Gloomy Sunday

It's been a really hot week every day, and I haven't been out much to take many pictures. Every morning things outside though are covered with dew, and the spider webs do show up fairly nicely. We haven't had any rain to speak of even though it threatens quite often. This morning the skies are dark, and the wind is whipping around, but whether we get any precip or not remains to be seen.

There have been some noticeable changes that Fall is sneaking up on us too. The birds are gathering, the geese now have their new feathers and have begun flight training with their youngsters, I've heard crickets chirping, and the Golden Rod is beginning to bloom. I don't know about you, but I'm not ready for this yet :~(

Joe Pye weed usually attracts lots of Butterflies, but I haven't seen very many.

The corn in this area seems to be hanging in there. You can see it is starting to wither a bit from the lack of water, but compared to the remainder of the country, it looks pretty good.

This is Purple Loosestrife, a very invasive plant that grows freely in and around the ditches. Although it has beautiful flowers, it will choke out any native plants it is near, and even it is suffering from lack of rain this summer. Where it was once in great bunches, now it is difficult to find.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful rest of the weekend.