As I mentioned in a previous post we are surrounded by fields and fields of Queen Anne's Lace. 
They flower from June to September and I absolutely love them! 
I noticed this week that the green parts of the flowers, the stem and the, very tiny, leaves are starting to turn brown. 
I think it's the drought, since despite the (spectacular) Thunderstorm we had a week ago we're getting very dry around here. 
I've seen some maples that already show fall colors!

The water in the pond is very low. Normally the area where now the purple mint is growing is all under water ...                       

My camera is getting worse lately, it now has problems focusing, still takes forever to take the shot and images are coming out blurry and off-color.
These pictures of the green heron that showed up a couple of times this week clearly (or actually not clearly) show this:

He caught himself a big Newt, which took a while to go down the hatch!

The Goldfinches are all over the big Thistle now, picking at the seeds and the grass around it is covered in fluff. 
I think we'll have lots of plants next year! 
Not quite what you'd want but I'll just mow them all down and probably leave a few as a feature plant again.

              
Again .. blurry pictures and it's not me!

I'd forgotten the color of my Hollyhock .. apparently its red. They look a little ruffled and stunted. Damaged by the wind?

 

I looked at last year's pictures and they also were a much darker red at the time, more like a Burgundy. Oh well, at least they're flowering, I'll take it ..

It looks like my Butterscotch Squash is putting out at least one squash (top pic) and upon close inspection of my Zucchini-plant I found about 3 or 4 that might grow into something as well. Yeah!

                                                     

                                                     

What else? Oh, I got a new office chair! I've never been happy whith the one I had, the seat was too hard and for some weird reason you couldn't move it down low enough, which forced me in a posture that wasn't very comfortable for my back, neck and butt.
So I finally persuaded myself to get a better one (lots of excuses that it wasn't broken and I shouldn't sit too long any-ways and more of that nonsense) and voila  .. Walmart had one on sale:

                                            

                              

                                                               

Ergonomic design, open weave back and it moves up and down. What's not to love .. and yes, I should have done that a long time ago ..                                                 

The parts for the Starlink 'dish', which will provide our new Internet, came in and although we had an appointment for a tech-guy to come out and install it this coming Wednesday, James tried to do it himself:

         

And he did! He had to adjust the angle a little the next day but it was pretty straightforward and he got it to work!
This is the router on the left, which is much smaller than what we had and which sits on the bookshelf:

                                

The 'whatsamethingy' on the right is plugged in under the counter, out of sight.
So far, so good, it is at least four times as fast as what we had so we're happy campers!

Temperatures are forecasted to rise this week, I guess it had to happen, into the high 80s, low 90s with 95 as the hottest on Wednesday, after which we'll go back in the high 70s next Sunday.
So, a little hot flash for the start of August but not for too long of a period ... yet.

I baked a southern tomato-pie:


Very easy, filled with nice, ripe tomatoes, fresh basil from my garden, lots of cheese and mayo (my favorite condiment) of all things!
It's delicious, very summery (and good for 2 meals for the two of us). 
According to James he could eat this every week and could I please make this a staple!
Duly noted ... 

To finish it off I'd also made some nice, triple chocolate and pecan (I was out of walnuts), brownies.
I think we're eating well ..