Dog Nose . . . Where the Day Went

I spent the morning in the garden -- tying up and suckering the tomatoes (again) and hoeing and weeding the corn and beans and squash and chard and all the other odds and ends(again.) But there are always new things to look at -- like this voluptuous squash blossom sprawling like a lady of the harem in the hay mulch. A volunteer plant that sprung up amid the tomatoes, it's taking full advantage of the drip hose and the mulch.

And then there was a close encounter with what I took to be a tomato horn worm. He was on the tomatoes and had a horn, so, after taking his picture, I snipped him in half, feeling bad about it but wanting to protect my lovely Cherokee Purple tomatoes. Now, having looked in one of my bug books, I'm not so sure --maybe he was a Great Ash Sphinx larvae and it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Oh, the karmic burden! It's too bad, because because sphinx moths are so cool -- they feed at dusk, hovering before the flowers like humming birds.

The sunflowers -- more volunteers, planted by chance and by chipmunks -- are beginning to open. The spiral pattern of their seeds is a true marvel -- right up there in geometric ( if that's the adjective I'm looking for) beauty with the Chambered Nautilus and ripples on a pond.

Growth and beauty, life and death -- it's all there in the garden. A good place to be on a beautiful June morning.