I'm thinking that a monthly round up is all I'm going to be able to do on the blog.
May seems like a lifetime ago now that we've been into Summer Reading about a week. The rain has slowed up a little bit which has helped and it remains cool which I like.
Sage, basil, thyme, malabar spinach and a goodwin gray lavender have all been planted in the herb garden. I managed to harvest some chamomile but will only be using it in herbal exfoliating herb facial powders. Despite multiple soaks in salt water, I just can't get enough aphids out for tea.
Vegetables are also in, more or less and all the butterfly/bee attractant plants are large and green if not blooming yet.
Below is a hodge podge of pictures from life in May.
I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why these two robins were nattering at me the whole time I would be taking care of the chickens, then I looked up. There was only one Robin that fledged, the next rested on a pole smack dab in the middle of the pen. I suspect the other babies fried, as there was very little protection from sun.
We had another robin nest in the orchard but it did not succeed. I have seen for the first time baby mockingbirds running around the backyard but sadly did not get any good pictures.
One other next on the property is more problematic. A dove's nest in the gutter.
We don't have any trees to heavily clog up the gutters, but this next will have to go. The dove figured out the sweet spot, as the water flows at a slight slant in the opposite direction.
One drizzly afternoon I saw this fellow hanging out in the chicken pen, right inside the door.
He blended in perfectly with the mud, tromped down gravel, and chicken poop. He also was very, very still. I kept a wary eye on him and he on the chickens. Even though I had to get pretty close to him going back and forth into the pen with water, food, etc for the chickens. He didn't move. He's a pretty big toad and has been around. Smart of him to figure out the chickens were a bigger threat than me.
I'll have more on the chickens in the next post, but here let's wrap up with a few views from the western facing porch.
Being on a hill that faces west, there's a lot of exposure to the elements. Wind, and all the precipitation hits the house at full force. Shutter color fads, door trim needs repainted. But on nights like the one below, it's really breathtaking.
I'm no morning lark, getting up to watch the sunrise so sunset will have to work. But like a sunrise, a sunset changes from moment to moment.
I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why these two robins were nattering at me the whole time I would be taking care of the chickens, then I looked up. There was only one Robin that fledged, the next rested on a pole smack dab in the middle of the pen. I suspect the other babies fried, as there was very little protection from sun.
We had another robin nest in the orchard but it did not succeed. I have seen for the first time baby mockingbirds running around the backyard but sadly did not get any good pictures.
One other next on the property is more problematic. A dove's nest in the gutter.
We don't have any trees to heavily clog up the gutters, but this next will have to go. The dove figured out the sweet spot, as the water flows at a slight slant in the opposite direction.
One drizzly afternoon I saw this fellow hanging out in the chicken pen, right inside the door.
He blended in perfectly with the mud, tromped down gravel, and chicken poop. He also was very, very still. I kept a wary eye on him and he on the chickens. Even though I had to get pretty close to him going back and forth into the pen with water, food, etc for the chickens. He didn't move. He's a pretty big toad and has been around. Smart of him to figure out the chickens were a bigger threat than me.
I'll have more on the chickens in the next post, but here let's wrap up with a few views from the western facing porch.
Being on a hill that faces west, there's a lot of exposure to the elements. Wind, and all the precipitation hits the house at full force. Shutter color fads, door trim needs repainted. But on nights like the one below, it's really breathtaking.
I'm no morning lark, getting up to watch the sunrise so sunset will have to work. But like a sunrise, a sunset changes from moment to moment.
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