Mandala Monday: Late Bloomers

Early Monday morning, possibly while I'm still sleeping, Dawn at Girl Unwinding will be posting her Mandala to celebrate Mandala Monday.  I'm so in love with this fun event Dawn hosts each week, I wouldn't miss it, even if it meant losing sleep.  

Some of you may recognize my dining room table.  It's far too hot, sticky, and nasty to be outside today.  Add to that, the mosquitoes are out in full force, even though I "lathered up" before I went outside.

 As hard as I tried, I couldn't get a good photo of this mandala.  I am just too short, and standing on a chair is a bit perilous, since the dining room chairs have open cane seats with conventional reed splines.  After 30 attempts, this was the best I could come up with.  I call this one "Late Bloomers," because this is what is blooming in my garden right now.  Most people's Rose of Sharon are no longer blooming, but these are the first blooms I've seen this year.  I think the yellow and green slivers are hollyhocks, but this is as much as they've bloomed so far.  And they are super fragile, too.  The lovely purple pieces under the four outside Roses of Sharon are from a plant that blooms about this time of year.  I have no idea what it's called because a friend who died about a month ago from a horrible car accident that was not her fault, gave it to me.  Those little blue flowers circling the center Rose of Sharon are from a weed that grows uncontrollably in my garden.

This gives you a better view of those tiny blue flowers that only bloom in late summer.

The shiny leaves are from my holly bush, which has never bloomed.

Perhaps this is a better picture of the lavender flowers that I slipped under the Roses of Sharon.

So what did I use to keep the center flower standing?  A napkin ring!!

Don't forget to visit Dawn for other Mandala Monday participants!