​It is exciting for me that my effort last fall to seed Minnesota’s native wild grain has been rewarded with success.  My wild rice, seeded into one of our wetlands has germinated!  Hopefully it will produce more viable seed and continue to grow and expand its coverage.  It is a great food source for wildlife and may one day provide grain for us to harvest as well.
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Meanwhile, a cool rainy day leaves a dock on the lake empty of vacationers, but the gulls seem happy to take over the swimming mat as their vacation wanes with the season.

​What can we say beyond seeing these colors?  Planters full of annuals are at their peak.  Native coneflowers and rudbeckias fill the grasslands.  Cup plants tower above the other plants and wild petunias hide in the shadows, all awaiting the multi-colored storm clouds which will bring the next rainfall.

​The height of summer screams at us with:
 Bombastic, blooming, bastions of Beebalm,
Ridiculously, raucous, ranks of Rudbeckias,
Colorfully coordinated, cotillions of coneflowers,
And wondrous, wild and witty waterfowl. 
Take time to enjoy the exuberant, elegance of everything.