We’ve been busy

June is my favorite time of the year. The days are long, everything in the garden looks gorgeous and most days are warm enough for t-shirts and shorts for me to wear outside. Even if it gets hot some days I am not complaining because I like it. Given though that we do have central air-conditioning in the house so that is where we can retreat to cool down.

View from the street

This past month was a flurry of outdoor activities. The deck, which is my annual painting and sanding project, got done as well as planting of annual and some perennial flowers for the flowerbeds.  I had been a bit disappointed by the poor offerings and selections of the flowers at the local garden centers so I planted less this spring. However, this year I added several vegetables to my garden. I had planted zucchini seeds back in March and of all the seeds in the package only three grew into plants, but they are in pots outside and doing well. Also different peppers and tomatoes are in pots as are the herbs.  I’ll see how this turns out and if I want to repeat this vegetable endeavor next year. And of course the grass is growing so fast at this time of year that I have to hop onto the John Deere lawnmower every week to keep up with the grass and weeds. 

View of the vegetable pots

Vegetable pots along the back of the garage

A garter snake hangs out in our pompom tree most mornings

When I showed Benno the snake he was relieved that the snake was not as big as the anaconda we saw on the South American jungle river while motoring up the current on the Orinoco river.

Benno was busy at the new shed and finished paneling it from the inside. That was after he wired it up for 120V, added 2x4th for holding the insulation in place and I got busy stuffing the insulation in-between the 2x4 frames. He also fabricated the casing and a framing for the windows and door, which I all painted. The shed even has indoor/outdoor carpet installed in it and LED lighting from the ceiling.  So all that took some time as well as shopping for the materials. The double door needs some kind of paneling and that is the only item left to do. Otherwise this turned out to be one really neat looking shed. My neighbor Teresa, and I had our coffees in there one morning enjoying the ambiance.

Yesterday evening we had a little storm blowing through the area. I knew it was coming so I had gathered all flowers, veggies etc. that were in pots and stored everything in my garden shed. When the rain started and quickly escalated into a full fury of horizontal torrent we just could not believe the force of wind with its howling noise and blinding rain. There were items flying by that turned out to be roof shingles, recycling bins full of recyclables, tree branches and other debris being airborne. I watched in horror the small Clematis shrub that is climbing up next to my garden shed being thrashed back and forth in the wind and driving rain to almost being uprooted. There is a small nest of a Chipping Sparrow in it with very little protection from the elements. Just yesterday I held my camera up above the nest to take a picture to see if any chicks had emerged. Today I am glad to find out that momma bird and chicks survived.  In the aftermath of the storm, as it turned out, we had to cut down a big tree branch that landed on our new shed from the tree standing next to it.  No damage to our shed but there is damage all over the neighborhood from downed tree branches and some houses lost roof shingles as well as damage to a gazebo in our neighborhood. Luckily we only had the one tree branch to deal with.

Hydro trucks on the street cutting down broken tree branches

It was a big mess but now a neat pile of branches and wood

The clematis on my garden shed

The Chipping Sparrow

The nest yesterday

The nest today

I leave you with some pictures of the Oriole birds that feast on the grape jelly I put out for them. The jelly was out of stock in all of our local stores for a while so I guess the word got around at the bird community that ours was the place to get some and they ALL came to pick it. I had to refill the plates several times a day!

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