We are just past the half way mark for official Summer. But, in Montana, I call it 3/4 :)!

Despite a wet, cool Spring and a bit of rain almost weekly, it is drying up.

The grasses and woods vegetation is getting crunchier every day. As I write this, there is the rumble of thunder but so far, just a few drops of rain now and again.

Weeds and wildflowers…they were very different this year. I have both read and experienced that depending on weather and soil conditions, the things that grow can lie dormant until the specific conditions they like cause growth.

This year seemed to favor yellow things. Although the Lupins had a banner year, other blue-purple things have not.

Not looking so good at the moment, but whatever this is…a kind of yellow clover – it grew gangbusters all over my woods. It was like walking in sunshine until a week ago.

Another overachiever this year was St. John’s Wort which has some medicinal use, but is not good in cattle country and is declared a noxious weed in Montana. No photos as I’ve pulled it all.

It is not just my woods, though. St. John’s Wort is prolific everywhere in the valley this year.

This is what the Lupins look like now… crunchy. But they were gorgeous and abundant in the late spring/early summer.

Miniature wild asters… usually these start in mid to late July and are all over my woods through mid-Fall. There are just a few this year and they look to be nearly done, now in early August.

Even the spotted knapweed, another noxious…in fact, one of the worst noxious weeds… the few that came up looked sickly AND they pulled easily…root and all.

Thistles…I have a love/hate thing with thistles. I LOVE a few of them…the blossoms are beautiful and they attract butterflies. But there is no way to have just a few thistles. Birds love the seeds. Birds eat the seeds. The seeds go through the birds and get deposited, WITH fertilizer…everywhere. There will always be more than enough thistles, just not where I’d like them.

Even the thistles aren’t as robust as usual.

A bad year for purple!