22 Jul 2010

Flowers and Flies

It's in the heat of summer and HEAT is the right word this year. That and drought. I'm yerning for some rain but it just keeps passing over the middle of Finland. Luckily at the cottage we have a 65 metre deep drill well into the granit rock so it has never yet dried up. In fact we were told that we are drinking ice age water. Well it is cold. Colder than refridgerated water anyway.

But due to frequent efforts in watering hundreds of litres every night we have managed to keep most of our flower borders ship shape. The lawn has had to be sacrificed.

Anyway it is a time for being lazy during the hot daylight hours. Sitting in the shade of our veranda mostly glaring into our garden pond and all that's going on around it. I could have called this post life around the garden pond too but of course we have lovely blooms all around the place. Not only at the back of the house.

As always I do not only enjoy the flowers but also all the insects buzzing around these blooms of joy. Photography is about as strenious as I can get during this continuing heat wave and that means loads of photos. Even then me and the dogs have to go and get frequent dips in between allthough waters that are 24-25 degrees don't much chill down.

But let's not make this into a novel. After all it is a picture blog.

Lilies

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

African Marigolds

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Pansies

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
Excuse my dress code. This is all what one can wear these days.

Roses

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Chrysantemums

Photobucket

Photobucket

Dahlias

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Sedum

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Mixed borders and rockery

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
Bone chewing dogs in the evening

Photobucket

Photobucket
Posing for mom

Photobucket

Photobucket
A bit of my little town garden too

Photobucket

Photobucket
A family gathering celebrating 50 years of cottage life

Photobucket
My nephew - the barbeque master

Burning love

Photobucket

Photobucket

Butterflies

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Dragonflies

Photobucket
Practically impossible to get a picture of a dragonfly in flight. Hence this one is not sharp either.

Photobucket
This one nearly became a victim of the pond skaters

Photobucket
It had strength to climbe onto the edge though and the wing looks damaged but it managed to fly away after a while.

Photobucket
This one kept chasing butterflies but always landed down by the pond after a small flight

Photobucket
Such beautiful creatures up close

Photobucket
Perhaps a little frightening too

Other insects

Photobucket

Photobucket
This time of year wasps are fascinated by all sorts of small holes. This one is investigating between the cobbles by the pond.

Photobucket
Bumble Bees are just interested in the flowers all summer long

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket
A grass hopper had landed on the curtain

Photobucket
A little green thing

Photobucket
Another green thing had met its fate in the pond

Photobucket
The pond skaters are the keep clean agents, ie. the vultures of the insect world

Photobucket
Here a fly is about to become food but it actually managed to crawl out of the water.

Photobucket
An exhausted bumble bee was not so lucky

Photobucket
It caused a regular feeding frenzy

Photobucket
I found it quite fascinating (in a morbid way) to view these dramatic events

Lets end this long parade of photos with a few more of our garden beauties that I don't know the english names of

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket


To wrap it all up just a picture of what the drought is doing to the trees

Photobucket

Photobucket
Luckily not all trees and shrubs are shedding their leaves. Thus some little shade are provided for the dogs too.

3 comments:

Michele said...

Oh my goodness! You have an amazing garden. WOW!!!!! Despite the heat, your blooms are super!! Brilliant and the way you have captured the insect life has shown me so much. The dragonflies are fabulous. I will need to show my husband later your blog, he will appreciate it!
Wonderful job!

Judy said...

Your macros are always fascinating!!! I think I like the butterflies the best in this post. I love the way you can see the tiny hairs covering their bodies!
And in this heat, you are dressed more decently than I am...

George said...

Thanks for the beautiful pictures and macros. I wish we had a well because the rain has been going around us as well. I hope you get both rain and relief from the heat.