Early Summer

I figured out how to make that Monarda stand tall.... I've got it inside a tomato cage...

Hummingbird gives it a seal of approval...

Sometimes you get lucky with flower combinations...

No monarchs... But the frit seems happy with the asclepias.

Checkered frit with bumble bee on echinacea.

The black rat snake is a cutie...

These goldfinches are real PIAs... Too wet for me to collect seed, so... they cleaned them all up...

My solution for the raccoons who understood how to get the food out of the trap without springing it...

I think that city people are dumping their problems out at my house... took like 6 months or so to stop those raccoons from killing my chickens and beating up my cats... and destroying my garden.

Close-up of the bamboo teepee I grow Cherokee tears beans on (in front of the tomatoes).

I doubt there's a way to get further use from this shovel...

Yesterday's breakfast.

Everybody likes squash.

Poppies!

When the poppies start blooming... I forget any other flowers... I've even begun to use them as a winter cover crop...

Personally, I'm a big fan of lots of variation... seems like I'm seeing lots of subtle in-between colours...

Even starting to see hues of pastels.... sadly... the camera simply can not do these beauties justice!

And... Trying to get any kind of picture depth? Really can't get the long picture... unless.... I post a pic that takes up the entire screen... let's give it a try...

Ok... click this one... The colour bleeds away in the sun... but still... pretty.

New section of vegetable garden going in... remember those piles of manure that I posted?
The manure did the work of killing the vines and loosening the soil... now... turn with shovel and plant beans and tomatoes...

Another Early Spring

It's another early Spring here, and my heart goes out to all the people living in blizzard country.

We set records in February for heat... 5 days of 80 ° +.  The previous record was like 2 days....  3 of those days of 80+  broke all-time records... definitely global warming here...

 Honey bee 

and cabbage butterfly... saw a tiger swallowtail this morning... followed it around with camera, and it refused to hold still. 

 Bloodroot and buckeye

 Gray tree frog in the wall of my house.

Goldfish sunning themselves

 Check this clutch of eggs!

They burst open to become these anemone stinkhorns. (Aseroe rubra)

 Carolina jessemine and Chinese wisteria

 Not sure what the towhee was complaining about on a beautiful Spring day...

The gopher tortoise is doing some spring house cleaning.

Sandhill cranes flying....  13 seconds of video of their calls.

 Flowers on the hardy orange.

 Tomato seedlings that the cats planted...

 Cat inspecting the spinach...

The poppies are fat and happy.

The hellebore are peaking.

There are so many trees in bloom, will post this redbud... and not post the peaches, pears, cherry and whatever else...

Just to show that I had them... The daffodil are pretty much finished....

Snow Day

It started snowing early.... First snow since 2014....

The cats weren't too sure about that white stuff at first...

 This towhee doesn't seem to mind...

 Cardinal seems happy to eat snow covered chenopodium seeds...

 

And these cuties seem happy with the white stuff as well. 

Blue jay and brown thrasher

Snow on the camellia bush.

Goldenrod

 Hellebore and holly

 Mahonia

Apparently.... Governor Deal declared a state of emergency due to us getting an inch of snow....

I saw video of the interstate traffic on the news this morning... looked like a still shot... glad I wasn't out there!