A Long Week in the Garden
Ladybug in the raspberries, followed by an anole (my favorite lizard) in the raspberries the following day.
First purple passionflower of the year (with a tiny cameo by one of the American beautyberries in the bottom right). The purple passionflower, also called maypop, is the native passionflower here in the SE US, and the only host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly caterpillars.
First bloom (just starting) on my grandmother’s bee balm (with daylily in the background).
Two-week birthday portrait of the second brood of bluebirds. (I presume they’re all piled on top of each other, but they were not moving so I didn’t get a better look.) 🐦
A number of daylilies. The first is the standard orange daylily you see so much of in this part of the south—although these are actually doubles, so they’re a bit fancier; they were here when we bought the house. The second orange variety is one we rescued from the buildings at some point, before we got all of Miss Ann’s fancy ones. Next up is the first Priscilla’s Rainbow bloom this year (with another variety whose name I do not know in the background)—it is, to me, the unofficial official daylily of Pride Month 🏳️🌈😉 Next is either Admiral’s Braid or Wedding Band. Finally, another red variety we rescued from the buildings.
One of the last lilies blooming, a nice specimen of the red ones.
Earlier this week, I was not squawked at incessantly by the catbirds while picking raspberries, so I ventured a quick peak at the catbird nest hidden in the nandina there—looks like the babies had probably just hatched that day!
Venus and Jupiter still in conjunction in the night sky, along with Pollux and Castor of Gemini to the right of Venus.
Thursday was our first 90° day of the year (+6° above average) 🥵 and I spent between a half-hour and an hour fighting the blueberry bushes and the surrounding mock oranges for the first real blueberry harvest of the year—plus a few Japanese wineberries and the day’s haul from the rasbperry patch (we’re past peak now).
Finally, the last chapter of the second brood of bluebirds—there was still some activity yesterday, so they either fledged late yesterday or early today (Friday), leaving an empty (ish!) nest.
Also…I was lamenting the other day how we rarely see lightning bugs (fireflies) anymore, when they were so plentiful in the summer when I was younger. I saw my first one of the summer tonight—a lone yellow light by the dogwood and gardenias 😍
