My World

I have been neglecting my blogs of late, I know.  So, what have I been doing?

Well, Hubby and I try to walk five miles a day or occasionally get out on our bikes.  We've also been camping and visited our mountain home.  When home in Lincoln where I have internet access I have instead been busy in the garden.

Back in 2009 I had removed the lawn in the back yard.  This year I decided that the yard lacked interest.  I needed to define the spaces, make rooms.

So we built a fence to set off the back patio and added a little bridge over the dry stream bed where I piled some of the many rocks I had dug our of the beds.

I edged a pathway with more of the stones and bought some DG to make the paths.

I made this "Rube Goldburg" contraption to support bird netting over the blueberries and I have added some shade cloth to protect them from the hot sun.  I also added more fruit trees, keeping them small so I could have a greater variety.

Unfortunately, the wildlife enjoys our garden, too.  Deer prune the strawberries, fruit trees and grapevines.  They would eat the tomato plants and other vegetables if I didn't keep the plants covered with netting.

Raccoons eat the peaches and apricots and voles like tomatos.

The  critters don't get it all, though.  They don't like onions and garlic so that is my most successful crop.  I keep netting over my tomatos and beans and so far nothing has gotten those.  We have blueberries every day for breakfast in spite of tenacious mocking birds who seem to find their way through the netting.

Peppers, eggplant and squash are starting to flower but it will be a while before they are ready to harvest.

Time for me to go back out to the garden.  I need to find a way to keep the critters from the fruit trees, and the grapevines need to be trained to a support, and....

Post Script:

As we were getting ready for our evening walk, Jules spotted my nemesis in the neighbor's yard.

He had come through our yard first, leaving tell-tale tracks on the pathways. 












 Get more views of what is going on in the world at Our World, Tuesday.

Fledgling Tree Swallows

We have a nesting box for Bluebirds and Tree Swallows.  Each year it is put to use by one or both species. 

But though I enjoy watching the parents come and go, feeding their young, I have never been around when the nestlings fledged.

This year was different.  The young were almost out of the box and I had no plans to be away so I watched.

Finally, a few mornings latter there was a fledgling swallow on top of the box, singing for his breakfast.

Then another flew from a nearby perch and joined him while a third called from the box, all still expecting to be fed.

Still being fed by the parent birds and still irate if the other gets fed.

The parents seemed not to play favorites, feeding each in turn.

The next day, all were gone but the box did not stay empty for long.  Another pair are now nesting.  Now that the weather has turned hot, I am wondering if they will be as successful as the first pair.

To find more birds, visit Wild Bird Wednesday, hosted for us by Stewart.