Wicked hot weekend!

 

The weekend was another one of dealing with overpowering heat and not a drop of rain. Other than grabbing some needed grocery items on Friday afternoon, which was a scorcher, meeting up with daughter and her partner on Saturday at a wine bar to celebrate his birthday over a chilled glass of Portuguese Rosé - which was great - we stayed close to home. 

Watering is tiring at the best of times, dragging heavy hoses while batting off mosquitoes and bees (I've yet to find a bug repellent that truly works!) in triple digit temperatures is stupid. . . . . . .but sometimes has to be done for the greater good.

Neighbor is away, the vegetable patch is mine for a while, and I'm not going to allow these gorgeous tomatoes to suffer - he told me to pick them and use them which of course I'm doing. 

The weekend harvest!

These 'Beefmaster' tomatoes are excellent - and we actually made old

 fashioned sandwiches with sourdough bread, mayo, salt and

 pepper - delicious! The flour was out as I also plan to bake some

 whole wheat cheese scones this week - on a cooler day of 

course - as they go well with tomato dishes.

Early Sunday morning prior to another hot day, Bob fired up the grill. 

We cooked corn and red peppers for future recipes and grilled thick

 slices of leftover bread to use in Panzanella (below).  

With a bowl of 'green soup' (spinach, potato and zucchini), also made 

early morning, we had supper ready without having to heat up the kitchen.

Sunflowers are on their last legs. Picked a few smaller heads for indoors

 but they too are going over now.  Two of the really huge heads, still

 on their sky-high stems, I've enclosed in net bags and hope to gather

 seeds for planting/eating - must save them prior to nibbling visitors

 such as this. . . . .

. . . . who showed up Saturday evening to enjoy a dessert of ripe figs! 

A murder of crows visit the top of the fig tree daily now, noisy but fun

 to watch. Robins really love the figs and come non-stop all day long, 

along with many other birds, and of course the bothersome squirrels.

What's happening in your garden?

Today it's a wee bit cooler so I plan to slow-roast some tomatoes for 

sauce and soups - always a tasty treat on a cold winter's day. . . . . .which

 can't come soon enough for me!

Logistics. . . . . . .

Leaving home is somewhat scary these days.

Just getting organized - house and garden 'to do' list gets

longer by the day - takes time.

Because I haven't traveled in so long, just dragging out a

suitcase has become a roller coaster ride this past week.

Big one, small one, carry on. . . . . .black one, blue one,

which one etc.

Today I must pack.

Still do not feel 100% comfortable about traveling away from

 home mainly because of the airport/plane/hotel room situation.

We are vaccinated and we will continue to wear masks in public 

places.

We are not going overseas - sorry friends who may be hoping for

photos from new, exciting places. We are going north to New England

 to Bob's home state, New Hampshire, which is lovely also. We missed

 last year's annual "going home" visit. . . . . . . and I did actually live

 there also for several years when we were first married.

Sunday morning breakfast guest!  She was busy siphoning off the

 bird seed - we didn't shoo her off because obviously she's hungry.

The bird feeders will be stored away in the potting shed whilst we're gone.

This mama White-tailed deer has two young spotted

 fawns but I've not had a chance to take their picture yet. 

Our neighbor saw her yesterday apparently trying to teach

 them to jump over his chain link fence but all they would do is

 run into it - somewhat worrisome and I hope they weren't injured!

I hope to write and add some photos from New England later

this week. Have a great week everyone.

Monday again and it's Flag Day!

 

Last week never stopped or slowed down despite rain and workmen.

Neither did we!

Tree felling consisted of removing three trees, two more very tall oaks - one

 hit by lightning and dying, one smothered in ivy which had been cut at the

 base but also looking near death's door!  The third, a smaller hickory, was

 growing into a large oak and blocking the sun. We need to keep that area

 drier. . . . . . and hopefully this will enable us to add more grass around the

 potting shed and deck areas.

Between feeding (baking muffins and cookies) and watering the tree crew of

five for two days - which BTW included a lovely young woman - I picked the

 tasty Genovese basil and made the first batch of seasonal pesto. 

There were other firsts, dahlias opening - a glowing Grandpa Ott

 morning glory. . . . . . . .

. . . . . .. and Ms. Deer, beautiful and gentle but enjoying siphoning off the

 bird seed three days in a row, so the feeder is now remaining empty in

 hopes she'll move on to another garden!

 

The rains have left and we are due to have a dry, sunny, and quite hot week.

Still working outside and, as I write, Bob is mowing the grass. I'm off to clean

the sawdust covered windows in back of the cottage.

Life is busy at this time of year. . . . . . actually any time of year

 around here.

Wild beauty---------------------

Our large fig tree, and the bird bath beneath its now budding branches, is a haven

for so many garden visitors. Squirrels chase one another through the branches and

eat at the suet feeder (the seed feeder being squirrel-proof - they know it by now

 so rarely try!). A herd of white-tailed deer, despite their silent loveliness standing

 on the lawn at dusk and dawn, now come at night. They are unwelcome visitors

 at the feeders, and now are chewing on the bright green shield-shaped leaves

 of the bluebell clumps pushing up under the tree.  

Yesterday, under chilly, overcast skies, and prior to a nice light rain falling to

 water the garden, I took these photos of just a few of the many birds visiting.

All but a pair of Brown-headed cowbirds, and a pair of European starlings, are

birds which frequent the garden constantly - but I never tire of trying to get a

 perfect photo showing off their beautiful colors, feathers and expressions.

