Flowers, summer

Lilies, lilies, lilies

63 Comments

Last week, our old-fashioned Maine summer was chased away by new-fashioned weather, courtesy of climate change. The temperatures were in the 90s with high humidity, which just added to the misery. Back in the day, the end of July was often hot, by Maine standards, but with temperatures no higher than the mid-80s, and only for a few days. The kind of heat we had last week would have been inconceivable to my parents.

Mother Nature is trying to get our attention. The question is, will we listen?

But as the saying goes, it’s an ill wind that blows no good, and my daylilies are thriving in the heat and humidity, providing punches of bright color amidst the cool green of my shady-yard gardens.

As if in response, the hostas do what they can to provide some punch. Well, at least they make an effort.

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This morning, the blessed rain came. Not only is the rain much-needed, but it also brought some relief to the high heat. The temperature is now in the low 80s, which seems positively chilly compared with last week’s weather. The forecast for the next two days promises perfect sunny weather—dry and warm but not too hot.

And just in time. My husband Clif and our daughter Dee are on vacation this week, which means I am, too. We’ve planned two day trips, rare for us as most of the time, we stick pretty close to home. Ever mindful about the climate crisis, we use our car as little as possible. (Someday we hope, hope, hope to get an electric car.) But during vacations, we relax a bit and allow ourselves to go on a couple of outings: Tomorrow, we’ll pack a picnic lunch and go to the ocean. The next day, we’ll get take-out from a local Chinese restaurant and eat by the Kennebec River. Modest pleasures, to be sure, but nonetheless enjoyable, perhaps even more so because of their rarity.

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Lately I’ve been having problems with my comments on other blogs. Sometimes “Like” clicks go through; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes my little outdated picture appears by my comment; other times it doesn’t. I have no idea why this is the case, and there doesn’t seem to be much I can do about it. My computer guy husband is baffled, too. Anyway…just wanted to let you all know that whether my picture is there or not, I’m still reading and commenting.

 

63 thoughts on “Lilies, lilies, lilies”

  1. Your day lilies are beautiful and remind me of my mother’s garden on our farm in the Lowveld. I have also been experiencing problems liking or responding to some blogs I have followed for years. Sometimes I resort to commenting in the Reader. Enjoy your outings to the full!

  2. Your garden is lovely, Laurie, and I hope you have enjoyable outings with your family. You know, I’ve been experiencing odd things with my blogging and commenting, too. Nothing too serious, but annoying just the same. Maybe we can get things ironed out soon!

  4. Your flowers are beautiful! I hope you have fun on your day adventures. Those are most times the best ones. As for technology, it sure does make one scratch their head. I was trying to do a post using a Chrome browser which is what I use but couldn’t load photos into WordPress. I had to pull up Safari and do it, but then the cursor was jumping all over the place, and if I tried to delete even one letter, it would take out an entire line. Not much you can do but shake your head and wonder.

  5. Daylilies and hosta blooms are good to have in a summer garden– they bridge the exuberance of spring to the grande finale of autumn.
    Enjoy your outings, hopefully, the weather will cooperate!

  6. Laurie, Your lilies look sop happy!
    We are in the midst of having a fence placed around our garden to hopefully deter the deer…..
    The heat and humidity remain intense although we may finally have rain today and cooler temps tomorrow.
    Little pleasures are so important! Driving some will not have much negative impact so do enjoy.

  9. Gorgeous Day Lilies Laurie and so glad to hear you got some rain. Wishing you happy days out together – these simple pleasures are the best! 💛

  13. “Mother Nature is trying to get our attention. The question is, will we listen?” Nope, not unless we can persuade countries like China and India to pull their weight re carbon emissions . We are wilting under the heat, and wild fires are a constant threat. The dams which feed our water supply are at an all time low yet people still abuse the water.
    “Lately I’ve been having problems with my comments on other blogs. Sometimes “Like” clicks go through; sometimes they don’t. ” It is WordPress not you. I experienced the same problems. PLUS for every comment I tried to make WP made me login to my account. Needless to say I lost patience.

    🙂 IT seems okay now.

    I also had the prom with excessive adverts spamming my latest post. I counted 27! because every time I included a link to a related post the adverts appeared. I wrote to WP an have now downloaded an Ad Blocker. We will see :9

    BTW your lilies look AMAZING!

  17. I’m glad your heat finally abated, Laurie, and lasted “only” 2 days. We had 90+ degree weather for 11 days in a row this July.
    I don’t know what it takes for us to finally make significant changes to combat climate change. Likely more calamitous weather events with more people suffering as a result. We are a short-sighted species, despite our purported higher faculties.
    Your mini vacations sound enticing, I hope all of you will enjoy all your activities.
    Best,
    Tanja

  18. Goodness! Spike in temps has affected you as well! We were following the heat in the UK as London aunt was quite affected by it all. It’s scary that it has touched you in Maine as well. I am glad to hear that the rain came and cooled things down.

    We are wishing for an electric car as well … Loving Husband thinks it will be a while though – the support and infrastructure is just very poor in Singapore right now.

    Enjoy your trips this week despite what the weather might hold!

  19. Hi Laurie, your lilies are spectacular! It must be nice opening the door and seeing them every day. I also had a problem receiving emails from bloggers with a new post. I was able to find someone helpful on the WordPress.com Help page, because I could have a live chat.

  20. I wonder if you’re having trouble with cross-site tracking issues. Take a look at my exchange with philosophermouseofthehedge, just below your comment, on this post. I’ve never had a problem since I enabled cross-site tracking in Safari and Firefox, so that might be it.

    That said — what gorgeous lilies! I’ve never been a fan of them, but I’ve rarely seen anything other than the standard issue yellow. Yours are gorgeous.

  21. Last week we suffered the highest temperatures ever recorded in the UK, records were smashed and wildfires raged (unheard of here). Climate change is real, however much some might suggest it’s fake news! Your daylilies look splendid though, so at least some good has come from it all 🙂

  23. Lovely lilies, Laurie. I think the biggest problem we face is people’s reluctance to change any aspect of their lifestyle. When we are invited to fill in our details below or click on an icon I sometimes find I am anonymous sans picture unless I take the fill in details option

  25. The lilies are beautiful. I hope you’ll send photos of your day trips. Visiting the ocean and enjoying a river picnic sound perfect after the heat and humidity.

    We bought a used electric car (Chevy Bolt) at a good price. It’s fantastic and we’re finding chargers where we need them! Good luck moving in that direction.

    1. Thanks! Will be sharing pictures next week. When the time comes to get another car, we will certainly check out Chevy Bolts. Thanks for the tip.

  26. This year in the Capital the Mercury touched 49 Degrees and we were all sweltering. ACs stopped working. Heat at 80s and 90s is unthinkable. But still the buds bloom which is Nature’s boon.

  30. Your lilies look gorgeous and I always love seeing your sign!!🙂 We are suppose to have a nice weekend before the awful weather returns next week. I really miss our old weather patterns. Have a fabulous time on your outings, they sound wonderful!!🙂

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