Chives Blooming in the Garden

A clump of chives survived the overwhelming growth of lemon balm in our garden for the past few years and is blooming gloriously this year now that the lemon balm is mostly gone (cutting the tops then digging out the roots of the lemon balm being one of my August projects). The chives that are too close to the edge of the garden are being pulled too - but most of the clump is well placed and will stay.

There are lots of insects that like the flowers of the chives. By far the most numerous and persistent on a recent afternoon were blue winged wasps (Scolia dubia). A tiger swallowtail butterfly did not linger long enough for a picture. The cone flowers and zinnias were evidently more attractive to it. A cabbage white stayed a little longer but it too was off to other flowers very quickly.

Last year the chives had a few flowers and I enjoyed photographing them. I am anticipating that the clump will expand for next summer because more seeds will find their way to the tilled soil. I'll have plenty of the thin green leaves to enjoy in salads!

Swimming Pool Surface Images

Sometimes the camera captures more than we can see with our eyes. Both of the images in this post are in that category.

The wasp landed on the surface of the pool and bent to get a drink. The surface tension of the water held it out of the water although the picture above shows the slight indention of the surface where it touched the water. It took off again quite easily.

On another day - wind blew small pieces of nearby vegetation into the pool. When it calmed, aggregates of the debris collected into mats that floated about together. This is my favorite because of the variety of shapes - pine needles, the old flowers, leaves.