The Throes of Summer ...

Like most of the country, it's been miserably hot here lately. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a little cooler and we can venture outside without immediately wilting. A thunderstorm blew through late this afternoon, and it was interesting to see the temperature drop 20° in a matter of minutes. Gave us an opportunity to poke around in the garden after the storm and harvest a few cucumbers and cherry tomatoes. I was rather depressed to check out the flowers. We have two potted double hibiscus trees that have been in great shape until now. Each pot is actually three bushes braided together. One has the trunks of three different colored bushes, resulting in a bush with peach, red, and yellow flowers. It's lovely. The other is all peach. I noticed that the peach one has had an alarming number of leaves stripped off by the squirrels. I know it's them because I've caught them in the act many times and chased them away. They shimmy up the trunks, pick off the leaves, then run away with a leaf in their mouth. They sit up on the hill out of reach, blissfully chomping away. Must be a delicacy for them, given how few leaves are remaining. Unfortunately, the hibiscus branches aren't strong enough to support squirrels, and I've found several broken off under the weight of the thieving rodents. That's even worse than losing leaves, which may grow back.

The rest of the flower beds and pots really need some attention. I usually go out every day and tend to deadheading the flowers, watering the pots, and pulling up weeds. Well, things are looking pretty scruffy out there now. No way am I going to tend the garden when the temperature is in the mid-nineties, and it shows. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to catch up a little. I hope so. Damn this global warming.