Stragglers

Lingering on are verbascum, bachelor buttons (cornflowers), California poppies, true and iceland poppies, delphinium, Drummond phlox, black-eyed Susans, firewheels, and squash blossoms. The morning glories not consumed are beginning to bloom. Lantanas continue to attract clouds of butterflies and we seem to see more question marks than ever before. Turk's caps are covered with flowers. Pride of Barbadoes is beginning to bloom. All of the bulb leaves have now died back and been picked up, giving us some new places to mow. (We had an errand at Sears and the notion of buying a non-power mower to stockpile was tempting; there was one there with my favorite T-handle and I never want one of those sturdier X-handles because a mower with those just won't go where the T-handled ones will. My mower was sharpened so well last time, though, and the temptation was just a passing one. I recently read that there's a resurgence in the sales of non-power mowers, all now made, no matter what the brand label, at the one remaining United States factory, and two-thirds of them purchased these days by women.)