another day of labor and a needed break

Sunday, one of the times I was in the big backyard pondering my next move, a red shouldered hawk flew across the Wicked Bitch of the West's vacant property, swooped under the low branch of one of the pecans trees I was standing near, zoomed back up and directly over my head by about three feet and up into the air and into the Wild Space at the back of my property. Whoa! Wings outstretched they are big. I also stood and watched the migrating hummingbirds and butterflies several times as they helped themselves to the porterweed.

I ticked 5 things off my Sunday list and then dug up the monkey grass from under and around the beautyberry and started replanting it under one of the yew trees on the corners of the house. Didn't get that finished as I was done by then.

This was not exactly what I planned for Monday out in the yard and it wasn't even on the list. So much isn't.

What I planned was to fill the spray bottle with brush/stump killer and go around and cut down any hackberry and pecan sprouts that I couldn't pull and treat the little stumps so hopefully they won't come back. Which I did. I did the back, the west side and the front and kept bumping my head on the low branches when I was working around the photinias in front and then I took the long handled pruners and had at it. There are more branches I want to take off but I need the chainsaw for those. Still have to get the little trees on the east side.

So far I have not seen a squirrel trying to overcome the hood and get to the bird feeder but neither have I managed to attract any birds. I think the hood might freak them out a little as the wind causes it to sway. Edit: Finally! Tuesday morning a female cardinal hogged one side while chickadees flitted back and forth on the other. The perches worked! I guess word has gone out because now a titmouse has shown up.

Monday night was a yoga class night and as I was on my way there I got a call from Abby asking would I mind leading the group, that she just really needed to be in a class and not leading it and so I did. She's had a really hard year this year and it looks to be getting worse before it gets better so I was glad to do this for her.

It's Tuesday and I'm kind of glad it is because after 4 days in a row of physical labor out in the yard I am bushed, or as my friend Kathy would say, 'toast'. Tuesdays are busy with other chores, the weekly grocery shop and providing dinner.

Here's Cat. She generally hangs out wherever I'm working in the yard.

 

a look around

First, thank you everyone for all the wonderful compliments. It feels strange to be done. I've been working on that piece for months. Life has revolved around that piece for months. Almost four to be exact. I'm happy with it, happier than I thought I'd be. The only thing I would change is to make the box color a little lighter and less green. The little corals inside are loose, not glued in, in case the buyer wants to take them out.

So now looking around at what else is going on...

The red shouldered hawks have been very active around here the past several days. Marc was sitting out the other day when one landed in the flower bed about 10' away and then flew off. I saw two flying around from one tree to another in the yard the next day and later Marc looked out the window and one was on the bird bath. I love seeing them. I looked up Monday to see one perched on the T bar of the old clothesline and got this picture through the glass in the back door and on high magnification and then later saw it swooping low over the empty lot next to me. I haven't seen or heard any of the smaller Mississippi kites that summer over here lately so I suppose they've left for the season.

Besides the kites leaving and the cooler temperatures though by no means 'cool', still hot and humid, just not as hot, other signs of the turning of the season are showing up like snow-on-the-prairie in the pastures and the pampas grass starting to send out its plumes, the oxblood lilies popping up, and the porterweed blooming.

The Chinese fringe flower trees/shrubs are blooming again though not as profusely as in the spring and a paler pink. Still getting some zinnias but they are ragged. The phlox is still blooming and while the pink butterfly ginger is done, the yellow butterfly ginger is putting out its bloom cones, very late as it usually blooms mid-summer.

The squirrels are still stripping the bark off the branches of my ginkgo trees. They have stripped so many, the ground is just littered with 1/2” x 2” strips, that I fear all those branches will die or are dying. Food is scarce I guess. This is the third year in a row my pecans trees are bare of nuts. Neighbors' trees aren't faring much better.

We had a very large dead branch fall off the oak on the side of the house and onto our internet cable dragging it down to the ground. Fortunately it didn't disconnect from either the house or the pole. I got the ladder and pulled it up as high as I could (that fucker is heavy) and wrapped it around the thing on the house so at least we can get out of the driveway.

