Whew. Summer is packing a punch this year. Even though I’ve been enjoying this weather from a pool perspective, it’s getting a bit old. Lots of sun and no rain. It’s starting to feel like Colorado around here, and that is not necessarily a good thing since no one here can water their lawns because most of us are on wells in the country. Even people in larger towns do not have the in-ground sprinkler systems that are absolutely necessary there. Our lawn is crisping up and there isn’t much we can do about it. We water our new landscaping in the front only as needed. Where is the rain? I am tired of seeing the relentless sun every day!

The season is starting its decline though. The sun’s angle is lower week by week. Areas of the pool that used to stay in the sun until late afternoon are now shaded. Soon that will lead to a cooler pool temperature than the steady 82 degrees that it’s been maintaining for a over a month now.

At least one person is benefitting from all these brown, crispy lawns. A man who owns a company spraying lawns green with dye is making lots of money. Can you imagine? What does that say about us culturally? We’re so into our green perfect lawns that we would dye them green and potentially harm the environment? He states that his dye is safe for children and pets but I have to wonder. Unless he’s using food coloring! Will the grass need its roots touched up as well?

The other morning I was in the computer room when I heard Bella bark. I thought she wanted to go out, but when I got to the sun room she was looking up at the screen door. Clinging to the inside of the screen was a large green bug. mom, there’s an intruder in the house and i don’t know what it is! Me either, Bella. Never seen one like this before. When I tried to capture it to take it outside it emitted a noise not unlike a cicada, only it wasn’t a cicada. This got everyone’s attention, cats and dog alike. what is that thing?  I took this video so I could try and identify it later on.

Katydid from Rick & Lynne Robinson on Vimeo.

Bella was very intrigued by it. I think it was injured to begin with because it could not fly away.

The next morning there was another one clinging to the outside basement wall of the house. I took photos and headed off to Google it. I typed in “green bug that looks like a grasshopper but is not” and came up with a solution. Meet Mr./Mrs. Katydid.

We’ve long thought the the cicadas were getting back up from something else like crickets, and here is the proof. But why haven’t we ever seen one before?

The turkeys come around every day and I usually give in and feed them some sunflower seeds and cracked corn. I have one that comes all by itself early in the morning and it just stands there looking at the house, willing the front door to open and for me to come and throw a few handfuls of food out. The other day around midday the big turkey family came (three hens and assorted aged babies) and I went out to feed them. The dumb clucks left instead of hanging around to eat the food and I figured the squirrels, birds and chipmunks would make short order of it. When I looked out an hour later this is what I saw instead.

oops. I’ve done this countless times before without bear visits. Trust me, this was not intentional! Not the same little cub as in the previous post; this one is probably a yearling.

what do you mean this isn’t my food bowl?

who is that crazy lady hanging out the window up there talking to me?

i think i heard something

Right after I took this photo the cub ran off into the shelter of the woods and halfway up a tree. I don’t know what it heard that spooked it, but it was afraid of something. A few minutes later it decided it was safe and back it came.

I’ve been keeping my eye on these grapes growing by the side of our street. Concord grapes. They are tasty and sweet but have a lot of pits! If we don’t get some rain they will just turn into raisins on the vine! I hope not as I plan to snatch them the minute they get ripe.

We had a full weekend with a picnic to Bear Mountain, dog walks, farmer’s market and pool time. On Saturday night we did something we’ve talked about doing for a long time. We “camped out” in the cabana for a while. After our nighttime swim we brought out the air mattress and pillows and just lay there listening to the cicadas (and katydids!). We both fell asleep and sometime later I felt Rick shaking me awake. Time to go back inside before the dogs miss us.

(taken this way on purpose! I happen to like warped nighttime photos.)

Sorry for the rambling post about a mishmash of things. I just sat down and started typing and this is what came out!

I have more to share this week with photos of our drive to Harriman State Park and Bear Mountain on Saturday and the surprise we got on Sunday morning while washing Mia, so stay tuned!

No doubt about it. Summer has arrived in New Jersey. It’s HOT. Our pool is really getting a workout. This year the water is crystal clear and the temperature is staying above 80F. Sheer heaven! I am starting to turn a lovely nut brown with all this sun.

Our air conditioning is also getting a workout which isn’t so good for the electric bill. For the past two nights now we’ve opened the windows and slept pretty well with a fan in the window.

Having a second-story bedroom is not ideal in the summer! Add to that the fact that our main attic fan quit a couple of months ago, which makes it all that much hotter upstairs since all that hot air is just trapped in the attic. I waited for the roofer to call all last week for the installation of two new ones (the other one over the garage space makes a huge racket and need replacing too) but due to rain he didn’t make it. He was scheduled to come on Saturday, but of course he was running behind and it just got too darn hot. So he rescheduled for this morning, and of course, we had a thunderstorm! Hopefully he’ll still make it today. [Nope. He just called and will try again tomorrow.]

