Bird Feeders

Today, George and I walked around the yard and fed the birds.  I fed the birds.  George plotted to feed on the birds.  Not really.  He doesn't like feathers in his mouth.  He prefers lovely mousie fur.  Our weather has been positively awful for July.  Usually, we can count on good weather after the 4th of July, but this year.  Who knows?  And in case you think I'm exaggerating, this is what I read in this morning's newspaper:

• Downtown Portland's rainfall added up to 0.82 inch by 5 p.m., according to the National Weather Service, breaking the previous record for the date of 0.53 inch, set in 1974.

The day lilies are blooming, but I'm afraid the rain has beaten them up pretty badly.

These are my silly Easter Lilies that don't seem to know when Easter is.  Every year they bloom in the fall.

The lavender is in full bloom now. 

What bothers me about the lavender is the near-absence of all bees.  In years past, this would have been crawling with bumble bees.  This year, we have almost none.  Does that worry you as much as it worries me?  It's renewed my commitment to bring in a colony of honeybees.  My dad and I used to raise bees together.  Right now, I'm searching for a class.  I'd hate to bring in a colony of bees and then have them all die.  When you keep bees, they become almost as precious as your children.  So, before I commit to any bee children, I want to take a parenting class.

My garden is woefully small.  It's so small, I can't even really capture it in an image, so I won't try.  There simply isn't enough sunshine.  The temperatures have been warm enough, but the plants need to bask in the sunshine.  Sadly, it has been in short supply this summer.  Nevertheless, the tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse are doing great!

This is about my sixth year planting vegetables at this house.  It's my first year trying them in the greenhouse.  Now that I've seen how the cucumbers and tomatoes are thriving in this day-in, day-out warm greenhouse climate, I'm thinking I might not even bother planting them in the ground any more.  Each year, I get tons of tomatoes that never ripen.  Or . . . about the time they start to ripen, the rains come, and they all rot on the vine.  It's terribly disappointing.  It would be fantastic if I could get a long and successful growing season just by leaving them in large pots in the greenhouse!  Now I'm excited for next summer to start.  I even have little baby cucumbers!

George doesn't come into the greenhouse.  A guy could get swallowed up in there and hauled off in a trailer for a long trip!

Do you like the pathway into the greenhouse?  The "think" and "hope" stepping stones were created by Mae.  They are ambigrams, meaning, they read the same backward and forward.  Here, I'll show you.

It's the same image turned upside down.  See?  "hope" and "think".  My daughter-in-law is so clever.

Sometimes when I walk through the garden, I wonder if Dr. Seuss was inspired by things he saw growing in his own garden.  Take these bloomed out clematis flowers, for instance.

Don't they look like something Dr. Seuss would have drawn?  Or look at these little flowers on this little plant called "hens and chickens."  Don't they remind you of the Whos down in Whoville?

Finally, what about these funny little daisies?

Speaking of daisies.  These are the pots I planted this spring.  I can't look at pansies without remembering Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland, when Alice walked through the flower garden and the flowers started talking.

Happy little faces.  Here are some more.

So many things in nature are in reds and greens.  Do you suppose Nature studies the color wheel when choosing colors for things?

Now I need to follow up on my recent blog post about the squirrel family we have living in one of the landscaped areas up close to the house.  (We have squirrels all over.  Really, I mean, all over.)  The only ones that concern us are the ones who take up residence in the landscaped areas close to the house.  They can do a lot of damage if their numbers get too big.  Our neighbor's home is built on the side of an embankment.  The squirrels dig under their house and actually pose a threat to the foundation of their home.  We don't have that problem, but I'm bringing it up to illustrate what tenacious and energetic diggers they can be.  So.  All of that to say that in my blog post, I suggested to the squirrels that they help out with the house payment or the yard work, and much of their transgressions could be forgiven.  I'm happy to say that they have complied!

Here, they've planted sunflower seeds in the whiskey barrels with the tulips.  Wasn't that nice of them?  In fact, they plant sunflower seeds all over the place, if one takes the time to notice.  They plant them in big clumps that they spit out from their amply sunflower seed-filled cheeks.  (I was sort of hoping they'd help out with the house payment, but beggars can't be choosers, can they?)

And now, I'm off to my home away from home . . . the dentist . . . for my next adventure in dental implants.  I'll just bet you wish you were me.