There isn’t much else to say about this Painted Bunting that visited our feeder tonight. It’s just stunning with all those beautiful colors.
He showed up last night, but when I got up to run get the camera, he flew off. Tonight I was able to sneak to the window because I’d left the camera sitting on the table just in case he came back.
What a lovely dinner guest we had!
I was out feeding the birds this morning when I heard the familiar “cheep cheep cheep” of baby birds.
Cute, isn’t it?
Doesn’t she look just like some ancient Egyptian Nile Goddess?
This is my purple Agapanthus, or Lily of the Nile, just waiting for the perfect moment to make her official entry into my garden.
I have two winding rows of them in the back bed and have had hit or miss luck. Some of the clusters of leaves are big and bold and beautiful and some are still as puny as when I planted them last year.
(Read: I am not in charge. I am not in charge…)
But I can’t help but get excited when they start to bloom. Even if the blooms are crooked and mutant-looking like this one below!
I had trouble with the allium as well — maybe it’s an orb thing!
This little beauty is Emmie, one of our resident deer. Yes, you’ve heard me blog furiously about plants pulled out and eaten to the nubs, but the severe drought has softened my heart.
We are seeing her from our breakfast room where she has come to nibble on a few seeds from the bird feeders and to get a drink of water from the birdbath that’s just right behind her. I’m also keeping a giant dog bowl of water out there for her and her sister Lulu.
After her nice drink, she headed back to the septic field behind the woods to have an afternoon snack of some well fertilized grass. She really likes the grass because it’s greener than many of her other food sources these days.
I’m thinking about feeding her deer corn. Just thinking. I’ll let you know how that turns out in my brain!
I bought this variegated hibiscus several months ago and have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of its mystery blooms.
I had no idea what color they would be, but I fell in love with the beautiful foliage. It’s in the corner of the Day Lily bed, which will soon be full of many different colors, so I figured it would go with anything.
And three of the lilies are about to bloom – I think they will be the lemon-yellow ones – yummy!
Wow. I was floored this morning when I walked outside and found that my Saucer hibiscus had produced not one, but two, beautiful blooms.
The deer will most certainly eat them, as this was a last summer experiment that proved that eat even our native hibiscus varieties, not just the tropical ones. So, I rushed in to get the camera and show you!
We’ve had a phenomenal heat wave here – 15 days over 100 degrees already and it isn’t even Summer yet. But today we got a break. Cloud cover and a few sprinkles came on the edge of a front. (The real rain missed us — again.) And it was 86 when I went out a little while ago. What a relief.
We’re sending prayers to our neighbors in the Midwest who are suffering in the rain and the floods. Our family up there had some flooding in their business and had to move horses from the barn to higher ground, but mercifully it didn’t last too long and the clean up is manageable so far.
As much as I love the veggies in my garden, I also love going to Central Market to shop their wonderful produce. Kallie likes to sit on the enormous veggies that line the outside of the grocery store.
Too bad it was 101 degrees and she couldn’t actually sit on the veggies, but we had fun anyway!