Liatris

So many things blooming, but it's the liatris, the gayfeather, that has my attention today. Nothing says midsummer as gateway to fall more to me than the purple blooms atop tall spikes of liatris growing along the rock wall in the front of the house. The roses have been cut back after their first blooming season; we'll have another colorful show from them in early fall. Things are generally in full bloom, the various lilies having pride of place now.

It's been too cool for early summer, and the floods have spawned gangs of mosquitoes that keep us inside for most of the long hours of the summer day. Lakes everywhere take the place of cornfields, water stands in yards and alongside rural roads. All breeding grounds for these blood-desperate pests.

We all hope for some dry days and an end of the mosquito breeding cycle. I wish the liatris would bloom forever, forestalling fall.