Gone Fishing

We spent some time out on the lake on Sunday afternoon. It was a productive day of fishing. We snagged four small mouth bass using night crawlers while trolling slowly near the weeds. The water was clear enough today with a very light breeze to allow us visibility far enough to watch the fish take the bait. That was pretty cool being able to see them come up to the worm.

Mr. B thought the largest one he caught might have qualified for the Whopper Club. Before filleting it he took it to be officially weighed to see how it measured up. This one came in at 2.97 pounds just missing the mark of 3 pounds to make it into the Whopper Club for the small mouth bass category. Oh well, slightly underweight for that, but excellent eating. We had fish, rice and vegetables for supper tonight. Very tasty!

We went to see one of our sons this weekend for the 4th of July holiday. We grilled steaks on his deck. This bone was left over from that very tasty meal. Knowing the dogs would love to have the leftovers, we brought them a doggie bag. Sparky managed to get the bone in the end while the others scrambled after the smaller chunks of meat. He seems to be enjoying it immensely.

Here's a close up of the previous photo. It shows Sugar licking her lips as she looks on longingly for Sparky to give up that bone. He never did; not until we finally got him to come inside. I think Ginger beat him to it when they were let back out the next time.

I am usually not an advocate for weeds, but this milkweed plant came up last year and the year before. I allow it to take up space in the garden for the monarch butterflies to feed on when they come through our area. That's the only reason it's still there. I did not remember it flowering last year, but here it is with it's unusual flower head and the buds popping open.

Here is a close up of the flower to see it better. These seem quite different to me from anything else I have seen before.

I don't know what kind of bug this is. At first glance I thought it might be some type of bee, but looking at the photo makes me think it could be something else. Bugs kind of creep me out, but they're still kind of interesting to see up close. I set the camera on the close-up setting and it takes wonderful clear photos very close. It sat on this lilac leaf while I watered the garden. Later by the time I was finished it was gone. As long as it doesn't try to land on me I can handle it. The wings and the shape of it make me think it might be some kind of deer fly - those bite - hard!


These are some of the flowers I like the best in the garden right now. I planted two new rose bushes this year. This small pink rose is alongside the fence. It is a climbing rose that should spread out along the fenceline eventually. I purposely planted it there hoping the scent of roses will help to mask the odor coming from the neighbor's yard as they do not bother to clean up after their dogs. Unfortunately on very warm summer evenings we cannot make use of our patio because of the overwhelming odor from their dogs. We're currently working to train the grapevines, honeysuckle and roses to cover the fence. In time it should block the view and hopefully mask the odor some.

This large blossom rose bush seemed so pretty at the time I got the other rose bush I decided to get it also. I love these colors of pink and coral tints mixed together with a touch of yellow. I'm not that great a gardener so I hope this one survives. I really love to see pretty flowers, but don't know much about gardening. My method is basically just select a hardy variety, plant it, water it, pull weeds once in a while and hope it grows.

The zinnias were some of the last ones to be set into their pots. I was such a slowpoke getting them into the dirt I thought I might have killed them. They looked so dry and peaked for a bit. But they seem to have survived so far and more buds are popping open so I think they'll do okay. I think they are a pretty flower, it's almost like seeing mini little yellow flowers within the larger pink flowers the way the yellow comes out of the center of these. They make me smile - flowers within flowers!

These lilies have been in this part of the garden since we moved to this house. They seem to be exceptionally tall this year. I didn't remember the wavy edges of the petals, but maybe I haven't been paying attention well enough. At first I thought they might be deformed from lack of water or lack of care, but perhaps they're supposed to be that way. In any case, they are just starting to bud out and look very tall and regal to me.

A quick look through all these photos shows alot of pink, yellow and green. Those must be my new current favorites. I am seeing them everywhere lately. They make such a good combination of colors. I should probably incorporate them together into a quilt or a wallhanging. I love the pink/yellow/green combo and also the blue/green/teal and red combo as well as the blue/green/teal/dark brown combo.