It's official! Happy Summer!!!



What are you doing to celebrate the first day of summer? Days get shorter from here, ya know...

We've become the local nature center. We have rabbits galore and the damn things are eating everything in sight. We counted four of them cavorting in both the front and back yards yesterday. I have a butterfly bush in a pot and came out yesterday to find chewed off braches littering the ground.

One of the culprits:



It's been awfully dry here, too, and our birdbath is attracting all sorts of birds. I posted the pic of the hawk a few weeks ago. We regularly get robins, blue jays, goldfinches, mourning doves, and this pair of mallards that spent the entire day hanging out near the water.



My veggies are going crazy with the recent heat...pics later....

Post your garden and your vacation pics! I'd love to see what's growing in your yard. And to travel vicariously through the rest of you.

I love it when we have bunnies in the yard!

There are tiger lilies blooming all over the place here, I’ll try to share a photo.

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
I love it when we have bunnies in the yard!

I'll be glad to ship a bunch of mine your way...

Ummmm

We have turkeys in our yard. They cruise the neighborhood.

I saw a deer in somebody's front yard yesterday, right by a busy street. It was lying behind a low stone wall that kept it partially secluded from the street, but it was still able to watch the cars go by.

We celebrated by going to a Mexican restaurant and having tacos and fajitas at a sidewalk table. And street corn! We too were watching the people go by.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:

quote:

Originally posted by ShiroKuro:
I love it when we have bunnies in the yard!

I'll be glad to ship a bunch of mine your way...

Sam can’t catch them but he does a good job of keeping them on the other side of the fence.

He’s had less success with the bullfrog that lives somewhere in the rocks by the fountain. I really enjoy hearing it. There’s also a little toad living by the water faucet in the front yard.

I shot a squirrel who has learned how to get on my bird feeder with a Super Soaker MFR got me for Fathers Day.

Smart buggers, they are. It's just like this one.

WTG suggested I move the Magnolia tree away from the house and I did that. It should be fine now, at least for several years. If it becomes a problem and I'm still alive I'll cut it down.

The three hydrangeas are replacements for the originals. I planted them too early and a frost killed all of the flowers. The plants are fine and I moved them to the side but I didn't want a whole summer of looking at brown hydrangea flowers. I'll transplant them somewhere else later.

The little weeping cherry tree did not survive transplanting and (I cannot tell a lie ) I cut it down. I'll plant another one when time permits.



Over on the side of the house are some day lilies I got from LL. (Thanks, LL! ) I don't know what kinds they are and I'm looking forward to seeing they blooms. A few of them have buds already, and once I see the colors and know when the bloom I'll move them to more prominent places.

If you look closely to the right of the photo you can see the flowerpot where I store the collapsible hose. I've changed over to collapsible hoses entirely because they're light, easy to store, hide nicely in flowerpots and don't burst when they freeze.



On the patio, the petunias have taken over their pots, completely overwhelming the other flowers planted with them. This is where the bullfrog lives - probably under one of the pots.



To the right of the pots I've started a miniature Japanese woodland scene. It's a work in progress, but I like the feel of it. I've purchased some little lights to go in the lanterns and am looking at Bonsai to put in with the Mondo grass. I'll be removing some of the Mondo grass as things progress.

In other news, Sharon finally retired and I took over the basement office. Here it is in all of it's cluttered glory - filled with all of my "precious pimentos" ( ), most of which have been in boxes since we moved. It too is a work in progress - the lighting isn't right and it's always cold, but I'm super happy with it.

So, none of you went to Stonehenge?

https://apnews.com/article/sum...97dbb81863edef67f187

Steve, the yard looks great. And I love the frog and toad visitors. I get a small toad in the yard occasionally. I leave him an overturned clay pot with a side broken out so he has a place to hide.

And re: Mik's invasion of squirrels (I need a Super Soaker)...why is it that they always want to dig up the plants you just put in the ground? I've replanted a couple of impatiens more than once in the last few days. Damned critters.

On the flip side, there is one squirrel who seems to have a leg injury and he doesn't move very well at all. He manages to climb up the tree, but the leg must be pretty bad because I've seem him fall out of the tree at least twice. He pops back up and hobbles away. I feel sorry for him and will toss him a couple of Brazil nuts if I see him in the yard. Guess I'm creating my own problem.

Animal drama playing out in the wtg garden...

I decided to dig up a big weed in a bed I had finally gotten around to cleaning up. I used a garden trowel to loosen the roots and as I pulled it up I noticed rabbit fur mixed in with the leaves that were left over from last fall. I thought maybe a rabbit had died there, but suddenly the leaves and fur started moving up and down. Baby bunnies. I missed them by inches with my digging.

They drive me nuts when they're adults, but they're so helpless and cute at this stage. The weed had been shading the area they are in, so now they are in the full morning sun. I moved a plant in a pot next to where the nest is and rearranged some of the surround plant material so they are shaded. In a few weeks they'll be out and about and looking for food. I hope they remember my kindness and move out of my yard and eat somebody else's plants. Otherwise, I'll be shagging their bunnskies outta my space.

Also have a murder of crows hanging around, cruising for water and food. Haven't seen crows around here in a long time.