit!
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It sounds like a nice evening. I love the slipcover on your chair. Stay in today — air quality in Lansing is 282 — in the extremely dangerous zone. Yikes!
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Ugh can you believe we have two more days of this air quality garbage? We are staying inside. We are at 230 this morning. 😦 You stay inside as well!
Isn’t that chair awesome! It’s my friend’s chair, she has excellent taste!
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Yup. Staying in as much as I can. We’re about the same AQI. Yesterday I had to go out and it was so hazy I couldn’t see any distance — it was like driving in fog, almost.
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I have that same planner! I got it a few weeks ago and I’ve been loving it. I love that there’s space for ideas as well as for nailed down plans. I think we have most of the bugs in the South. There’s been a number of times I’ve had to wash my whole car to get all the bugs off. I’d love to share! We are staying inside right now because we’re under heat advisories and air quality advisories. I can handle the heat but the air quality has given me the worst cough. I really worry about you guys farther north!
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Oh my gosh!! Isn’t it the best!! It is my first time using it and I love all the space and there are so many pages! Lol. I like that too!!
The lack of insects here is really alarming! I am glad to hear that you have so many down near you! I don’t think I ever have to wash bugs off my windshield anymore. Like ever. We took an entire road trip to Indiana and never once had to clean the windows.
This air quality has been so hard to deal with! We had the worst in the entire world the other night here in the Detroit area. We have been staying in and it really sucks – Wyatt just got his bike and we had been having so much fun riding it. But we both have asthma so we are avoiding this crappy air. I just stepped outside this morning at 6 am and it smelled like campfire. It is crazy to think the fires are like 500 miles away and we are feeling it here. The world is so big, yet so very very small as well.
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So wonderful, and awesome bee picture.
I can see why you would be tired, lol
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Lol! Coffee is a necessity to my life…
And thank you!
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