Church Under the Arch

When we were in St. Louis in April we visited the Gateway Arch.  Practically underneath it is the Old Cathedral, site of the oldest Catholic parish west of the Mississippi and where Sacagawea's son was baptized.

 Sorry about the traffic lights in this photo.

Below I'm looking down on the church from the Arch.

Inspired Sunday

Vegetable Garden This Month

It's a waiting game in the vegetable garden.  

Waiting for the beans to get long enough.  

Waiting for the squash to bloom. 

Waiting for the tomatoes to fatten and color up. 

  Waiting for the peppers to form.  

Waiting to harvest.  Even the garlic I pulled this week doesn't count as a harvest since it has to cure in the garage.

 

 

 I wonder though how long I have before the tomatoes give it up.

Look at the yellowing leaves.  Blight?  Too much rain?

Now my volunteer tomato growing behind the compost bin and through my fence is doing just fine.  I think its a Juliette.

New Faces

 The gardens change with the summer heat.  Flowers are spent and leave the stage making room for new faces.

Here are some of them in the Perennial Garden now.

The Pond Garden is wild!  It's hard to keep it tamed so I'm not trying as hard.  The iris have seeded themselves so thickly around the perimeter and now I'm finding Joe Pye weed volunteers in new places.  The water lily that I thought would never grow seems to love it location.  

The frogs are getting big.  Can you see it in this photo below?

The cat tails are returning.

As I write this the pond is getting fresh water as we endure another strong downpour.

Hello Hibiscus!

First blooms opened today for 2015.

These are as big as dinner plates and such a lovely shade.

The butterflies are liking the butterfly bush now that it's in bloom as well.

These were taken in a brief sunny moment.  Mostly we have had cloudy skies and rain.