Every summer I complain that July is my least favorite month of the year; this has been true of July's relentless heat in every location where we've lived.
July as experienced in our 12 Wyoming years at least offered cool nights even though daytime temps often moved into 3 digits F.
Hot and too dry has been the pattern of July 2025 as recorded each day on my calendar.
Jim continued to labor in the garden, waging a battle with loops of electric fencing meant to deter the raccoons who were determined to munch on sweet corn.
These efforts cost him dearly--dehydration and several hours in the local hospital's ER while 3 bags of fluids were dripped into him. He followed this with a bout of respiratory flu.
It took nearly a week for the virus to hit me and I still have an annoying scratchy cough.
Enough about that unpleasant experience!
My outdoor activities have been mostly limited to taking out kitchen scraps, watering the container flowers ranged around the front porch, emptying cat litter.
Sewing and reading have occupied me indoors.
Weather, gardens, flu, the tedium of long hot days, all faded from importance when we learned that a dear friend had died as the result of an accident.
It has been a July that we won't remember with pleasure.
August now, and a few days when temps were 'only' in the 80's F.
Resident hummingbirds are consuming more than a quart of sugar syrup per day.
Tomato harvest is ongoing; cantaloupe/muskmelons are ripening all at once;
There are 9 huge ones ranged on the kitchen counters!
We plod along, doing what comes to hand, grateful for air conditioning in the vehicles and in the house.
We hope for rain to ease the drought, cooling breezes to refresh us both physically and spiritually.
Trampled cornstalks and barricades of electric fence.
The corn salvaged from the raccoons has been delicious.
A glut of pole beans needed picking while we under the influence of the flu.
It wasn't an easy task, but we worked together to harvest them and next day to prepare them for canning. Yield: 9] 1 1/2 pt jars, 8] pints and one that refused to seal.
There have no doubt been more beans ripening--I have refused to go near them!
On Sunday afternoon I processed 4 1/2 qts of tomatoes--not even a full canner load.
My enthusiasm for the garden and for 'putting up' food is lacking this year.
Coneflowers near the clematis fence.
Coneflowers have overtaken the planting along the south/east retaining wall.
Somewhere amongst them are the Knock-Out roses.
Achillea sprawling outside the greenhouse. It is appealing at every stage of bloom.
Monarda, 'Jacob Kline' another invader in the back yard bed.
One plant of clary sage. I'm hoping to gather seeds for another crop.
It is a biennial, so there is a waiting year for the blossoms.
I have lost all but one of my mature rosemary plants. I repotted them last fall as I usually do. I can only guess that the potting mix used wasn't compatible.
Today I moved in 14 seed-grown rosemarys.
Germination was greater than usual; I lost 4 or 5 after the first transplanting, but put these into a soil mix that I hope will see them growing on.
Willis and I gardened along the west retaining wall on Sunday when it was overcast and cooler.
I pruned clematis, yanked out weeds, clipped back the dry stalks of foxglove.
So much wants done!
Maybe as cooler weather moves in I'll find the energy to tackle at least some of it.
