The day before yesterday the Tour de France went near or through the city of Lourdes in southern France. These pictures of the city are from the train as we went through several years ago. There is a Catholic shrine somewhere in the city that is believed to have healing powers. A week or so later, as we were flying out of nearby Pau, some people checking-in in front of us had all flown in that morning, had each traveled to Lourdes, filled a large plastic container with the "healing waters" and were flying out the same day. I got the impression that they were on some sort of missionary trip, to bring the waters to others unable to make the trip.

There used to be an adage, "corn should be knee high by the 4th of July." Farming methods have changed that. Better seed, nitrogen additives, etc. This corn is only a few days from being picked. The folks who have this sweet corn plot do 4 plantings of corn. They sell beginning at 3:00 p.m. and sometimes are still picking when I get there and I have to wait. It's a bit more expensive, but the freshness is there.

A Great Golden Digger Wasp. Chased it around for a week before getting a decent enough pic to help me identify it. It barely lands till another of it's kind interrupts it and off they go. Interesting wasp. They are very attracted to the butterfly weed.http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-54_great_golden_digger_wasp.htm

Gaz, I planted Quick Fire last year. I love my Limelights, and I'm sure I'll love this one too. I also planted Fire Light and Pinky Winky. I had a young Pinky Winky . . . until my son ran over it with a brush cutter. :-/ Here's a Limelight late one season.