Not much to ramble about. About the only thing of note is the first lightning bugs (fireflies) are back. Have a couple in the sunroom right now. The lights are off. Two are not quite a show, but are admired none-the-less.

Drought conditions are prevailing. I don't believe in watering except for the muscadines, so there's not really much to admire. The few banana plants I have are still in pots so they do get watered, usually with the the exchanged water from the fish tank.

I'm kind of in the mood to ramble about my garden. I've done a lot of trading this year--took a break the last couple of years to get gardens tidy for graduations--anyway, I'm expanding one bed to fit in all my trades. The birds and butterflies are a continuous enjoyment and I'm looking forward to my lilies blooming as some of them are new from gifts last year and I haven't seen them bloom yet. We trimmed back some trees last year and this year the red/orange dropmore honeysuckles are thriving due to the increase in sunshine they're getting and the humming birds are there every evening. I discovered 5 new gas plant seedlings while I was weeding the garden by the garden that the gas plant is growing in. Those gas plants really toss their seed a ways! I think I'll be trading gas plants next year (or this fall). We have a lot of peaches on our two reliance peach trees this year--last year the squirrel got the 10 that were growing. This year there must be at least 150 small peaches growing and we have covered one of the trees with netting in hopes of seeing at least a couple of peaches through to maturity. We have lots of pears and apples and the raspberries are looking good. The new strawberry plants that a friend gave me had the greatest looking strawberries on them but, alas, something got them--even the ones that weren't even close to being ripe. My tomato plants that froze in Mid May (when it was only supposed to get down to 42 degrees that night) are looking great--they all recovered and came back from the stems that were left. Yeah!! I've planted cucumbers and squash and they look great. My husband planted watermelon for the first time and pumpkins and sunflowers and they are all doing well except the pumpkin plants are not getting enough sun. All in all it's been a great gardening year so far here in Minnesota! We could use some more rain . . . :)
Deb

Suzy, it sucks that your weather conditions and critters have been so unforgiving for you this year. :o(

I love catbirds, too. I can't help but grin when I see one or two of them way up in the sky, successfully chasing away a large hawk or turkey vulture. They are very territorial near their nests but seem to get along with birds their own size a lot better than larger creatures. Including humans.
I saw a news clip once where catbirds nesting in a tree on a busy city street. They had no problem dive bombing anyone's head who dared to walk by their tree,lol.
I have a different type of catbird where I live now. very pretty and a sweet song. And like catbirds, very brave and doesn't mind me anywhere near him. Press on link to see this catbird.

Speaking of birds. In the spring it looked to be interesting as I saw a lot of varieties in my yard, including bluebirds. Ah but the bluejays moved in and as you know, all the other birds are rarely seen now.

In spite of my complaining over my Wood Roaches, I am enjoying seeing so many new and different varieties of insects. It's amazing to me how many different spiders and the quantity of spiders I have out there. They love the spindlely branches of the many Mountain Laurels as I do.

Since my yard was covered with a bed (mattress size) of 17 years worth of fallen leaves from a total wooded lot, I'm finding all kind of weird stuff. Bottles, a baby shoe, a fishing reel, electric cord, a statue of a saint,etc.
Because I have no grass(smiling)and covering the lot with plants instead, I feel I've gotten a dent into as I have put in about 500 plants.
I am late too getting my veggie garden in, other than my mater plants in pots. Jimmy built me a 2ft by 6ft raised bed. Not a lot in there of course but I'm worried more about the lack of sun than my tardiness. I put this bed in my one and only "full sun" area. It only gets 3 hours though. We'll see by August whether it works.
And that pretty much sums it up. It's a season that I will learn and am learning what works. I am enjoying the difference of full shade. I was in a spot the other day digging while it was sunny. I almost petered out, lol. I almost postponed this area for awhile until it was shady again. Tee hee, I feel spoiled. I have virtually no weeds. instead I go out and pull tree saplings once a week.
~di

Here is a link that might be useful: grey catbird

Catbirds are very friendly birds and will eat out of your hand when confident enough that you are friendly. They love blueberries and will gobble them right up. When I'm walking around the property or working in one of my gardens,they are right there in the surrounding brush just twittering away with what I consider to be the most cheerful of bird sounds. They haven't eaten out of my hand yet but I'm working on it. It's been a glorious spring here in Eastern Pa. We've had tons of rain and very temperate conditions which make for lots of flowers and strong growing vegetables. The critters causing me the largest amount of damage in the gardens,believe it or not,are the raccoons. Since I started putting out cat food for them every night at the edge of the woods,they leave everything else alone. Oh they still wander around the property all night long and one night got into the can where I keep their food,but they stay out of the gardens. The wild turkeys,about 15 of them,come here every morning and sometimes squash things,but I don't care that much,they are such a joy to watch,especially when they sit in the trees and yell at Ferrell the cat who is totally spooked by them. I love it here and when I whine and moan in the dead of winter or very early spring,or in the miserable summer heat,please remind me of this.

We're still very, very busy in my garden as I always try to do too much.

The pear and apple trees are loaded with fruit despite the fact they have shared fire blight.
Mr. Man had to cut back some of the limbs that were breaking due to the heavy weight of the pears.
He also cut back the limbs most affected by the fire blight.

The grapefruit and Meyer lemon have lots of fruit for the first year.

Yesterday we ate the three peaches that were on the peach tree.
When we bit in they were so juicy that the juice shot out all over our faces, hands and shirts.
Aahhh, to have to wait another year for more of these delicious peaches.

