On the 15th of every month gardeners take pictures of blooming plants in their garden. Since it's so hot here, I don't have many flowers blooming. The diehard, tough plants are blooming now-- black eyed Susan, salvia and gaillardia.

This is Gaillardia AKA blanket flower and it is a tough plant! No matter how hot it gets (and it's very hot/humid in South Louisiana) it keeps on blooming. Doesn't need much water either.

Butterfly bush 'Nanho Blue' has light purple/lavender flowers all over the bush. This is my first time growing butterfly bush and I love it! To keep flowers coming, pinch off the spent blooms.

I love my milkweed! It blooms a lot and I love the orange color in my garden. Plus, it's the only host plant for Monarchs. I had two Monarch caterpillars this year but they didn't stay in my yard too long. They flew away once they turned into butterflies.

This is my favorite salvia, 'Indigo Spires'. The bloom stalks are at least 10 inches tall and it stays covered with flowers all season long!

This morning we went fishing in Bayou Sorrell near Plaquemine, LA in the Atchafalaya Basin Spillway. I love going to the Spillway because of the beautiful scenery. There are plenty of bald cypress trees (state tree of LA) and lots of wildlife.

The above picture was our first fishing spot but the boat couldn't pass since the bayou was choked with water lilies.

See the dark stains on the bottom of the tree trunk? That's from high water when the spillway was opened to relieve the flooding of the Mississippi River.

Front and back view of an old houseboat.

This is an egret and we saw these birds all day. They sit on a log and wait for minnows to swim by and strike at them with their long beaks.

These are my new water shoes, they are Keen McKenzies and are good for fishing or canoeing because water drains out but no rocks can go in.

After several hours of fishing and not even one bite, we went home. We had fun just being out in the Spillway.

While I was at work today, Dave spotted a baby mockingbird in our carport. He was able to snap these pictures and move the bird back to the yard where the mom was waiting.

Stay tuned later in the week for a blog post about fishing in the Atchafalaya Basin! My dad, Dave and me are going fishing Friday morning and hopefully I can catch lots of fish and photograph wildlife.