Jul 30 2006
Today I meandered around the yard taking pictures. It finally cooled down enough to spend a day outdoors - in fact it was an absolutely perfect 70 degree, white puffy cloud kinda day! Here’s my favorite picture from today’s lot. I’ll update more later; I’m still looking through a month’s worth to pick out the gems.
Jul 24 2006
They belonged together. I’m glad they have that again.
Jul 05 2006
Happy Independence Day!
Yeah, I’m a little late. Whoops! Yesterday I had some friends over for a party on the new patio. My town puts on a mean fireworks show out at the old airport so we do this yearly. We have a big BBQ and then everyone in the neighborhood rolls down into town to see the show. It’s a good time!
Other than that, my weekend was filled with gardening. Summer pretty much sees me outside with a hose attached to my arm. Most of my friends around the country can’t believe we don’t see rain around here until November. Especially those in rain-soaked New England. But, we don’t, so I water. And water…
Saturday and Sunday I filled a new planter/retaining wall with gopher wire and 600 lbs. of topsoil, and then planted it with perennials and annuals. After I can move my arms again, I’ll pick up the hose and water over there too.
My original plan was to fill the bed with all herbs, but I got color-crazy, so I scouted the yard, stealing from here and there and ended up with a half-filled bed of annuals. I swore I wasn’t going back to the nursery, so the next morning I drove over and picked out a whole wheelbarrow full of perennials, and the requisite tree. They had avocado trees. What could I do?!?
One of the rewards of gardening is watching nature’s creatures move in. This ladybug moved in about ten minutes after I put the zinnias in the ground. (By the way, all the photos in my blog are thumbnails. If you click on them, they expand to their original size.)
The abutilon outside my office window has been attracting about four different types of hummingbirds. I can’t believe they stay still long enough for me to shoot them. This Anna’s Hummingbird kept coming around one morning and I finally got a shot of it - through the window.
I have no idea what kind of hummingbirds these two little dudes are, but they sure are cute! I had no idea how many times the hummingbirds land. These guys were just sitting there rubbing their beaks on the branches like one would sharpen a knife.
But my very favorite visitors are the quail. They coupled up earlier this spring and now each couple comes to the feeder at different times of the day. The males always stand aside keeping watch while the females eat.
Then they scurry over, grab a seed or two, puff up their chests, and run off with their wimmen. I haven’t located their nests yet, but as usual, near about August, entire little quail families will be running across the yard. Just in time for the sunflowers to seed!
This one just bloomed today.
Technorati tags: gardening, hummingbirds, flower photography, flowers
