Grab a cool one and sit down with me for a few minutes. Yes, I’m still here in case you were wondering. A few people have commented to me on my lack of blogging lately, so somebody out there missed me! Nothing wrong, just going through a phase where I have nothing to say. I’ve started several blog posts that never materialized. Poof! They were gone before they really ever began.

Summer has finally kicked in here I think. We’ve had lovely warm weather, some with humidity and some without. A few rain storms—not a lot—but enough to keep everything watered without dragging out the hose.

Every spare moment we had this weekend was spent in or around the pool. It’s back up to 78 degrees now, so pretty comfortable. I had my first skinny-dip of the year on Sunday night. It felt good.

When it’s hot our favorite drink around the pool are Beergaritas. You have to be careful because they can sneak up on you. They taste so good going down it’s scary. And I don’t even like beer all that much. These are the exception.

They might make you do silly things like photograph your out of proportion shadow on the bottom of the pool.

Did you know you could float your drink in the water to keep it cool?

There really is nothing quite so relaxing as floating around in the pool listening to Bossa ‘n Stones.

The day lilies around the pool are in bloom right now. Just beautiful. The ferns make a great backdrop for them.

The bee balm makes a pretty sea of red firework-like blooms.

We’ve had a few visitors to the yard. Some welcome ...

... some not so welcome.

He’s just a harmless baby garter snake but I really didn’t want him in my pool so I graciously fished him (or is that snaked? him) out.

So those are just a few of the things I have to share today. Hopefully this will jump start me back to blogging again!

Can you find the bee in each photo?  Some are obvious of course, but a few are not.

The bees were hanging out in this clump of cherry trees on the grounds of Skylands Botanical Garden yesterday.

They were all buzzing around my head and would not leave me alone until I promised to feature them on my blog. Bees must be appeased, you know.

P.S. I certainly hope you are not tired of springy photos just yet. I have more ...

Here is a small taste of some things in bloom around my town right now.

This beautiful dogwood tree in front of the town hall.

A weeping cherry that is so large you can’t see the house behind it! I love this tree.

Can you see that someone tied lavender ribbons to its branches? Probably for Easter. The year we moved here it was Easter weekend and they had little eggs tied tied to its branches.

Not sure what this is, but it’s a miniature waterfall of white blooms. Maybe a mini weeping cherry in white?

I had to include this creepy sign for the florist. What do you think of it? I guess it’s been a landmark for years, only Kim tells me that it used to look even more like Michael Jackson than it does now!

I stopped by the local nursery to snap some pics of what they have out now. An explosion of color! (The daffodils in my header were taken here.)

I don’t know if it’s my over active imagination or what, but these daffodils look to me like they are trying to look around in every direction and saying ... hellloooo!

And last, but not least, this sleepy bee found a great napping spot. At first I thought he was dead but when I stroked him with my finger he moved his legs a little bit. Lazy spring bee!

They call us the Garden State for a reason!

I love this time of year when the bees get sleepy and are slow enough for me to get some photos.

hmm ... I don’t know which lavender stalk to choose ... maybe I can keep my back legs on this one and my front legs on the other one ...

look out! incoming flight preparing to land ...

... there’s nothing quite like falling asleep high atop a fragrant lavender stalk ...

sharing

P.S. Since a few of you had to scroll to see the whole vertical frame of the photo (I had a private comment too), I’ve gone back to the old format for vertical photos for now but centered them instead. I’ll have to have my computer guy take a look and see what he can do about making them a touch smaller. Thanks for your input!

P.P. S. Rick added an additional feature to the blog. Now you can see how many comments you’ve left compared to others. You can also look at what I wrote in previous years on this exact same date. Kind of cool—check it out in the sidebar!

The other day I grabbed my camera and headed off to see what I could find in my yard and woods. We’ve had so much rain lately that I was hoping to find to find a few interesting things.

In the woods in back of my house I found a few fungusy-mushroomy things. Like this coral mushroom. I’m pretty sure it’s Jellied False Coral. My book says it’s edible, but I think I’ll pass. Can you see why it’s called a coral mushroom?

And these that were growing on a log. I can’t identify the species but I think they are pretty.

I came across this group of Indian Pipe Plants. To me they seem to be members of a dance troupe working out a piece of very complex choreography, albeit a somewhat ghostly one.

Next I focused my attention on what flowers are blooming in the beds. I came across this spider napping. See how he’s holding on to the leaf with his leg?

Bee balm up close and personal.

I don’t know what these flowers are. Maybe bellflowers? It’s the same type of flower that the spider is napping on, just that this one is fully opened.

And this little beauty growing wild in the front yard. It resembles the Pipsissewa  (or Prince’s Pine) that we have in Colorado only this one is white.

And lastly, this strange bug that has been camped out on the same bee balm flower for about three days now. Even after the rain the other night he reappeared. It’s amazing what you see when you are using a macro lens!

He seemed to be studying me and trying to figure out what that big black thing is that is staring him in the face. Should he eat it? Maybe not ...

All this and I never had to leave the confines of my own property. Pretty amazing isn’t it? I plan to take a walk down to the pond, maybe this morning, and see what I can find in the “real” woods.

Edited to add: I think the Pipsissewa is also known as Swamp Pyrola and perhaps not Prince’s Pine.