This entire summer feels as if it hovers on the edge of near normal and mildly dry. Yet the plants are behaving quite normally so far. The corn and amaranth took off in the recent heat and are now at least four feet high. Zucchini, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes are all coming in. Both I and my neighbors have had two successive rounds of beans and carrots fail, however, and neither of us can figure out why. Sowed a third round of each this week - not optimistic. Echinacea, rudbeckia, Queen Anne's lace, zinnias blooming prolifically. Gladiolas and primrose have just started. Milkweeds about done. This spring's abundance of monarch eggs has turned into an abundance of caterpillars and butterflies. There is another warren of baby bunnies and an exceptionally well fed groundhog in the backyard. A fawn (near yearling age but still a few spots) had a siesta in the backyard last evening before returning to her dusk foraging. Wrens are everywhere.