Lost 5 citrus trees that were leafing out this spring.
Just planted them in the fall.
Had a late 32 degree night.
Didn't cover them with a frost blanket as I had during the winter thinking it wasn't going to be cold enough to hurt them.
Wrong.

The kumquat is just beginning to set fruit and it looks like it is going to be a bumper year for this tree.
If I can just keep my grands from picking them this year.
I can always tell which grand picks this tree as to how high from the ground the fruit is gone.

The pecan trees actually have pecans...the first time in 3-4 years.
Again, thanks to the hurricanes.

The Concord grape vines are absolutely loaded with grapes despite the fact that the County Extension agent says Concord grapes will not grow under any circumstances in our area.
I'm not going to tell the grapes this as this is their 8th year and third transplant later.
(Note to Self: Take a pic and pick some grapes to put on his desk as soon as they are ripe.)

The tomato plants look downright pityful.
Guess didn't get enough water when they needed it, bless their hearts.

The hyacinth beans are getting large enough that Christian and the grands are going to help me make their teepee today with the vines.

Tiny, tiny frogs are jumping all over the rocks around the pond.
Still quite a few tadpoles in the pond.

Cleaned out the kid's swimming pool for the second time this summer as the pump went out and had to find a new one that fit.
There must have been a gazillion large tadpoles in the pool squiggling and wiggling all around Mr. Man's feet while he was cleaning it out.
Thank God for this man...don't know that I could have done it.

Missed the time to trim back my roses before their first big burst of bloom.
Just trimmed them back.
Hopefully, this won't harm them too much.

Almost finished with my new daylily bed a friend has been helping me design and plant.
This has been a major project as we killed all grass and weeds this spring, put down an irrigation system, put down four layers of newspaper, cut open 280 brown paper bags I purchased fromt the local grocery and put over the newspaper, and then put down 32 bails of pinestraw, in hopes of controlling the weeds and water conservation.
We are now on 'phase 3'...putting in the walkway.
This has been planned since before Katrina and is FINALLY coming to life.
Friends all over have been giving me daylilies for this bed and all but about a dozen have been planted.
The clome volunteers are now about 3-4 feet high in this bed and look so pretty.
I just love this little plants...like the Everready battery, they just keep going and going.

Have transplanted some herbs from the destroyed herb bed (thanks Katrina) to the new Fairy Garden that we made last fall around the little pond.
Now need to mow down the herbs that I'm not going to transplant.

Now, need to start concentrating on getting the other countless plants-in-pots in the ground.

After three year of drought, we had loads of rain from January right up to two weeks ago, so my flower gardens have been looking better than they have in several years and my last water bill was $16.00 - ROTFL! The daylilies have been putting on quite a show since the first of May and just keep sending up more & more scapes and the roses are on their second big burst of bloom.

The vegetable garden, however, is struggling. We had a couple of late freezes & snow (!!) the Saturday before Easter, and then seemed to go directly from cool to hot, so the plants got really confused. We did have a bumper onion crop which should probably keep us in onions all summer & now the tomatoes are starting to come in with a few peppers. I just fertilized everything today & hope that keeps them going. When we get sustained temperatures in the nineties, the tomatoes just don't want to set fruit, so I'm hoping the promised cool front arrives tomorrow & gives us a respite from the heat for a few days.

The hummers are buzzing around like crazy & battling each other at the feeders & the gardens are full of butterflies. DH told me that the butterflies made my garden look like a Walt Disney movie - LOL!

I'm killing grass in a couple of problem areas that are really hard to mow & then am going to lasagna them into new beds & hopefully be able to plant them this fall. With it getting so hot, it's hard to spend sustained time outside doing really heavy work. I'm usually outside between 6:30 & 7:00 AM & in by 11:00 when it's just too hot to stay outside. I'm never caught up on everything I want to do, but I'm pleased that I'm at least ticking a few things off my list this year.

I enjoy the wildlife my garden brings as much, if not more, than the plants.

I love to walk through the first thing in the morning spying on little creatures as they begin their day.

My 5 acres has recently been certified as a "Backyard Habitat"

I have let two hanging baskets die already this year because of bird nests in them.

A Carolina wren family made a nest in a drawer I had been repainting.

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My pond is quite small, probably 10 x 5, but it is amazing at the life that takes place there.

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Hiding in some canna leaves, still about half asleep.

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Great pictures Wanda. We had hail in early May and a hard frost in late April so there will be no fruit except elderberries and hopefully grapes. The peach and apple trees were damaged badly and some kill back on branches. Most of the vegetable garden has recovered well from the hail but the large cabbage leaves are full of holes from hail. I think a large cabbage leaf with no damage is a real work of art. The veination is beautiful, hmm is veination a word?, doesn't look correct. Even the day lilies were bud damaged with the hard frost so flowering will be sparse except on the later ones. The true lilies are really putting on a show, they seem to appreciate this cool wet weather. Leone planted nasturtiums about a month ago and we are using a lot of the leaves in salads, both kinds of our lettuce seem to love this weather and it is difficult to eat as fast as they grow.

The hail storm did get us a new roof, the insurance company totaled it so the new will be completely covered by insurance AND we did leave the car in the drive that night and got a check for $2,100 for the damage. A paintless dent repair outfit is supposed to pick up the car in the morning and said it will be done Saturday. Never had that type of repair done before but hear it works well. Of course, the 1982 pickup was in the garage. We won't say which one of us forgot to put the car in the garage.