Catching Up

Bees, Birds, garden, Lavender, Marshmallow, Nature, Pollinators, Prayer Garrden, Primrose, Reflections, Roses, The Farm, , , ,

Time is getting away from me. It is a busy time of year and while I have been documenting some of what is happing with pictures, I haven’t made time to post it. This post starts the week of June 15

Thursday Observations

Prior to last year we had pruned back our grape vines dramatically. As a result, they produced few grapes last year and the ones they did make were eaten by birds or chickens before they ripened.

This year they are making grapes so I’m hoping for a decent harvest.

In my last post I showed you the large wild rose bushes in bloom. The second variety of wild roses bloomed in June as well. They are a low growing bush with small pink blossoms and a lovely fragrance.

The same oak tree that supports the white, climbing rose (above) that I showed in my last post has that small pink rose bush growing at its base.

Thursday was windy. You can’t see the wind but you can see the effects.

Friday Chores

On Friday morning my to-do list including cutting the chives since their flowers had faded and they were threatening to drop their seeds. My chive patch is as big as I want it to be so cutting them back before they reseeded was necessary to prevent a total chive invasion.

That short green patch in the front is where the chives were.

I’m glad I didn’t encounter this guy while I was cutting the chives. I don’t mind snakes but don’t like coming across them where I am working.

Cutting garlic scapes was my other chore that morning. If you don’t know what scapes are click here to learn more.

Saturday Efforts

On Saturday my husband spent many hours weed whipping around the pond. Oh, how I appreciate his hard work!

Colors of Summer

Lavender beginning to blossom.

Wildflowers

Rare Photos

It is not unusual to see raptors flying around our area, but it is rare that I capture a photo of one.

It wasn’t close enough for me to identify what type of bird this was,

but when I did some online reading, I discovered this was likely a turkey vulture. The main reason I say that is because it wasn’t alone. As it soared and circled above our pond it was joined by a second and then a third. Eventually there were seven of them circling overhead. Vultures commonly hunt in groups unlike hawks and eagles who more often hunt solo.

Bees

My husband captured another swarm of bees bringing us up to four hives.

A few days later the hive swarmed again.

The swarm was too heavy for the branch they landed on. Then ended up relocating. We didn’t have another hive ready so we decided this swarm would add to the wild bee population. My husband did set up another hive so that we are ready in case there is another swarm.

After The Heatwave

We have had some deer visiting. They enjoyed some hosta salad.

The prayer garden is ever changing. These pictures are from last week – following a week of intense heat.

The white in the foreground are phlox, the yellow is tickseed, the purple is, of course, lavender and the peach color are Asiatic lilies.

The colors this year are very vibrant.

Roses

Tickseed

Lavender

Asiatic lilies

Creeping thyme in the foreground is a favorite of bees and other pollinators.

Some primroses were still blossoming last week as well.

Marshmallow plants

Marshmallow blossoms

The garden seemed to enjoy the heat wave more than we did.

My husband watered as needed.

And everything is growing in leaps and bounds.

Above is the patch of buckwheat we planted. It’s amazing to see how many pollinators forage this patch. My husband also discovered that the chickens like buckwheat, so he cuts a handful or two each day and gives it to the chickens.

Look What’s Growing in Our Apple Tree

There are some apples on the tree as well, but they weren’t as interesting as these three baby robins.

Thanks for visiting.

20 thoughts on “Catching Up”

  1. I agree that bird looks like a turkey vulture. In spite of their less-than-handsome overall appearance, their wings are gracefully curved in flight while hawks’ wings are more straight across. / Thank you for offering habitat for bees and contributing to the recovery of the population, and for sharing all the lovely photos of your flowers, especially beautiful when seen altogether in their colorful splendor!

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    1. Thanks for confirming what I thought, Nancy. We do see hawks and even eagles in our area but most of the time they are too high up for me to identify. We love having the bees, although it has been frustrating over the years because so many have died during the winter. Last year we did not replace to ones that died so we started the year with no bee. We still had an empty hive set up and one day my husband discovered bees living in the hive. They stayed and lived through last winter and have reproduced to give us the four hives that we have plus the one that got away. I told my husband that God must want us to be beekeepers after all.

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  3. Looks like everything is flourishing. Hopefully those fires are under control soon . It has been a bit hazy here too but nothing like up there. I can’t even imagine what the Canadian people are experiencing. Wild fires scare me, with all the fuel Helene left behind in our area.

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    1. The wind direction has changed so we are not getting all the smoke right now. We had blue sky and sunshine today. Also, a storm came through. We are happy for the rain. I understand you worries about wildfires knowing where you live.

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  6. This was a fun and summery post Ruth. You know I liked the baby robins in the apple tree the best, but your gardens are gorgeous, all the colors, between the roses, wildflowers and vivid colors in the prayer garden. Your husband is keeping that area clear for you to step into the pond every day – I’ll bet you’re getting a lot of “pool time” in, every day, but especially during these two heat waves. Your veggie garden is thriving and hopefully the deer don’t “hit on” that garden like they did the hostas – are those Empress Hostas, they seem to be large leaves like that variety are? I like that Asiatic Lily too – unique. I hope you and your hubby took a break today due to the wildfire smoke – we did not have it as orange-y here as some places, but it was very gray all day.

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    1. Thanks, Linda, I wish I could say I’ve been in the pond more. Between the extreme heat and now the smoke I’ve spent more time indoors. We have also have a flock of ducks that have become daily visitors and now I am worried about bacteria or parasites they might bring. My husband has set out our fake owl to see if it will scare the ducks away. I hope it works, There are plenty of other ponds in our area for the ducks.

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      1. That’s too bad Ruth – I know you enjoy your daily visit to the pond and for exercise as well. I think you had a problem with those ducks last year didn’t you (or maybe earlier this year in Spring)? There is so much to worry about these days and the last thing you need is to have some type of avian flu or virus contaminate your pond.

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      3. That’s good – hopefully our weather stabilizes soon and you can resume enjoying the pond. As for the smoke, perhaps it will linger as I hear there are now a dozen fires burning in the Pacific Northwest.

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  7. Wonderful, Ruth. I love your prayer garden, current flowers, bee hives, all the hard work of your husband (they are great aren’t they?😍). Your garden is gorgeous! Mine is doing well too—beets have been amazing, beans are ready to pick, potatoes coming right along! Glory!!!

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