Here are a few random bits and bobs from the last few weeks.
We have a shed in our yard we use for garden tools, etc. The doors were open on it for about a week or so. One day Don saw a robin fly in with food in its beak, and we thought, "Uh oh, robin built a nest inside." If that was the case, we'd have to keep the shed doors open until the babies fledged.
Later that same day I went to put something inside the shed and saw this:
Not a nest, but a fledgling that had made its way in.
Of course we left the shed doors open. By the next day, it was gone.
Ground squirrel.
Full moon behind a pine.
There is a single volunteer sunflower plant growing in one of the potato beds.
It's always worth examining things like this up close...
...because you never know what you might see.
And another small spider, this one on our screen door. I believe it's a young orb weaver.
I have some basil plants growing on the deck. I was going to transplant them into the garden beds, but never got around to it, so I repotted them in larger pots and they're happily growing.
However something was eating the leaves.
Aha! Found the culprit. Look how closely it blends in, color-wise. I scooped it up and dumped it over the side of the balcony.
Grasses, blooming.
Allergies, anyone?
A clump of irises growing by the side of the driveway. This photo was taken about a month ago.
In late June, I baffled to see what looked like carrots growing in the rocks next to one of the garden beds. Carrots? How?
The mystery was solved a few weeks later. Not carrots, but Queen Anne's lace, a member of the carrot family.
I know Queen Anne's lace is technically an invasive weed, but I absolutely stinkin' love it.
A very, very distant doe and her fawn.
Some quail parents herding their chicks toward the safety of some brush.
Sunrise..
...and sunset.