Scenes from an almost summer evening

I took a short stroll with the husband this evening and took a few pictures of the garden and the neighborhood. I love how familiar plants and places can look different depending on the light. These were taken at dusk on this beautiful almost-summer evening.

In this light, the garden almost looks like the lush oasis I keep trying to create here in the land of sun and wind and late frosts. The dry creek bed could almost have water in it--instead of the leaf litter I need to clean out before the monsoons start.

Looks like the hollyhocks are about to bloom. 

I like to mix ornamentals and edibles (yay for cottage style!), so here we have the not-so-photogenic tomato cages mixed with an apple tree, some bachelor buttons, the aforementioned hollyhocks, and a Ketchup and Mustard rose.

Yep. There's that leaf litter I need to clean out of the dry creek bed. In the right foreground is a piece of garden art I picked up for a couple dollars at a garage sale. I'm experimenting with using it instead of a tomato cage. If my tomatoes don't freeze Monday night (it's supposed to be 31--*sigh*), we'll see if it works.

Here's the M*A*S*H* sign my husband made me for Christmas a couple of years ago. We had to relocate it this spring, because it was sitting in the middle of what would become the pond.

This is our grasshopper preserve, otherwise known as the front pasture. If you'd like about a million grasshoppers, bring a big net and take a walk through it.

Just a beautiful night in the neighborhood.

 One of my favorite things about summer nights here in Flagstaff are the cloud formations. It isn't even monsoon season yet, and we get to look at this gorgeousness.

One of many things I love about gardening is that it puts me more in touch with the seasons. The same small plot of land can have many personalities depending on the time of year. I might not ever notice that--at least not in detail--if I didn't garden.