It's that time of year. Every time I turn around outside, something has changed. New things are blooming and the grass is growing fast enough that we're going to have to get hay cutting equipment soon if we don't catch up on the mowing. We've had a lot of rain this past week and the humidity and temperatures are rising. In fact, the last couple of days, we've had temperatures in the high eighties.
Also, I saw a fox in the yard recently. This is an unusual occurrence since they are usually out at night when I'm not. In addition, the ground hog holes finally look active with fresh digging around both the front and back entrances. And speaking of seeing new things, I put up a hummingbird feeder and have seen two of them feeding from it. We often get hummingbirds later when the tiger lilies are blooming, but I wanted to see if I could attract them sooner. We'll see if they continue to come. But the best things I saw this week are the chickadee chicks. Baby birds definitely fit the "so ugly, they're cute" idea.
Here are some things I saw this week during
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| The azalea continue to bloom. |
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| The first of the Siberian iris have started to bloom. |
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| I was excited when I found this Jack-in-the Pulpit wildflower. |
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| Another wildflower, the buttercup, is giving a nice show in the fields now. |
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| This is the fox I saw trotting across the yard in the middle of the day. |
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| The lily-of-the-valley are blooming. |
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| Five of the six chickadee eggs hatched. I don't know exactly how old these chicks are but I guess a week or less. |
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| Meanwhile, the bluebird continues to sit on her eggs. |
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| Across the yard, the sparrows are building a nest. Once again, I have not shooed them away as recommended. Maybe they'll leave the other nests alone if they have a good place for their own. |
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Yesterday, this was a tight little bud. Today the rhododendron had buds opening all over it.
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You just reminded me to go out and check the lily in the valley, here. They are at a far place in the yard and I don't often go by there. Today I'll check!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day!
You seem to be a couple of weeks ahead of us on most things. I hope you didn't miss them.
DeleteOh, lilies of the valley!! They are my favorite flowers. I miss them so much! We live in a desert now...
ReplyDeleteIf I thought they would survive, I would send you some. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed the picture.
DeleteI was excited to see your picture of lily of the valley, too. I think they grow well here but my mom has them and they tend to take over the yard, so I think I'll just admire other people's! Our irises (is that the correct way to write it?) are getting buds but haven't yet bloomed. We need to go hiking to see if the trillium are out in the woods yet. My husband is a reasonably good artist and he painted a picture of trillium for me for a gift a few years ago. :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, I had always heard that lily-of-the-valley spread easily, but had never seen that. We had some at the house I grew up in and they stayed the same year after year. Also, it was only last year that the ones we have here had spread at all, and they were here when we moved in over 15 years ago. If these are on the move now, I'm going to try figure out a place to put the extras.
DeleteJust on the other side of town-I have had my hummingbird feeder out for over two weeks and have had customers every day! The last couple days I had three of them fighting over who got to use the feeder. Sometimes, they are very territorial!
ReplyDeleteI've seen a couple more hummingbirds at the feeder. However, I haven't seen the famous territorial behavior that I've heard about. We'll see if I have that problem as more of them find it.
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