I spy...

...a patch of cuteness among a sea of green.

Found him

What a surprise for me when I opened the front door and almost stepped on the "big boy". I tried to rescue him by picking him up, but he felt like a thin water balloon full of goop. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and I'm normally not squeamish about carrying frogs, small toads, little birds, etc., but this was just icky. I had to use the dust pan method.

Garden life

The "big boy". I look for him every year and this morning Hubby nearly ran over him with the Mule as he rested on the asphalt. By the time we came back from our walk he was gone.

New in the garden this year is kohlrabi. I've never even eaten it before so we'll see if it merits space in next year's garden.

Finally some pollinators on the Hill although I would prefer this bumbler visited my pepper and winter squash plants instead of this wild bergamot.

Another pollinator, the European honey bee. We had so few of them last year, I'm glad to see they've found the garden this year.

We had another bear sighting yesterday evening thanks to Cali and her uber guard dog behavior. The minute she was let outside to lay on the lawn she started barking her head off and looking up the hill. Sure enough, there was a young cinnamon colored bear ambling up the hill. No time to get my camera as we had to try and get Cali to quit following the bear.

Fur and feathers

The little twins were behind our house Saturday afternoon. These pix were taken from the office window.

So cute! The only time I like having deer around is when they are this size.

Well, despite our best efforts, we flushed the nighthawk from her nest and she flew to a pine tree down the road. After our walk, she was back to her eggs so all is well until the next time.

Wedding on Nuthatch Hill

Our neighbors, Jim & Lauren, in front of their cake.

The groom with Hubby.

The bride with me in front of the gazebo.

This is the worst possible place...

...to lay your eggs. The common nighthawk that flies above our house every night has nested behind the crabapple trees. Normally I would be thrilled about this, but Cali has flushed this bird 3 mornings in a row on our daily walk. I finally investigated why this bird is always on the ground there and found these 2 eggs and all of the bird's tail feathers. Cali will now have to walk on leash until these babies fledge.

Little green apples

It looks like I'll have enough to make a pie come September.

Sweet peas

Hubby built a small garden box with the sole purpose of growing sweet peas. The first one to bloom is my favorite variety, 'Wiltshire Ripple'. I just love the claret color against the clean white. The smell is quite wonderful as well and isn't that one of the main reasons to grow sweet peas?

Shelling peas

We harvested the 'Caseload' variety of shelling peas from the garden. I wouldn't say we ended up with a case load, but sitting in the shade shelling peas is a nice way to spend a hot afternoon. Is my pile of pods bigger than Hubby's?

Last one out is a rotten egg...

The bluebird babies have left their box. I found this mess when I cleaned it. Now the adults are adding nesting material to another bird box. Maybe there will be a 2nd brood this year. We need all the bluebirds we can get because we are overrun with grasshoppers and flies.

Happy 4th of July

Red, white and blue.
My creation from the nursery.

Nature's creation from the Hill.

garlic harvest

I harvested all the garlic from the garden yesterday. I attempted to braid it, but realized I grew hard neck garlic instead of soft neck garlic so the stems snapped and I gave up on it.

Snake

I hope it eats grasshoppers because we have a ton of them.

Meatless Monday menu

We've been trying to go meatless on Mondays for a while now-- lessen our impact on the Earth and all that eco-friendly stuff. The garden is producing a lot of lettuce, more than we can eat, but we try. Lunch will be a salad with fresh-picked lettuces and tons of veggies.

For dinner, a veggie stir-fry with fresh-picked snow peas. Dessert will be a rhubarb crisp. I had to harvest a lot of the rhubarb because it was shading Hubby's corn and he's pretty protective of that corn!!!