Shades of ripe

I seem to be doing pretty good at growing fruit. The yard is full of promise in many different shades of ripe.

Yet another strawberry

I’m shocked. I was right. The mystery volunteer opened a characteristic white flower and confirmed that it is indeed a strawberry. And now that I’ve been flinging half-eaten berries up the hill, I think I know how it got up there. I wonder how many more there are?

Summer?

Come onnnnn, summer! Daylilies mean summer, right? The solstice means summer, right? What happened to summer?

Pollinator Week

It’s National Pollinator Week. So take a pollinator to lunch this week. In their nests and in the ground Native bees are all around. Hummingbirds and bats and bees Will multiply your fruit with ease. Plant some flowers, plant a bunch, And take a pollinator to lunch! http://nativeplants.msu.edu/

That’s Mr. James Madison to you

Sue is still pretty. He’s still the star of the guppy tank with his flaring red tail all fanned out. The sons of Sue are indeed sons. They’re not quite as big as Sue, but each are clearly chips of the rainbow-sided block . And they’re all doing their best to become dads.

The end of flower weeks

The roses are done. The rose hips begun. The irises are done. A pod for each one.

Upsy daisy

Just the other day, I was wondering who the next volunteer would be. And yesterday, as if having a bright sunny day for a change wasn’t enough, a bright little Ox-eye Daisy popped up. Nice! Last year I had to go to Readercon to see a daisy. The real question is, Will the bees like […]

Bowl of berries

Today’s harvest: four big juicy strawberry strawberries and three intense Alpine strawberries. It’s a real incentive to get your shoes on in the morning when you know there’s ripe strawberries waiting for you. And the snails.

Another batch of volunteers

Last year I discovered squash bees in my yard. Since they specialize in squash, I wanted to make sure they would have squash flowers. So I planted some crookneck summer squash. And it’s coming up. So far so good. And now this year’s batch of volunteer squash are showing up, which means we might have […]

And dragonflies, too

First the damselflies arrived, now the dragonflies are back. A Green Darner turned up, hiding in the shade of the daylilies. Unlike the butterfly, it held still, letting me get as close as I like.