After twisting my ankle on a run a few weeks ago, I resigned myself to spending more time in the garden, where strange, exotic creatures were afoot.
It was frustrating not to be able to run, but I allowed myself to be hypnotized by the light and shadows.
After taking last year off, the foxglove started blooming.
The outside world and its many, many problems felt far away.
We have three varieties of hardy begonia -- pink, sort-of-pink, and white -- which has become a foundational plant in our increasingly shady garden.
The bees love the hardy begonias. It's very satisfying to watch them flit from bloom to bloom.
The toad lilies also started blooming, but they've gotten too tall for the trough. This fall, we're going to move them to another part of the garden so that we can make room for more hardy begonias.
For a few years, we had cold-hardy jasmine growing up the back wall, but it become infested with scale and we had to rip it out. (RIP, cold-hardy jasmine.) We've now returned to clematis, a strategy that appears to be working. Next year will be Year Three for many of these plants, which is when fingers crossed they will be established and vigorous. We're expecting a galaxy of blooms.
Like so many places in the New York City these days, our garden has lantern flies, but fortunately not too many.
Since it's September, I took back-to-school pictures of the cats. Clio went first.
And here's Zephyr, who recently turned seventeen.
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