Summer Beauties

I have a flower bed in our front yard. It was put there by the previous owner, and I had now idea what anything in there was. It was so overgrown and needed some serious work. Since then I have been amazed at the various flowers growing out of there. This deep orange lily is one of the best surprises. It stands about 4' tall and has about 7 blooms on it.

The sunflowers I planted along our garage in the strawberry patch. I was really excited about these. They have taken a couple rough hits from the hard rain because our garage doesn't have a gutter and it is like a big waterfall. But I have rigged up a system to hold them up. I think they are doing fine. Next year they will go in a different spot... and there will be many many more.

Twinkle, twinkle...

I noticed that the fireflies have come for summer. I had to climb onto the gate in our backyard so I could see over the grass that comes up to my shoulders, but I saw our pasture is full! It was such a beautiful sight. Hundreds of little green lights sending flashing telegrams to one another.

If you want to witness this amazing yet simple display of summer, you are more than welcome anytime. Rob might even break out the guitar to add to the ambiance like he did tonight.

Ladies and Gentleman

The yellow hen is Henny Penny (Buff Orpington). The black and white chicken behind her is Tatanka (Silver Hamburg), he is a rooster. He is pretty bossy, cocka-doodling when it is time to go to bed, when it is time to wake up, and if we let the hens out to run around. The other photo is Ribbons (Barred Rock) and Elenor (Black Astralorp). They love to be outside, and love to eat spaghetti squash.

Tulip Time

Last fall I planted these. I was excited to see them pop out of the ground. I was a little wary that they wouldn't. But here they are. And most of them have two or three blooms! Lovely.

Mama Robin

When we moved to our house, there was a nest on our porch. There weren't any birds in it at the time, but we decided that it wasn't bothering any one there. This spring a mother robing decided it would be the perfect place to lay her four bright blue eggs. She sits on the nest most of the time. Whenever we go outside she flies away screaming and sits in the tree close by warning us not to go near her precious soon to be babies. I took a few peeks, just to count the eggs. One day there was two, the next three, and finally four. I haven't checked since, so there may be more. I think they can lay up to five eggs. The nest is right outside our kitchen window. Wherever we wash the dishes it is like we can have small conversations with the mama robin. It is really fun to see.

Perennial Swap

At our church, Rob and I are a part of a group called Creation Tenders. We meet once a month to talk about our responsibility towards God's creation. One of the things we planned was a perennial swap. The awesome thing about this is, our place has a lot of open space to plant beautiful things. So we snagged some day lilies, cedum, cannas, potatoes, ferns, asters, and maybe a few things I don't quite remember right now. It was great to be able to talk to the people who brought the plants, discussing how/where they should be plants, and what they look like when they bloom. I love the fact that whenever
I look at those plants I will remember the people who so generously shared them.

Today was "Chicken Day"

Rob, Ollie, and I welcomed home 12 day old chicks! They are such a joy. They had many visitors today.


I will post better pictures soon. Cheap Cheap!

Things for outside...

Photos from apartmenttherapy.com