Granddaughter Autumn is here for a few days. Her mom dropped her off Monday afternoon. She brought a pile of little crop tops that needed tiny straps sewn back on and some pants that needed the elastic waistband re-sewn, another pair that needs the zipper replaced so we worked on that yesterday.

 

rain chains and yard work

I bought my sister and myself decorative rain chains for the valleys in our roof lines and then discovered that rain chains are an alternative to downspouts for gutters. Well, shucky darn. I got rid of my gutters and the one I had replaced already has downspouts. An internet search showed a way to use them nevertheless by first hanging a bucket with a hole in the bottom to catch the stream of water that pours off the valley and then hanging the chain under the bucket. 

Not very aesthetically pleasing but functional. My first foray out to find a galvanized (or copper) bucket on Friday wasn't all that successful, too big or too small. I bought an empty (not galvanized) paint can instead which was about the right size but even less aesthetically pleasing. I'll use it until I can find something I like better. Or not. I'm thinking not.

Saturday was another day of beautiful spring weather and another day spent out in the yard. I pulled up hand fulls of certain of the weeds and did my hand full of clover for the day amongst the bluebonnets growing out front and did more weeding in the front flower bed. My neighbor Gary made the mistake of saying he wouldn't mind his whole back yard being flowers so I dug up some of the woodland painted petal that spreads easily and some of the orange cosmos seedlings that also spread readily that are coming up plus the baby maple tree, a flowering senna, and a confederate rose, volunteers that I had potted up last year, in addition to the poppy and love-in-a-mist seedlings and oxblood lily bulbs I had already taken him.

the aforementioned magenta petunias he gave me some of

Yesterday, even though it was a beautiful blue sky day, was colder and windy so I satisfied myself with pulling up some of the weeds out of the yard and clover from amongst the bluebonnets and while I told myself I should get out there and dig up more of the mexican petunias, I decided to sit on the couch and read the rest of the day, well, after I took the dog for her walk where I often see hawks perched on the wires scanning the field for dinner. They're hard to get a picture of. I tried to be sly with this one but it wasn't fooled.

Our current pecan pie. This one made with honey instead of corn syrup. The previous pie used canned pumpkin in place of some of the corn syrup. That was weird. The first night you could really taste the pumpkin but it was better the second night.

It's turned cold again and though it is mostly sunny, I think I'll work on art today...inside.

I spy with my little eye

I went out to water the little backyard this morning and looked up to see this, just bold as you please, hanging out, checking out the neighborhood...

I have two birdhouses up on 2x4s attached to the fence so I turned to look at the other one and sure enough...

In case you can't tell what those are, they're tree frogs. I don't think birds have ever nested in either of those bird houses, at least not that I've noticed, so squatters moved in. The pictures are at high zoom so not so clear, especially the second one since that one was very shy and at the least movement would duck back and out of sight. It took me three tries to sneak up on it to get a picture.

A week ago when reinstalling the toilet was eminent I set about to clean it since it had been sitting outside the back door for 10 months and when I took the top off the tank to see if there was water in there I found this one making itself at home...

When I finished watering and went to hang up the nozzle (I hook it on a small branch of the shrubby tree thing next to the faucet) I noticed this...

I haven't seen one of these since we bought this place. This property had been vacant for a year and the first time we came out to look at it big banana spiders were everywhere. The next year we had a few and then after that, none so I was very surprised to see this one just after Ms Moon and I talked about sending me an egg case since she has lots of them. This one is little, body less than an inch, so it's either a young female or a male.

A couple of days after I returned from my trip to Portugal I looked out the glass in the back door and saw this red shouldered hawk on the fence scrutinizing the turtle pond with its fishy denizens (also high magnification as I was shooting through the glass in the back door).

I guess it figured they were more trouble than they were worth because it flew off after a while.

On the way back from the art festival we passed a vendor selling Fredericksburg peaches so we stopped and bought some. Fredericksburg is a small town in the hill country.

And finally, it's July and right on schedule the pecan trees are dropping immature fruit. These are all an inch or less. We haven't had a decent harvest for three years so I was hoping for a good one this year since we've been getting rain. It remains to be seen.