How high's the water mama? High enough to make the "naked ladies" smile.

In the South, this beautiful flower was called a surprise lily by both our mothers.

We were surprised earlier this week when one of our friends saw a picture posted on Facebook and asked if it was a "naked lady."
We blushed at the suggestion.
Here is the picture we posted:

We looked beyond Megan to see if Dwain had accidentally captured a naked lady in the background at the Newton County Courthouse in Jasper, Arkansas. Nope, just these beautiful surprise lilies, and some tourists wandering around with cameras. But none of them were naked.

Wikipedia describes our surprise lily as: "Lycoris squamigera is a plant in the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It is also sometimes referred to as naked ladies." I guess they got that name because they're so lovely with long, bare (naked) stems."

And as a woman boasted on Seinfeld: "They are real. And they are spectacular."

Surprise lilies line our front porch and if you could see past the circle driveway, the long-stemmed beauties line our country driveway. These are the prettiest the summer flowers have been in the 24 years we've lived together.

Talk about a surprise, these rain showers, some heavy, and cool temperatures have been a real surprise this July. We haven't even reached 100 degrees. We've barely gotten into the 90s.

We think the cool temperatures from our vacation rode back home with us.

A couple of weeks ago, we were sitting on the front porch, when the cool temperatures enticed us to head out on a Sunday afternoon drive and explore dirt roads.

The sun was warm, and the sky was a feathery blue. We couldn't stay in the house.

Megan has a summertime rule: If you see water, you have to get out and wade, pick up rocks and see if crawdads are hiding underneath them.

That afternoon, dragonflies were busy skimming the water looking for whatever they eat. It must have been a great buffet. We saw a lot of them, and they seemed pretty happy.

Time for a game of "king of the mountain."

Uh-oh, looks like we're about to play suicide and see which one backs off the pedal first.

Megan denies, vehemently, that she was responsible for burning these circles in the pavement. What's the vote?

We're lucky we live in such a place.
Megan and Dwain

Summer rain taps at my window
West wind soft as a sweet dream
My love warm as the sunshine
Sittin' here my me, she's here by me.
Summer Rain - James Hendricks