Isn't the grass always greener on some other side? I suppse it's not typically the closest side..... 

I know you've all been waiting for this. It's my new Air Conditioner......Yay!!!!!!! 

Paradise kitty. 

Close-up of a coneflower. I kept trying to see how close I could get to take the photo; I think I may have over done it with this one.....the head of the flower is made up of these wonderfully orange, stiff little spikes...which is what I was hoping to get the sharp focus on, but I may have been too close. I like it anyway. 

Detail of some bottle-brush looking flowers on a bush out front. I'd assumed the bush was dead through most of the spring - just a dead, twiggy clump. Then, recently, it started to green up. And just yesterday it started to blossom. There is a faint smell - they're not as fragrant as some spring-blooming bottle brushes I've strolled by on my way to and from work. But, they add a well-needed splash of color in the front yard. 

Close-up of a flower in the wildflower patch. I don't know what these are - all 3 bags (60,000 seeds worth) were supposed to be seeds indigenous to NW Ohio. What looks like green petals leading in to the center are actually not - the pink petals taper and narrow to show the underlying green beneath the flower bud. There are only 3 of these in the wildflower patch. 

The wildflower patch today. It seems to undergo some level of color evolution on a daily basis. 

Kyle got everyone started on a flower-sniffing campaign one morning.... 

Casey in the wildflower patch when the kids visited over July 4th. 

There are a few isolated spots of lillies in the yard - some are yellow, yellow-orange, and now these pink-ish purple-ish ones. I think they look kind of sickly. I guess I should be surprised that they came up at all - earlier in the year, when I was eager to mow the grass (I'm over that), I ran over all of the lilly patches several times. Maybe they're blooming in mid-summer because they had to regrow throughout the spring! 

Now, just a week or so there were only the flowering penta plants I had here. Out of nowhere this heart-shaped leafy vine started growing. I guess it's another late starter.  

Parting group shot en route back to the airport. 

Cold sprinkler fun -... 

...but after a minute or two, I think it became more fun than cold! 

And, I don't know where he got this pose, but Kyle cracked everyone up with it.