July is a month simply crammed with treasures. Bird and animal babies galore and blooms to enchant every eye.
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| A young rabbit amid an all-you-can-eat buffet. |
Ordered over a year ago, I finally received the handsets for my doors. My new doors were installed with temporary nickle plated knobs. The new, Venetian Bronze handles make a much bolder statement.
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| Before and after. Wimpy to Robust. |
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| Inside and outside views. |
Usually, I travel not further than to the grocery or hardware store and back. But when my friends invited me along on a trip to Almonte, Ontario I gratefully jumped at the chance! The attraction was the Bloomfest Garden Art Show, at the Whitehouse Nursery and Display Gardens. Their daylilies were at their best and just one of the reasons you could hear exclamations of "Wow, wow, wow!!!" from customers all over their gardens.
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| Amid a 2-acre bed growing over 1000 varieties of daylilies. |
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| My day's haul. Setting myself up for more weeding. |
Happy to say that the Barn Swallow couple successfully raised their brood of five babies. It takes only a short time before the fledglings are strong fliers and taken miles away by the parents to rivers for the best concentration of flying insects. So I was really surprised to find that two of the youngsters are still hanging around and roosting in my garage at night. Sometimes in the very nest they were hatched in!
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| Three of the cuties huddled for comfort. |
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| Looking skyward for their Mom and Dad. |
It was fun to watch and listen as the house wrens scrambled to raise their broods. Chicks calling for food and parents calling back to be patient. Hardly a moment of silence. The volume and variety of insects was very impressive.
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| House Wren family in Box No. 1. |
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| Youngster making it easy for food deliveries. |
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| Looks like more than one insect in this beakful. |
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| A black beetle delivered this time. |
And five more pics in this report for July.
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| A male oriole gathering jelly for take-away. |
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| The female gives my camera the eye. |
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| Song Sparrow cracking open a sunflower seed. |
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| Summertime means fresh flowers for the table. |
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| Ellie Mae showing her need of a comb-out. |
Whew!! Thanks for bearing with me. Sure did have a slew of shots to share this month!
Hi Florence, another tremendous post! I love your new door hardware, the colour is fantastic. Lucky you heading to the Garden Art Show. I haven’t up til now cared much for day lilies but between your post and another blogger a couple weeks ago I have changed my mind.The peach and pink ones…😍The barn swallows are adorable. The Robins and Cardinals are still chirping at 5:00 am. This is the latest they have gone. It is so quiet in the early morning when they stop. Ellie Mae is very foofy! Her green eyes are gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteTake care.❤️
Thanks for the encouragement, Robin. I had never been to the Whitehouse Nursery before and it is so impressive! Opened in 1987, they also grow hundreds of hosta varieties as well as conifers, grasses, shrubs, coneflowers and peonies. Butterflies feasting everywhere. I'm surprised they don't charge admission because it's like an extravagant park. I love their old trees, many we had to look up the names for. Quite spectacular!! Luckily, Ellie Mae loves to be brushed and combed because there are little bush burrs everywhere.
DeleteWonderful photos Florence! Love the new hardware on those doors, my favorite flower was that red one and my favorite bird was that striking male oriole! Seeing all these birds.. I hope they have nothing to do with Ellie Mae's figure.. 😉
ReplyDeleteThanks for your always generous comments, Doug. I'm partial to the yellow cream and pink ruffled one on the right, third row down. I gravitate to pastels. They were fabulously sumptuous blooms. Yes, the new door hardware certainly stepped up the bling. Ellie Mae's specialty is mice although I wouldn't put it past her to nab a small bird. If I outlive her, no more cats for me. If more are dropped off here, no feeding and definitely no giving the stray a name.
DeleteThird on the right , beautiful multi coloured, and three waiting,they are so pretty, but hard to beat is the one waiting with open beak!!! You know me, Ellie Mae takes the purple rosette today, Ditto to no more cats, I felt that when we took in Boris in 2015. I vowed NO more after that,But some strays did arrive and leave. Max, briefly, and finally ginger Basil, he was my favourite of all lour strays.
ReplyDeleteYou know, Jean, it's hard to suppress our instinct to nurture. I vowed to not take in any ferals (usually dumped off by irresponsible people) after my previous cat passed away. But sometimes we just can't help ourselves. And Ellie Mae has been a good companion for me. I'd miss her terribly. (sigh)
DeleteIt is so satisfying when you know the young have hatched successfully and then fledged. I love the photos of the young with their attentive parents. And it is nice to keep the house updated too.
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