some misc pictures from the last several weeks...and a selfie

The squirrels finally discovered the tea cup feeder hanging outside my window and when they leap on and off it sets it to swinging wildly. One of them finally knocked it off the hook and it fell breaking the saucer. I hung it on a hook hanging from a section of trunk on the tallow tree by the fence til I could repair it thinking that maybe they would have a hard time getting to it there. Nope.

I pulled up all the carrots yesterday because I needed the space to plant some blueberry bushes. I love all the colors of the heritage strains: white, yellow, orange, pink, purple.

About three days after Big Mama ate the goldfish, she exited the pond and dug a deep hole. The next time I looked out, she had filled it back in and was back in the pond. I haven't seen her out in the yard since so I guess she laid her eggs.

Emma likes to help me with my art work.

The pinks and purples of the larkspur and evening primrose of early spring gave way to the yellows of clasping cone flowers and mexican hats of late spring.

The elephant garlic is blooming and the bees and wasps are foraging for nectar. Spied this lady bug but she showed me her rear end just as I snapped the picture.

Several of the altheas started blooming while we were gone last week.

The altheas weren't the only things to surprise me when I got home yesterday. I was getting ready to pull the dead trunks of the lost plumerias (from the surprise very late hard freeze) out of their pots today so I could reuse them and look what I saw. This is one of the two bridal veil plumerias that I was certain that both of them had died. Out of 9 pots, I have three known survivors and a possible fourth one that is showing green but has not sprouted out yet. Guess I'll wait a little longer to re-use those pots.

I took today off and worked on cleaning the gone by evening primrose and weeds out of the long daylily bed since they are sending up scapes by the dozens.

and this weeks selfie