Cicadas!!!

There was a familiar sound in the maple trees last week, as temperatures were beastly hot... cicadas!

To hear them is to dive deep into the water of summer. Cicadas, fireflies, heat, humidity, and flowers... they are all claiming their place again in the cycle of the year.

Yesterday, we had a spectacular thunderstorm. I am glad we did not see the tornadoes that others saw. Here, we had constant rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. Afterward, the sky continued to put on a show, as I looked out and saw a rainbow arching across the sky, all of the colors clearly visible.

I'm working on getting a photo of that rainbow on here. Stay tuned!

HOT

100 degrees tomorrow. In June.

Everything seems to be wilting: I'm not seeing as many wildflowers this month as I did last year, except thistle. Nothing can defeat thistle.

This picture is from a previous year: it's too hot to venture out for wildflower photography. I'd prefer a closeup, but this was all I had in my files.

We did have a bit of rain last night, though, and waking to that sound was comforting. Next week looks better, temperature-wise. I'm hoping to add to my wildflower photo files then.