Some long-overdue garden notes:

• Zinnias, blanketflowers, sunflowers (barely) in bloom.
• Brilliant blue forget-me-nots from seeds we got in the mail.
• Bees in constant motion through the forget-me-nots, basil and catnip flowers.
• Pumpkin vines all over the garden, bees sheltered in their grand orange blooms, hiding a few swollen green pumpkins under their oversized leaves.
• Tomato plants 8 feet tall (though the fruit isn’t as good as that implies).
• Jalapeno peppers plump to almost bursting (and tasting every bit as good as they look).

I pulled up an oak seedling from under our crabapples, then immediately regretted it. A forgetful squirrel planted it there last fall, and it had grown almost 6 inches tall, with a root twice as long. It was too far along – too successful. Who was I to stop it?

I quickly searched for a new home – where an oak might be happy 20, 30, 100 years from now; a shady spot, like its old home, but where it wouldn’t interfere with a house, or overhead or underground wires. I found the perfect spot under a seedless green ash (which I’d like to replace).

As my reward I discovered just a foot away, finally
, a tiny columbine sprout where I had planted seeds – but only one. Still, I was happy to see it.  

17°C (62.6°F) There was so much lightning last night you could see by its eerie, flickering light. Thunder tumbled mountains of granite and sheet-metal from the sky. Today we’re left with desperate winds, frantically seeking rest.