Overgrown

©Robin Edmundson, 'Overgrown Barn - July', watercolor, 8 x 10 inches.  Framed to 11 x 14 inches.  $280.

July is when everything out here is in danger of getting overgrown by the oat grass, the virginia creeper, the fox tail, the nutgrass, the poison ivy, the walnut saplings that the squirrels planted last year, the ironweed, the johnson grass, the ragweed, the goldenrod, the wild grape vines, the blackberries - so many blackberries... 

In short, there is an abundance of growth and with that comes the very real danger of a structures being entirely overwhelmed.  They can be pulled down by the weight of the vines, or pulled apart by things growing through the cracks in the walls, or knocked right over by trees growing next to the foundation. 

I do this to myself.  All. The. Time.  Country life is a metaphor for the rest of my life.

I love an abundance of information.  I love learning new things, reading new books, mulling over new ideas, trying new strategies.   I want all of the information - right now.   I want all of the options - right now.   I want to save all of the ideas - right now. 

Pretty soon, my head is bursting with options; I worry that I won't pick the 'right one', I feel anxious that I'm 'behind' in what I'm studying, frustrated that I don't understand it all, irritated with the number of notebooks full of Very Important Notes and piles of books that I've saved from studying all the things and afraid to get rid of them because what if that's the notebook with The Answer that I've been looking for.

So much abundance and so much overwhelm. 

I need some mental mowing.  Weed eating.   Pruning.  Maybe a judiciously wielded chain saw.  Something to keep balance between the growth and the structure [me].

Quite honestly, I have no idea - at all - how to do that.  It's one of those boundary things I'm not so good at. 

I'll be thinking about it for the next while to see if I can come up with a strategy to encourage abundance while limiting overwhelm.   Maybe that will help me restore some Fun to my life.

Bergamot

This is Monarda didyma.   It is my all time favorite summer garden flower.  It is traditionally known as bergamot, but only because it smells like the citrus fruit, bergamot, the oil of which is used to infuse Earl Grey tea.   It's not really bergamot; it's really monarda.

I love it.  The butterflies love it.  The bees love it.   The hummingbirds love it.   The hummingbird moths love it.  It blooms the same time as the orange tigerlilies [native daylillies] and the tall purple hosta flowers.  

It smells divine - a citrusy spicy scent - and it dries beautifully.   If you cut the flowers, they'll just keep branching and blooming, so feel free to cut as many as you want for drying or bouquets.  The dried flowers are great in potpourri.  You can use the whole head or just the individual florets.

It likes damp feet, so you can find it wild around ditches and along creeks.    It's reasonably tolerant of a wide variety of soil types as long as it gets enough moisture.   It does not like dry weather or drought.   We get both the red and the lavender blooms wild around here.   I like the red ones and encourage it along the creeks.