The tiger lilies have started to bloom.  I know daylily connoisseurs don’t care much for them, but I love them because they take me back to my childhood

summer

summers on the farm where we had a huge patch of them behind the house.  They always bloom about the time that the preying mantis hatchlings are everywhere and I remember spending so much time observing the little guys when I was a kid.  That big bed full of tiger lilies was just covered with what seemed like 1,000’s of mantis babies.  So tiger lilies = mantis babies = summer = kid on a farm – priceless.