Ruellia, Meadow Beauty, Carpenter Bee

After weeks of hot, sunny mornings, today's fog and cool temps were a wonderful change. Daisy and I headed out early to enjoy it. Our power is out (from yesterday's strong thunderstorm) so the rumble of our generator followed me out of the woods, but once we got to the hill it faded. Birds were everywhere! Our resident Indigo Buntings sang in the pines along the edge of the woods on either side on the pipeline. Blue Jays called, Mourning Doves cooed, and Chickadees and Tufted Titmice went about their seed-gathering chatter. We hiked down to Meetinghouse Creek with a damp breeze in our faces, to where various flowers flourish in the damp soil: Ruellia, Meadow Beauty, Butterfly Pea, as well as Queen Ann's Lace, Sensitive Brier, and Joe Pye nibbled by deer. Man of the Earth flowers glowed like tiny moons in the fog.

I sat to draw Ruellia blooms. Nearby was a nice patch of Meadow Beauty with different species of bees that buzzed at different sound frequencies around it, and these Hawkweed blooms. While I scritch-scratched on the page a Wood Thrush (my favorite bird!) sang in the woods nearby, and Yellow Billed Cuckoos and Crows called in the distance. Daisy passed the time by chasing deer (one coughed and gave himself away) and investigating the woods around where I sat. She's amazingly patient.

It was still only in the mid 70's by the time we headed home.