Female Northern flicker 

Male Eastern bluebird 

Male Brown-headed cowbird

Female Northern cardinal

Male Northern cardinal

Male or Female European starling 

Male House finch

Female American robin

Hope you enjoy 'my birds'.

Who's flying in your garden these days?

Are you waking to birdsong now that spring is here?

How does one apologize. . . . . . . . .

. . . . . .  to a wild creature who visits the garden?

I have no idea, however, here and now, I am apologizing profusely to 'Ms. Jane DOE' 

(as we've named our pretty young lady deer - see previous post) for putting

 the entire blame on her for the destruction of the sunflowers!

Yesterday afternoon:  sunny, humid, late day storms all around us but fortunately

 we escaped high winds and quarter-sized hail. Not a deer in sight but more sunflowers

 were literally struck down, when we weren't looking, by some animal chewing 

through the thick stalks - about 12" up from the ground. 

The flower heads/seeds that hit the ground had been chewed up, gobbled down,

 spit out. . . . . and only defoliated stems and piles of yellow petals remained.

We began to rethink the culprit.

Here he is, maybe one of several who hang about our garden. . . . . . . . and this

 is where I saw him early this morning when I first looked out the window. 

(By now, you must think I spend my entire day looking out the window with a 

camera in hand - I admit I sometimes do).

More smaller flower stems were on the ground, however the thickest stalks

 were still standing and there he (or perhaps she) was, clambering about on

 the leafy stems, reaching for the seed-filled heads and having a

 healthy/hearty breakfast.  

I know the deer come through at night - I see their hoof prints - they may

 even have a nibble on the sunflowers on their way, but I now really don't think

 they've eaten all the sunflowers this summer, squirrels have definitely had more

 than their share!

Will I plant sunflowers next year?
Of course I will - but I'll have to buy seeds as I've not been
 able to rescue any from this summer's crop.

Sunday in the wildlife 'park'. . . . . . . . . .

This morning's visitor to the bird feeder!

I raised the dining room blinds and there she stood, so beautiful and silent,

staring right at me - fortunately my camera was on the table and I managed

a few shots.

Last year, I shared photos here of a somewhat younger (spots on rump) visiting
 white-tailed doe. 
She had scars from a fresh injury on her right side above her front leg and up

 her neck. My friend Gina noticed them in the photos and thought perhaps she

 had been hit by a car. Be certain to visit Gina's amazing blog Art and Alfalfa 
if you haven't done so yet. It's so beautiful where she lives and she is a lovely, 
multi-talented artist.

Looking closely, I'm thinking the now faint marks on her fur below the sunflower

 leaves, in the same area, could be the healed scars. If so, I'm so happy she has

 survived. . . . . . . even though she's gobbling up the garden!

After realizing I'd seen her, she moved on across the lawn, took a quick

 nibble at the hydrangea plant behind the acer. . . . . . . . . . . . 

. . . . . . . then trampled through the now almost dead sunflowers which she's

 enjoyed, and destroyed, for a couple of weeks. . . . . . . . . 

. . . . . . .on to my neighbor Bob's tomatoes where she nibbled the

 leaves. I picked all the ripe fruits yesterday - he's away and gave me

 permission to take any or all rather than have them rot. . . . . lucky me.

At that point I opened the door and told her to leave. Here she is

taking such dainty steps across the road to a neighbor next to

 the wooded area of the cul-de-sac. We think perhaps she hangs

 out there where there is a small creek for a water source.

Remember now, we don't live in the countryside. These deer and other

 wildlife are losing their natural homes due to land being built on all around us. 

They have nowhere else to go. We've lived in this house 32 years

 and never saw a deer in our garden until just a couple of years ago when

 construction took off big time.

Close by, we now have office towers, retail shops, apartments, condos, 

and huge high-priced houses where small ranch homes used to stand

in our neat and tidy, heavily wooded neighborhood.

Apparently it's called 'progress' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Not all is perfection. . . . . . . . .

 . . . . . . . in the summertime garden!

Still have some sunflowers blooming, mostly the smaller ones - this spray

 of flowers is actually on one main stem and is beautiful. . . . . . and still

intact today!

Deer enjoyed a late night dinner out on Saturday!  

Sunday morning brought a few choice words from me when I found they had

 attacked the sunflowers and left a trail of petals, seeds and broken heads 

around the front garden! You can see how thick and tough those large stems are,

  however something chewed right through them to get the flower heads to fall to
 the ground, where 'it' (or perhaps 'they') had a real feast.

I stuck the larger heads into the bench seat. . . . . . . . . . . 

. . . . . . . and noticed this young male cardinal enjoying breakfast today!

Note: only one of the two heads remaining - wonder if the deer returned in the 

night and dragged the other one away.

On another subject, the squirrels are busy and hungry in the heat and I saw this little

one yesterday scuffling around for seeds under the bird feeder. Couldn't get a good photo, 

but noticed it has a deformed left front paw - it's there but turned backward. The little one

 still manages to dig, eat, and jumped up on the birdbath for water, thankfully.

FYI:  The green leaves are also sunflowers - growing naturally from the seeds

 dropped by birds!

Another member of the family who enjoy our garden looks really healthy

and loves the suet feeder.  We try to use mostly non-melt suet cakes at this 

time of year - the regular ones are so messy to deal with in this intense heat.

As for this year's fig crop, not sure what's happening. Hundreds of little 

green fruits fell to the ground while we were up north, perhaps from lack

of water. Now they seem to be hanging on and perhaps there will be

some to pick later. . . . . . . but none are ripe yet.

As for chores such as weeding, sometimes a weed comes up in just the perfect place. 

Another thing to ponder upon for lack of anything more pressing in the heat of the

midday sun!