Sometimes the old-fashioned flowers are the prettiest. We have a row of hollyhocks growing against the south wall of our house. Hardy and dependable, they re-seed and come back year after year, sometimes surprising us with new or unexpected colors. This year we have burgundy, yellow, and this pretty pink coral.
This funky custom-built wooden playhouse caught our eye while driving down Green Road. Cedar shake shingles & everything. Very cute, in an asymmetrical Tim Burton sort of way. The sign gives all the details.
I rarely get up before dawn, and even then I don't usually venture outside. But during this week's heat wave, even with air-conditioning the house seemed stuffy. We northern Midwesterners complain about the cold winters, but can't seem to tolerate the hot, humid summers, either. Tough crowd!
The other morning, I decided to get up early and see if it was any cooler outside. It actually was (although not by much.) I was greeted by these fluffy cotton candy clouds reflecting the rising sun.
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We've had a lot of rain followed by hot, humid weather and so have been inundated with a variety of mushrooms in the area. But none so wonderful as the one in the photo I took a few years back of a giant puffball mushroom in the woods near Balmer Park. I couldn't resist giving him some shades. :-)
Another one was of this wonderfully twisted toadstool growing out of a dead branch in our tree line. Looks like something right out of Alice in Wonderland!
A shot of a branch from the Japanese Red Maple in the front of our house. We planted this "small shrub" almost 15 years ago when we moved into our house. Assured by the garden center that this variety would not exceed 15 to 20 feet, it's now pushing 25 feet and waves outside our upstairs office window. I love the pretty, delicate leaves and they turn a deep rusty coral in the fall.
This thistle is growing next to the railing of a stairway overlooking a walking path by Lake Michigan. Still tightly closed, the bloom will be a lovely fringed raspberry pink once opened. I think it looks beautiful this way, too. Hard to think of something this graceful and pretty as being a weed.
Can you see her? Being so tiny, blending in is probably a good thing. That and being quick! We've named this little female hummingbird Harriet. She sat perched on top of the Linden tree surveying her surroundings for a very long time. At least we think she's a female because she is not as bright as Humbert, the male, seen below at the feeder.
They are not shy, either. If we are sitting on the patio & the feeder is nearly empty, they will buzz around, chirp loudly and complain. Just like kids... so maybe we're really not empty-nesters after all.
You know it's really summer when the neighborhood kids set up their lemonade stands, complete with handmade signs. This resourceful little dude (with some help from his mom) was selling lemonade, bottled water, trail mix, Rice Krispie Treats, and "Fun Fruits," although his cute little sister was busy eating all the profits. :-)
Another beautiful sunset for SkyWatch Friday. This view looks over a forest of spruce trees lining the "Broken Hill" subdivision, just east of the Meadowcreek Market shopping center on Capitol Drive in Pewaukee. Really has a north woods feel, doesn't it?
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