It's starting to look like the end of July already

The early summer flowers are giving way to the "dog days" sort of things....sunflowers, ditch lilies (that's what my dear friend calls the rafts of brilliant day lilies that grow everywhere this time of year), Sumac and cheerful hollyhocks.

The spring and early summer, waterlogged farm fields are changing too.

Fields of winter wheat, planted last year, are beginning to bend their heads.  They're ripe and ready for combining.

Fields of corn, planted to feed livestock and produce ethanol, are getting tall and strong, but what excites us are the fields of sweet corn beginning to mature and tassel.

Our resident family of hybrid ducks have grown into adults but still "use" the lake in front of us.

Driving to our near weekly dinners with Robin and Tom at the yummy Rabbit Room in Honeoye Falls,  we notice that the falls have slowed from their early summer mad, muddy dash over the rocks to a lazy and pretty cascade.  (Phew, that's quite a sentence!)

Thursday night regulars
Robin, Michael (our wonderful waiter), Tom and Dave

reflections

Another thing we notice this time of year is the height of the salt piles growing at nearby the American Rock Salt mine.

Not such a pleasant reminder that winter will be here before people realize it and that the roads will be covered with this lovely stuff.   It not only contributes to their terrible, potholed condition but it ruins cars and trucks while it keeps them from slipping and sliding on icy roads.    We'll be LONG gone by then.