Summer and sunflowers...

I love sunflowers!  Each year we plant a few more, and this year Brian found a bunch of volunteers from the year before and put them around his new raspberry bushes.  He says he won't do that again...but we will get them close.  Since we have the bee hives, it makes me want to plant even more!  We used to try to keep the garden weeded, etc., but now that we have the bee hives, we leave a lot of the flowering weeds so they have something to feed from close by.

Here are a couple of bumbles... I love watching them...they are always on a mission and my presence doesn't bother them at all.

Batman says I have not been out with the camera as much as I used to, and he is not feeling very special.  So I went out to take a few pictures of the little guy playing.  What a cutie!

Another bee...if you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see the dew drops on the center of the flower.

Bumble sillouette...

This just makes me laugh!  It looks like the bee's are getting ready to tailgate!  We had a very hot dry summer and Brian was worried about the new style hive.  It did great thru part of the summer, but I am sad to say it did not make it.  We checked it and the comb was full of eggs and honey, and we were very excited.  Then a month later the comb was dried up and most of the bees were gone.  Brian thinks that it got too hot and they swarmed, which means the Queen decided to move on and the whole group goes with her.  I don't feel as bad thinking they left.  I just hope it wasn't too late in the year and they have time to get a stash of food for the winter.
 

This is the small pond behind the barn, and this is the first time it has ever dried up.  This picture shows a mud pit in the middle, and where Brian is standing is still soft.  It dried to the point where I was using it for a 'round pen' and I was riding across it.

These are our tomato ladders, and this year our tomatoes did great!  We put them in a raised garden this year, put old horse manure that had turned into dirt in there, and they all flourished!

I love the sillouette shots....I just stand back and watch the clouds go over.  It is a constantly changing picture.

This is the tallest sunflower we had.  This is one of the kind that has many flower heads on it...they are all dried up now, but just the other night I was counting the flower heads and I quit at 47!  

 

 These are at the back side of the chicken house, and there are pepper plants in front of where I am standing.

 This was the biggest flower head we had this year.  They are so fun to grow and so pretty!

 I thought I would sneak this in the group...Brian put these in the front yard.

It is hard to believe Summer is over...
Until later....Karen and Tripp who is happy the summer flies are gone!