A Second Look

 If you read here, years ago, I did a weekly feature to see what was happening around my yard. I called it a Second Look. (Here's the post that started it all.) I did modified versions of it after we moved, but our new yard didn't seem as interesting, so I gave up on it. But it seems that's the kind of posts I'm doing recently, so I'm bringing back a Second Look.

BTW, still busy here, but hopefully next week, after things slow down a little, I'll check back in with more news. But until then, here's this week's Second Look.

All of our dianthus died over the winter except this one little clump
with this one little flower. 

Remember the fig tree that grew wildly last summer? We transplanted it in the fall from the pot it was in to this spot. I think the transplant went okay, but the branches did not survive the single-digit temps we had in December. However, we are getting growth from the roots. Apparently, this is typical for figs in our area. So, if all goes well, we will have a healthy fig bush instead of a dead fig tree.

We have two poppy plants that the previous owner planted. However, the spot they are in is now shaded and covered with ground cover. Last year, we had no blooms, so I didn't expect any this year. But a few days ago, I spied a spot of red in the bed and found we did have a bloom. However, I missed its peak, so you see a picture of a faded bloom.

We've been having some haze and redder suns from the wildfires in Canada.

I am particularly happy we have our first blooms from these Siberian irises. We had a lot of these at our old house, enough so that I gave a bunch to a friend. She grew them for a while and then gave some back to me. So, these were originally mine. This house is a much better fit than our old one, but I miss the yard and flowers we had there. So having a bit of the old at our new house makes me happy.

A surprise azalea bloom.

Bachalor's buttons

Robins have been building nests on top of our porch support columns for a few years. They had returned this year to spruce up their old nests. However, one morning we found three of their nests on the ground, mostly intact. Still trying to figure out what kind of animal did that. 

The robins immediately started to rebuild. However, on this spot, a wren has taken over. You can see that a robin uses mainly grass, while a wren uses primarily sticks.

Until next time...