Friday…There’s a mating pair of cardinals on the bird feeder this morning and the male is feeding his sweetheart. Now there’s a young male cardinal who doesn’t seem to have a mate. I think this is probably his first spring as an adult. Later I saw a male house finch and a little warbler. And I think wrens are using the nest on top of the motor housing for the garage door we never lift up. Wrens have flown out from that direction several times as I’ve walked through. That nest has been there for 15 years. Some years it’s occupied, some years not. Now that I know it’s occupied I’ll have to keep my eyes out for the little fledglings, make sure they get out of the garage safely.
I saw a squirrel foraging under the bird feeder the other day now that all the pecans have been picked up or eaten so I put out a handful of peanuts. Once the pecans started falling last year I stopped because they were being ignored. The next day they were gone so I put out another handful. Looking out the window later I saw a squirrel scurry over and grab one but instead of eating it, the little bugger buried it. Came over, got another one, buried it in a different spot and a third until the squirrel had buried every single one. If it doesn’t remember where its little stash is I’m going to have a peanut farm in the little backyard.
Saturday…I finally was motivated to get out in the yard today and do some maintenance which I haven’t much felt called to do these past few weeks despite this being the best time of year to do that. Mostly what I did was dig up the native peruvian lilies (alstroemeria, parrot flower) that I planted several years ago in a bare spot in the long daylily bed. They only show once or twice a year putting up foliage which is really rather pretty and they are supposed to bloom, and I do like the flower (image via the internet),
but these hardly ever bloom and then only sparsely. That wouldn’t be so bad except they are invasive and the close clumps of little tubers don’t allow anything else to grow and they have overwhelmed my nile lilies and some of the amaryllis. I couldn’t get the little tubers out from the nile lilies without digging them up too but I did pluck all the foliage. After the nile lilies bloom, if they bloom, I’ll dig them up, free them of the peruvian lily tubers, and replant them. Then I dug/pulled out the dewberry vines in that bed.
Sunday…The big storm with lots of rain promised for late Saturday and evening came and while north of us got lots of rain we, as usual, didn’t as it skirted north of us. As usual. It did rain lightly for several hours but not the good solid rain we need. It cooled things off, temps are in the 50s and 60s, overcast and the weather app says it’s raining in Wharton right now (it’s not) but this is not the kind of overcast that gives rain. It’s too uniformly light/medium gray. Anyway today I took advantage of the somewhat softer dirt and pulled pasture grass that had sent up it bloom/seed stalks out of the bluebonnets in front and pulled up all the goldenrod in the front flower bed. I like goldenrod and let it stay there for two years after it just showed up but it’s taking over and I have fewer purple coneflowers in there now. The coneflowers are just putting up their buds so should be blooming by the end of the week.
I finished the bookmark inspired by the evening primrose blooming
but it was so pale (paler than the picture as the camera intensifies color) and I forgot the fence I thought to add so I did another one, more color but I don't like it any better. For one thing the evening primrose are not that intense and maybe because it’s just a typical wildflower landscape. I keep thinking I'll work on it some more and then, nope, leave it be.
The acrylic spray I need to seal these (and one more coat and the backs on the others) should be here Tuesday. I ended up just ordering it from Walmart delivered. It was about $7 more because my order was under $35 but I figure I’d have burned that much in gas driving to Rosenberg and back and never mind the nearly two hours of time it would have taken.
More blooming things...amaryllis, queen anne's lace (with corn in the background), rocket larkspur.
Love to see and hear about the nesting birds! We keep our alstroemeria in pots, which keeps the roots contained. Every once in a while they need to be split to give them more room to grow. The last time I did that, I put the split halves in two pots, but the next time I'll just discard half the plants, I think. I don't need four alstroemeria!
ReplyDeleteI actually really like the two bookmarks! So pretty. We've been talking about digging up our wildflower bed next fall & starting over - the bee balm has taken over most of it. On the other hand, the bees LOVE it, so we should probably leave it alone.
ReplyDeleteSo exciting to have wrens nesting there. I wish them success. The flowers are beautiful and sound like work this year.
ReplyDeleteCodex I wouldn't be surprised if it's the offspring that keeps nesting with you.
ReplyDeleteI have some suggestions for the bookmarks but I think your done with them?
Not done yet. What are your suggestions?
DeleteEither add a little more detail in the front or muddy the back color wise so it looks more 3d.
DeleteCodex: eg. The white Anne's lace. One can clearly see each flower in the front. The corn in the back is blurry. Our brains read that as 3d.
DeleteOh ok, done with those two specific bookmarks, yes. For one thing I was going for a more impressionist approach and I don't really have any room in 2" to create depth at least not for a little $5 bookmark.
DeleteI like the bookmarks and think they are very pretty.
ReplyDeleteThe queen anne's lace is heavenly.
ReplyDeleteOur squirrels work hard on turning our garden into an oak forest. I spend days every summer digging the oaklings up for give aways.
Clearly the most unusual location for a cardinal’s nest that I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteI have a pair of cardinals coming on a regular basis to my feeders now. I suspect they have a nest. Ducklings are beginning to appear, too. I saw one mother with twelve; she's going to be a busy one. Do you put out peanuts in the shell? My squirrels always buried them, but when I started putting out shelled peanuts, that not only made the cardinals, bluejays, and chickadees happy, it put an end to peanut-burying.
ReplyDeleteWe had a little wren pair who were determined to make a nest in a plant I have here on the back porch which would have been lovely if it weren't for the fact that Maurice will those babies as soon as look at them. I felt so bad though. I had to keep taking their nesting materials outside and I swear- they brought in enough to make eight nests. They still come every how and then and stand in the place where the cat comes into the porch and just look at that pot. Like...what the hell happened?
ReplyDeleteI sure do feel you on the dang lilies.
I'm thinking your latest bookmarks are just way too fine to be sold as bookmarks. I think if you could figure out tiny frames, you could get a lot more for them. Miniatures often do well. But that would be a lot of work and probably expense.
How fun to have birds nesting. I see you love gardening and flowers too. I planted my first seeds of the year last week: zinnias. Today I planted Sugar Pea seeds, where you eat the pods. Great in salads raw, or lightly cooked in a bit of oil
ReplyDelete