08/08/2025 – Around Colehaus

It’s been a cooler kind of summer around here this year, much like the one Mom experienced the very first summer she arrived in the Pacific Northwest over three decades ago. Oh, we’re certain we’re in for some really hot scorchers before real cooler weather arrives in mid-to-late October. Or maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised. It could happen.

Because it hasn’t been terribly hot yet (we did have a few hot days back in late June/early July), some flowers here at Colehaus are confused. This crepe myrtle that usually blooms in mid September, started budding up in July! Don’t tell us there’s no such thing as climate change. What Mom’s missing from her first PNW summer are all the tree frogs (gone), all the damp moss (almost gone), and all the ferns (only the hardy survive).

Not exactly the drifts of white Coneflowers Mom dreamed of, this lone bloom is all we got after the raccoons dug this perennial up too many times to count over spring. The second white Coneflower plant didn’t survive at all and all other buds on this one turned black and shriveled up. She even put rocks at the base to keep it from being uprooted, and staked and ringed the poor little thing. We can only hope the roots are growing strong and we’ll see more than one flower next year.

Here’s something doing well. Mom’s gifted greenhouse Cyclamen from 2017. With a fresh sprinkling of hazelnut shells to keep the slugs away (another creature we don’t see anymore), it’s sporting a good amount of leaves on strong stems. As soon as cooler weather arrives, it’ll pop buds and blooms up all over.

Borrowing some landscape here, this is a neighbor’s honeysuckle vine in its second year. It barely survived last summer and finally sprung up this year on their trellis. They asked if we’d have a problem with them planting it so close to our side of the fence and we replied, “No problem at all.” We welcome the flowers, the smell and the hummingbirds who will claim this vine as theirs.

Just as we had gotten used to seeing Tippy every day for weeks, he disappeared again. We think his owners wisely make him be an indoor boy during warm and cold weather but we don’t know that for certain. We suppose he could be vacationing off the coast of Maine, enjoying lobster rolls for lunch every day or taking kayaking lessons up in the gulf of Alaska. He just seems like the kind of cat that would enjoy those things.

Today’s find is a sunflower with a yellow spider friend. We’re certain he’s not really anyone’s friend. Bees, stay away from this guy!

This white Wandflower is covered with bees and little mason bees. Mom was under the impression wandflowers were annuals, not perennials. As it turns out, they can be either/or, making Mom worry a bit about having to replace this bee-loving plant sometime in the future.

It’s a little early for this Cardinal flower to start blooming, but here we are. Stems are already three feet tall and smartly this year, Mom caged the entire clump to keep those stems from being droopy. Also, raccoons can’t play with them too much. When did we get destructive raccoons all of a sudden? For a decade and a half, we never had a single destructive raccoon in the bunch. Don’t they teach manners and respect at raccoon school anymore??

Here’s that Gladiolus that we have to believe was “donated” by a squirrel last year. Mom replanted it from where it was buried and boy, did it ever decide it likes the new spot! It’s growing from the base of a tall sunflower and would seem the two are getting along just fine. One sad note, the 12 white gladiolus bulbs we enjoyed last year didn’t come up at all this year. Not a one. The squirrels got every last one. Clearly, we need to invest in a roll of chicken wire!

And here’s two of the culprits right now! Or probably related to the culprits. One skinny-tailed squirrel hanging from the bird feeder hook while the other comfortably lounges in the shade of the bird seed bar. All right you two, knock off all the bulb digging this year!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2024 – No post
2023 – No post
2022 – It’s Monday
2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – What a Wednesday!
2017 – No post
2016 – Miss Itty Monday
2015 – No post
2014 – Play Time!
2013 – No post
2012 – World Cat Day – Cat Convention