spring segues into summer and a future big change

Actually it was more like took a giant leap. We went to bed one night early last week and it was still late spring and woke up the next day in summer. It backed off some a few days later, been overcast and getting rain, 2 1/2” Friday night and another 1 1/2” Tuesday with more supposed to come and yesterday we were back to summer. The heavy rain passed us by this time pounding towns east of us with some flooding. But temperatures and humidity aside the spring bloomers are just about done and the summer ones are starting up. All but a few of the easter lily buds have opened, the poppies are gone by and the larkspur is past prime and both going to seed. The love-in-a-mist has been done for a while and is nothing but seed pods that haven't dried out yet. The transition is always scraggly and the county came by and mowed down the bluebonnet plants on the street side of the ditch that were going to seed. We usually leave them until they have all popped so I hope they will go ahead and mature for next year.

The purple coneflowers are in full bloom, the day lilies are starting up, the gardenia is in full bloom as are the clasping leaved coneflowers, and the tallow trees are blooming.

you wouldn't think that the nondescript tallow tree blooms would be so sweetly fragrant but they are

I cleared out the poppies from the bed against the fence because I don't necessarily want them volunteering in there again and I needed the space to get some summer bloomers in there. 

I did get all the plants from the second trip to the nursery and the garden club plant sale in the ground or in bigger pots last Sunday. The zinnia plants from the seeds a fellow blogger sent me are about 8+” tall. It will be a while before everything starts to be showy. 

someone was curious about the bat-face cuphea, the flowers are small, perhaps 3/4" but the bees and butterflies like them

Another big change may be headed our way besides the change of seasons. I've written often about the 12 acre field behind us, most recently when it was in full bloom with indian paintbrush. Soon after we bought this place we sort of appropriated part of it, mowing about another 20'-25' and that is where the burn pile was and where the compost pile and wildflower mini-meadow is. Well, last year or so that field was up for sale. The sign stayed up for a couple of months and then one day was gone and the status quo remained so we figured the person/s took it off the market. Unfortunately, it sold which I found out last Sunday when I went outside to putz around and saw two Asian men standing there just behind my property. I grabbed the dog and threw her inside and went back out just as they were leaving by cutting through my backyard and my other neighbor's side yard to get to the street where they were parked. I walked toward them and asked what they were doing.

So, yes, they had bought the field but had been too busy to do anything with it until now and were looking it over but weren't sure where the property line was; they had tried to access it from the street (the one my street dead ends into) but the overgrowth (pecan trees, wild grape, trash trees, poison ivy, and god only knows what all that makes up the wild space that surrounds the east end of the field on three sides) was so dense 

they couldn't attempt to get through. They hadn't made any decisions about what they were going to do with the field, maybe a trailer park oh joy but they were still considering their options. I pointed out the stake that shows where the property line is, that we had obviously been using part of the field which he replied was not a problem and thanked me for taking care of the property and then they left. I looked out Monday and they were back standing in the same spot only this time there were four of them.

Now it remains to be seen where this will go, what they will decide on to make their investment pay off, and when. Three things come to mind...the trailer park he mentioned with even more spotlights beaming into my backyard and house, apartments, or low income small houses the last two of which come with battles with the city government concerning septic/sewer systems, something they won't need with a trailer park. Whatever they do we will lose that section where the wildflowers and compost pile are unless by some miracle they decide that the back half of the field isn't worth clearing and build on the front half of the field, something that's not likely to happen. 

our property line is right on front edge of the wildflowers  in the middle

standing at the edge of the unmown field looking across the part we mow, the wildflower meadow part which was mostly bluebonnets earlier in the spring, toward the back of the house

We'll also lose our unobstructed view of the sunsets which has already been compromised by the neighbor's container. 

So I see a very tall fence lined with timber bamboo along our back property line in the not too distant future.