A Second Look, June 9, 2023

We continue to have dry weather here, and the green, luscious grass is turning brown and crunchy. We may get rain next week. I hope so.

Also, we've had a couple of days of bad air quality from Canadian wildfires that have kept us inside and away from yard work. But things should be clearing up in the next couple of days. I hope they can get the fires under control soon, for everyone's sake.

Here are some things I found when I did a Second Look this week.

Uncle Billy's strawberries are doing very well this year. We have picked enough for a strawberry pie, a strawberry-blueberry cobbler, many for snacking, and some for the freezer. I love fresh strawberries with their sweet, tangy taste.

The oak leaf hydrangea is starting to bloom.

Nearby, the fig bush is continuing to leaf out from the base. Ward suggested
we trim the dead branches, but I like the sculpture they form. 

There are a lot of bees all over the spirea blooms. Notice the pollen sac on the bee's back leg. I am always thrilled when I see one.

The bees also like the salvia blooms a lot.

This is the spot where the fig tree was last year. I decided to fill it with some herbs for the kitchen. I started with seeds in the pots (except for the oregano I got from Miss Landers), but none came up even after waiting several weeks and keeping them moist. I resorted to buying plants. 

Look what I found when I took the parsley out of the pot to plant- a heel of bread.
Not sure why that was there, but it was a first for me. 

At the same time I bought the herb seeds, I bought some sunflower seeds for another bed. None of those came up, either. However, we have sunflowers coming up in various places that were planted by the birds. Not sure what bit the top off of these two.

The Stella d'Ora day lilies are blooming now.

As are the wallflowers.

And more bachelor's buttons have bloomed.

In the same bed, I have a lot of these plants that I think are Mexican sunflowers. I had some in this bed a couple of years ago, but not last year. I am waiting for a bloom to know for sure. In the meantime, I really need to thin these out before they take over.

I can't see into most of our nests, but a house wren has been sitting on these eggs. See the white fuzzy stuff on the bottom and upper left side. Those are spider egg sacs. The wrens add them to the nest, so the spiders eat mites to keep them off the baby birds. So many interesting symbiotic relationships in nature.

Theo got me a miniature rose for Mother's Day. They are hothouse plants that look good but usually don't survive. However, I repotted it, put it outside in the full sun, and kept it watered. But all of the leaves and flowers shriveled up and died anyway. However, I am starting to see new signs of life with little leaves emerging. Very exciting. 

That's it for this week's Second Look. 

Until next time...