Which brings me to the thunderstorm topic. This morning’s storm gave a few rumbles of thunder before it arrived and only a few more once it got here. I think I saw one little flash of lightning. That was it. We haven’t had a “real” thunderstorm yet this year. Usually we get house-rattling storms with lots of lightning and thunder. Other areas have gotten them, but here at the house they just don’t seem to materialize. I know it’s crazy, but I miss them. Somehow a good thunderstorm just discharges all that energy and washes the atmosphere clean again. This morning’s storm held promise but in the end it did not deliver. At least it rained.

Another reason we know that summer is really here, the cicadas have taken up their summer buzzy songs in the trees. They sing a different song during the day than they do at night. They love it when it gets hot and humid. During the day their song is just a steady buzzy trill—one note. At night it’s kind of like this —CHE CHE CHE ... che che che—one set of “che’s” being lower than the other, almost like they are talking to each other. The frogs are still in the background too at night, so it’s like a nature symphony. Very soothing.

We had a lovely drive to the market in Warwick on Sunday in Mia. The morning was beautiful and we took all the winding little back roads. We ate breakfast outside at the little French restaurant, sharing a baked egg, potato and ham casserole and sipping a huge bowl of café au lait.

On passing one of the shops as we made our way over the market, I couldn’t pass up this straw market bag. I am thinking it will also make a great beach bag for toting towels, books and whatever else we want on the beach with us when we go down the shore next month for a weekend. I love it!

The market was very busy and we were surprised and delighted to see fresh Jersey sweet corn (white! yum!) and the first of the tomatoes. Peaches are also now in season and so juicy and delicious! It’s best to eat them over a bowl or something to catch all the juice that dribbles down your chin.

I also could not resist this gorgeous sunflower for $2.00.

We took the “long way home” from the market. As we drove up our street a doe and her two tiny fawns were in the road right in front of our house. So beautiful! They dashed into the woods all too quickly.

When we got home we grilled spicy hot chicken wings (our go-to Sunday lunch) and then into the pool.

We decided to eat outside by the pool last night even though it was still pretty hot. I moved the furniture out of the cabana and set up the card table.

Last night we tried a new recipe, a sort of deconstructed BLT sandwich in salad form. It was the perfect meal for a hot day. Romaine lettuce, chopped bacon, chunks of fresh watermelon, orange cherry tomatoes from the market (super sweet!), fresh baguette croutons (done in a little of the bacon fat) and topped with a homemade Parmesan peppercorn dressing. Very very tasty. We’ll be having this again.

It’s kind of nice to have summer (compared to last year’s summer-that-wasn’t) but if this heat keeps up we’ll be glad when it’s over! Like this blossom that fell into the pool, we’re just trying to stay afloat through this second heat wave.

Stay cool!

P.S. Have you checked out the “On this day ...” feature on the right hand side of the blog? It’s right under “My Favorite Links” and features blog entries from previous years that I wrote on or around this same date. Check it out!

There is a reason they call them ‘butterfly bushes.’ These two beauties visited early this morning. I could see them flitting around from the study window and I couldn’t resist. Both swallow tails of two different colors on the bush at the same time!

I like the soft edges in this one:

And this Raggedy Ann with torn wings showed up later in the day. Not as pretty a specimen as the one above, but I liked the sun filtering through her wings.

A Japanese beetle is dwarfed by the huge cone of the echinacea.

‘Dragonfly on lily stem Number 5, you’re cleared for take-off.’

I call this one “belly up to the bar.”

Wings so transparent it appears he’s part of the fern.

These little moths were loving the echinacea and I couldn’t stop taking photos of them in the afternoon light.

For whatever reason the dragonflies love the spent lily stems.

The flowers always seem more attractive to the bees and moths once their physical beauty is on the wane. The nectar must be at its sweetest then. Maybe something for us all to remember as we age?

WHEW. It’s hot out there. And no rain. Weird for us. In fact, I had to turn on the sprinkler for the first time in a couple of years. My bee balm was fading and looking pretty sad. Unlike Colorado, most people do not have underground sprinkler systems because it rains so much. We depend on the rain to keep our yards looking good.

Our day was pretty low key compared to yesterday with guests. We washed Mia very early and took a short drive. We were home by noon. The afternoon was spent around the pool. Dinner was a new recipe on the grill which neither one of us cared for all that much. Oh well.

Early evening found us around the pool again. The pool is 82 degrees and feels like bath water. We’ve seen a few bats this year, not as many as in years past, but at least it’s good to see a few.

Here is as strange photo taken at a low exposure as Rick swam in front of me.

Poolside candles reflected in the water.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!