Summer Around The Farm

Our recent heat wave stopped the grass from growing and, in many places, it turned brown and brittle. Walking over it shattered it and sounded crunchy. I was truly worried, though it was nice to not have to mow the lawn:

 But the little rock garden produced flowers abundantly. Yellow and orange Asiatic Lilies competed with the Blue Sea Holly:

 A black striped Garter Snake of rather impressive length (about 30") began living somewhere around my biggest lilac bush. I previously had a smaller, melanistic Garter Snake living near the barn and I reckon they are likely related. Looking at this photo now, I wonder if this is the same snake, just moved to a slightly new location:

 The two baby fantail pigeons are doing quite well:

 The baby pears are also doing quite well:

 They're getting big now and I am amazed at how many there are:

One morning before it got too hot, I took pruners and weed-whacker out into the pasture and began taking down the Burdock along the fence:

 I did not cut the White Sweet Clover, which I was happy to have growing:

 But I made a special effort to take down all the Bull Thistles I could find. They were not along the fence line but scattered around both fields:

 And the Canada Thistles. They were smaller and easier to miss, but just as prickly and invasive:

 Some places are filling up with Lady's-Thumb Smartweed. I didn't try to fight that. The animals don't eat it at first, but if they get hungry they will eat it:

 Near the house, at the base of the Rugosa Roses, the wild Bouncing Bet (in the Pink family) is blooming as it does every year. Now that's a "weed" I can truly appreciate!: