Flowers of all kinds, wild and cultivated, form a gorgeous backdrop to the beauty of the Adirondacks, add touches of color amid all the green, and provide fertile feeding for the legions of bees, butterflies and other winged things.  The sunflower above was by the roadside in Ticonderoga, along with these lovely cosmos:

Butterflies love the milkweed flowers…

While an astonishing variety of bees feasts on the many species of wildflowers along the lakes and roads…

On the lakes, since the weather has now turned very hot and humid after being rainy for two weeks, the dragonflies and damselflies are out in great number, posing on the tips of reeds and logs…

This damselfly came to a shocking end in a spider’s web:

All along the roadways the blue jays chatter and scatter among the white birches and other hardwood trees.  They’re as hard as kingfishers to get to sit still for a portrait.  This one took a breather in the shade for long enough to get my shutter snapping…

But while the birds, bees and other winged creatures are working hard and making sure to pollinate all the flowers and get ready for the next growing season, other animals are just …. well, happy as a pig in mud:

Really, why work so hard on a hot day when you can just eat and doze off while lounging in the cool mud?  Some people pay big money for such spa treatment!