The September Garden

Not a lot of news today. Dave's nephew and his fiancee went into town on their own yesterday afternoon, so we had some time on our own. I tried to catch up, more or less, in the blogosphere, and Dave took a nap. Later in the afternoon I mowed the lawn, which has bounced back remarkably from the brown, crunchy carpet that it was a month ago. After even our relatively sparse recent rains, it's now green and growing.

(According to our local weather web site, we've had 26 mm of rain so far this month, which is much better than July, when we had zero, and August, when we had 12 mm. But it's still about 25 percent lower than our September monthly average. Of course, the month's not over yet.)

I found this little ladybug (or ladybird) harvesting minute insects from a teasel head in the garden. It crawled around and around that seed head, occasionally dipping down inside it. Even though I couldn't see what it was eating, there must have been something there.

Here are some more photos from the early-autumn garden.

Our rambling roses have bright red hips, including this one that looks to me like some kind of weird fish with long, trailing fins.

Our beautyberry, which has looked desperate all summer, managed to form berries despite the dry conditions. According to my plant-identifier app, it's suffering "late season moisture stress." I don't doubt it! This is a Bodinier's beautyberry (Callicarpa bodinieri), which is different from the beautyberries I know from growing up in Florida (Callicarpa americana).

And the Michaelmas daisies, or asters, are coming out once again.

We finished "Chimp Fever" last night -- a really good show, but as I said before, with a sadder edge than "Tiger King." Bailey watched very intently every time the animals came on the screen. Dave and I are still amazed at how she responds to the television. If a dog barks on a show we're watching, she'll perk up her ears and stare, and if it appears onscreen she'll run right up to it. She doesn't normally get too excited about other animals, but in "Chimp Fever," she responded to the chimps and monkeys as well -- maybe sensing correctly that they're a lot like us humans.