Usually I buy red geraniums. This pink one has taken the entire summer to blossom spectacularly. In another month or so I will repot it in fresh soil and bring it inside for the winter along with the best of my impatiens. Last fall I brought a pink petunia inside that lasted the winter and went outside again for a second summer.

Three varieties of Rose of Sharon are in bloom, a rose pink, a lilac blue, and this lovely white with red centers, all blossoming near the road for passersby to enjoy. I might have missed their beauty if I hadn’t walked down the road to photograph the old mill reflected in the river, and happened upon this scene on my return.

The river water is still and clear today. I plan to go back for more photos when the water is disturbed and the air is foggy. I hope to paint the scene in less brilliant  light.

On this sparkling morning the goldfinches are threading yellow loops from one tall sunflower to another in the back garden. I hoped the few thistles I allowed to bloom in the field might attract the finches, but saw none until this morning. Now here they are, sharing the blooms with a bevy of white butterflies!

A sunflower blossom and autumn joy sedum in an antique pitcher brighten my windowsill.

My grand pumpkin! Isn’t this as handsome as they come? Only one grew, although I’m sure I planted a whole packet, ordered from Johnny’s Seeds. Several pie pumpkins of modest size are ripening out amongst the zucchini leaves. Won’t they be tasty, especially using my sour cream recipe!  This golden knucklehead with all the warts is supposed to be a good eating pumpkin, too.

This was the most beautiful Foxglove of the summer…

This morning we dug up potatoes, washed them with the garden hose, and used up some bubble soap that was standing nearby in a scrub bucket.

These red-blooming vines twining so vigorously around the birdhouse post invite me once again to get out my drawing materials, make a sketch, make a watercolor, illustrate a poem, do something lovely with this high-summer happiness….

I found one more porch post taking up space in the garage.  Since the core is hollow, the post is easily supported on a stake driven into the garden. So far, three former porch posts have taken on an elegant new role as birdhouse stands. This one is completely covered with a wild morning glory vine.

Although this summer we find most of the blackberries ripening close to the ground, several canes have climbed into trees, making picking much easier, and this spray has charmingly draped itself over my sign, inviting me to make a watercolor.

This morning I stewed blackberries, wild black currants, black raspberries, and a few red raspberries with sugar to make the well-remembered grütze dessert of my childhood, although my version will be black instead of red.

Every once in a while something magical happens and I create a doll that speaks to me, like this mermaid I have named Ghislaine. I keep a doll like her for myself as proof that this magic can happen, and as a model and inspiration for future creations.

Today I am working with bags full of fleece, “three bags full” and more, and a perspiry task it is, stuffing the bulky bags back on the top shelf, after choosing a handful to wash and pull apart gently sideways to see what kind of doll wig it might make.

This morning I spent time out in the gardens, pulling out overgrown borage to make room for what I think may be pumpkin vines that need more space. In the back woods, hidden under jewelweed, large juicy blackberries are ready to eat.  I picked a bouquet of poppies, queen anne’s lace, radish blossoms, and mint.

I’m watching the tides, waiting for a high tide so that I can  photograph Fort Popham reflected in a pool. Maybe tomorrow morning around eight o-clock I will take a trip to the coast with my camera.

I wonder how the President and his family liked Acadia National Park this past weekend.  What a wonderful move my family  made, deciding to live in Maine, a short distance away from the coast.

Now I return to a bevy of mermaids who are  awaiting net veils and shells and other bits of glamour.