The Dregs of Summer

'Christopher Marlowe', looking very pink:

It's been so hot for so long, I've been stuck in the house cleaning Cuddles nose art off the windows.

I even washed the kitchen cabinets.  They apparently needed it.  

Washed Cuddles traction rug and hung it out in the heat to dry.  Cuddles has some trouble getting up off the stone floor and a rug helps.  Gives her something to have accidents on, too.  Senior dogs get away with accidents.  It used to be Hoover's traction rug, and Teddy-Bear's before that.  It's been through a lot, just like an old dog. 

I even vaccumed out the garage.  This indicates serious desperation.  I used the concrete guy's shop vac, which he left when he finished up the culvert, saying he'd be back for it and his wheel barrow in a couple of days.  Almost two months later, it's still waiting, so I started using it.  I called him and talked to him twice.  He knows it's waiting.   It did a great job on the garage.  

Cleaning is all well and good, but I long to be out in the garden.  It's just been so very, very, hot for so very, very, long.  For nearly two months now the weather people have been saying, "It's going to cool down in two days...", and two days later, they say "It's going to cool down in two days..." and it hasn't.  So I'm pretty grumpy.  
'Gold Medal'--but not for the meteorogists:
 
I did get the new compost area going, with an open-bottomed container half-buried.  I can pile compostables in it for a while, let them break down, then pull out the barrel and scoop out the compost.  Such is the theory, anyway.  It will soon be hidden behind the Ligustrum hedge, which is doing well despite the heat.   

I got the drip system working for the hedge:

I've been digging out the buried bits of the fence so the buried bits don't rust.

I dug around the lemon tree in preparation to move it.  I'm waiting and waiting for cooler weather to perform the move.

I've been trying to root an 'Evelyn' for a garden-buddy for months.  This cutting is the latest failure.  

Yesterday late in the afternoon it began to actually cool down.  Is our long-predicted relief finally arriving?  I walked around the garden to see what I've been missing.  
'Jude The Obscure' in the late afternoon sun:



Salvia 'Blue Hill' managed to bloom all summer without stopping.  It will go like this until late October, when it will start to look terrible.  I'll cut it to the ground and it will be back fresh and new to start blooming like crazy again next April.  Wonderful plant.  

'Moon Dance' has finally gotten established.  It looks happy:

'Windermere' is as delicately beautiful as usual.  Amazing how it held up to humid heat perfectly.  Dry heat of course ruined the flowers in a couple of hours.

'Litchfield Angel' has also apparently established itself.  There were a dozen blooms at least, the best it has looked since I moved it a couple of years ago. 

And there was a white spider hiding in a slightly toasty 'Prospero', waiting for a victim.  White spider, you are better off in 'Moondance' or 'Litchfield Angel'...

I felt mentally refreshed and no longer grumpy after seeing the roses.   Went back towards the garage, and surprise!
Puppies decided in my absence to ruin another roll of toilet paper.   

Boris was working on it in his man-cave:

I took it away from him, and he instantly looked innocent:

Natasha tried to grab it.

And so goeth the dregs of summer.


Puppies.  This (link) says it better than I ever could.   Say goodbye to summer for a while, but never to puppies.