Backyard Scenes

The Butterfly Bush no sooner bloomed than this creature (moth or butterfly?) showed up to sip nectar from 

the blossoms.

A pair of robins abandoned this nest, perhaps because it was in a bush next to the driveway and people were parking too close for comfort. I cut the branch to show my neighbor the intricate construction - twigs on the outside, a bowl-shaped layer of mud and soft grass inside. An alternate theory is that one of the feral cats got the robins. One egg was open, but there was no sign of a hatchling.

The Evening Primrose took over last year's wildflower patch and the Yarrow that was only fronds last year finally bloomed . I had to snap a photo at midnight to see the Evening Primrose flowering. By day, the flowers fade and fall off.

The Black-Eyed Susans are the remnants of a huge population grown from seeds collected with permission from Schmiede's Nursery on South Avenue a long time ago. 

It's Purple Coneflower time again. I have given away many of them grown from seed that I collected. There might have been more had Mau as a rambunctious young cat not knocked over a whole saucer of seedlings on the sun porch.

Forget-Me-Nots and Love-In-A-Mist have already gone to seed and I have plenty stored for next year. Portulaca has sprouted and been transplanted and we are looking forward to seeing Sunflowers and Black-Eyed Susan Vine coming up, along with lots of colorful Balsam.

Thanks to the rain, there is a bumper crop of weeds as well, including Artemisia, Bedstraw, Burdock, Sorrel and Jack-By-The-Hedge. Maybe I will wield my Hori-hori gardening knife this weekend and do battle with the weeds.

--Bernice