August 2

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You know it's summertime, in our climate, when the perennial flowers are orange.

Butterfly weed.

Cone flowers.

Hydrangea.

Ornamental kale.

Totally love cabbage...........

Lantana.

Portulaca.

Sweet potato vine.

I loved what pushing the saturation did to some of this, after our trip to Chicago in '06.

I decided to play with these.  Unfortunately, the messy background was a serious problem.

It took me a loooooooong time to get rid of it (mostly).

It takes no time at all to push the saturation a little.

And no more to push it a bunch more.

When you look at these in their natural state, they look kinda monochromatic.  Who knew there was all this going on, just waiting for a bit of technology to show it off!

Hibiscus.  These are the biggest perennial flowers I am aware of that survive in our climate.

I wouldn't say they are quite as big as a dinner plate, but almost.  Distinctly bigger than my outstretched hand.  Hmm, just measured my hand at just under 8".  These are big.

And exotic. 

And ruffly.

Here's where that deep trench was.

This is the second house on one block of our street to have this deep trench thing done in the past year.  Bodes ill, don't you think?

At some point, some moron allowed cardboard sewer pipes to get by code requirements.  Sorta when these houses were built.  I'd read that those cardboard pipes would have to be replaced in 50 years, so I was holding my breath until we got safely past 50 years.  I suppose they may have been wrong by 15 years, and the pipes go bad in 65 years..............

(All of these houses were built immediately after WWII.)

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