Farewell July. Thank you for a great month. You baked my little corner of the Concord River in your sunshine, covered my home in a wet blanket of humidity (I won’t miss that part of you), washed the air clean with afternoon thunderstorms, and reminded me just how beautiful my river is.
It’s hard to believe tomorrow is August 1st. Soon, I’ll be writing about pumpkins, but for now, let’s enjoy the colors of the summer.
Monarch butterfly on day lily.
Did you plant milkweed this summer? And why not? I told you how the monarch butterflies need help, remember? No! Well, take a look at this, it might jog your memory. https://concordriverlady.com/2017/11/05/get-your-collective-butts-in-gear/
This year I’ll be sending my milkweed seeds to monarchwatch.org. You can help too. If you see milkweed on your property don’t remove it. If you pass a milkweed in your daily travels (and you’re not on private property) gently pull it out of the dirt and take it home and plant it in a sunny location. Next summer you’ll have milkweed…and you’ll have monarchs.
This year I have two monarch butterflies and, get this, one of them had been laying eggs on my milkweed plants. How cool!!! I don’t have a picture so you’ll just have to take my word for it. But I do have a picture of a ruby-throated hummingbird coming in for a sip from a milkweed flower.
Since I mentioned hummingbirds, how about a little montage?
I had to take down the nectar feeders because the squirrels were chewing through them to get at the sweetened water. They’ve been terribly destructive this season (the squirrels, not the feeders). As have the chipmunks. And the wild rabbits. I put fencing around my gardens to protect my flowers from chiseling teeth.
Yup! The little buggers chewed right through the plastic. Next year I’m using steel.
A red-tailed hawk has been hanging around with her young’un. When she arrives the blue jays sound the alarm and the ducks scatter. She typically flies away when the commotion starts but lately she’s ignoring the dive bombing songbirds. I guess my ducks are too succulent to pass up.
Continuing on the topic of songbirds, this year they planted the sunflowers for me.
I swear, honest. I even have sunflowers growing in my deck boxes. I just wish the birds would lend a hand with the weeding.
American goldfinch enjoying a snack on a sunflower growing in my deck box.
The full buck moon of Saturday was a magnificent sight to behold. My corner of the world couldn’t view the lunar eclipse, but those of you in South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia sure received a special treat. Send me some pictures.
Buck full moon over my river.
Before I let you go, July, I want to thank you for the beautiful flowers.
The beautiful butterflies.
My beautiful yard.
The beautiful birds.
And the beautiful river.
Damn, July, you rocked!
Blessed be :}
concordriverlady.com 
Beautiful pics. Place looks great!