Of Pretty Flowers, People and Produce

These pretty faces suddenly appeared out of nowhere yesterday.  Of course, it's all in perspective.  They were there.  I just didn't discover them until yesterday morning.

My sunflower attempts for the year have been rather dismal, thanks to the deer, but this proud specimen more than makes up for earlier losses. 

It stands like a statue along the little corner fence south of the house.  I planted sunflowers, cosmos and marigolds out there and kinda forgot about them. 

In spite of very little moisture, some rather spindly stems have made their appearances to put on a show all their own.

As for the lily, it's a little late and I'm wondering if, indeed, it's an Easter lily which has bloomed twice.  Whatever the case, both new kids on the flower block are much appreciated.

Hopes of an overnight rain shower resulted in about 15 drops smudging up the dust film on the rear window of my car.  

Another set of clouds has drifted east and most of the smoke haze has left the area, so it appears several more days will have to pass before we get any natural moisture. 

At least it's cooling off a bit, and that is good with all the community events coming up in the next several days.  

The Festival at Sandpoint, the POAC Arts and Crafts Festival, Celebrate Life, the Bonner County Rodeo and a Celebration of Life for one of the area's most prominent citizens (Dr. Forrest Bird)----all these are sure to draw some crowds this weekend. 

I saw a comment on Facebook yesterday where a person is vowing not to come back to town for the next two weeks cuz of too many people and too many crazies behind the wheel. 

Yup, we're gonna get inundated with humanity and some may be leaving behind the trappings of humanity when they hit town.  Could be a busy period of law enforcement. 

Maybe the cooler temperatures will help keep temper flare-ups to a minimum. 

If all these weekend events were not enough, I've suddenly become aware that my project to select photos for the Bonner County Fair needs to get amped up a bit. 

The Fair is next week!  Yikes!  

Lots of work ahead in getting the exhibit ready for entering by Monday.  That includes selection, enlarging and enclosing the photos in mattes.  

At least, the state of the photos remains the same regardless of what time of year it is. 

I am wondering, however, what the produce section of the local fair is gonna look like this year.  A while back, upon hearing the fair dates, I predicted produce would be pretty scarce cuz the fair was scheduled so early this year.  

That was before the summer inferno. 

Usually I can pick out a pretty decent array of green beans to enter in the fair.  I pulled up my bean plants a few days ago. Almost all lettuce of my second planting has gone to seed.  

This year's produce exhibit could see the most red tomatoes ever.  Most other years, they're all green.  

A few of mine, hidden deep within my 'mater jungle, finally started turning color yesterday 

(Finally????? Heck, they usually don't turn red 'til September).

I'm really interested to see the hay sample that people bring to show off this year----actually wondering if any farmers even dare to give up a flake of that precious commodity. 

Could be they might need an armed guard next to the hay exhibit. 

One area of produce where I could enroll several samples under several names would be the plums.  Only problem is I've heard a LOT of people have a LOT of plums so competition there could get pretty stiff. 

I've been picking off from one tree for two weeks now, and it still has about half its yield of plums left on the limbs. The other is just ripening, so those little juicy bright red gems could be ready to show off by next week.  

Unlike the farmers with their hay flake exhibits, I'd be glad to take my plums and would not worry one bit if someone made off with my exhibit(s). 

The irony for the Lovestead is that not ONE giant zucchini will be available to take and leave at the fair.  The deer and the neighbors' visiting cows saw to that. Too bad. 

Lots to think about and lots of careful scheduling and projects ahead.  I know for sure I'll be hanging out for a while at Celebrate Life Saturday morning and then making my way over to the annual Arts and Crafts Festival at City Beach which Debbie and her crew of volunteers are organizing. 

Family members are on the crafts-fair take-down crew, so we'll probably be there Sunday too. 

With the community BUSYness coming up and basically all packed into a narrow time slot, the blink of an eye and suddenly summer will be over.

Happy Tuesday.