Today's Weather in Your Garden - 20

Is that a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak? I love their song!

Yes.
it is a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak.
I love listening to them, too.

I watched him carefully and he took flight and left. So, he's safe now.
Or he's safe until he finds another window.

Nice photo, Candyce! I haven't had one here in many years and enjoyed seeing yours - and that he was only stunned, not injured (or eaten).

Daisy - loved reading about your DMIL....she is awesome! Her garden and the stone wall are very nice!

Lynn - glad you have both chicks at home for a summer......enjoy....they are gone too quickly! I still want to do my son's laundry when we go to his house (or at least our sheets/towels when we visit him), but he will have none of it. He says it's his turn. He'll be 37 soon. LOL

Candyce - that's a nice close-up shot of the pretty grosbeak. They are among my favorites!! I'm so glad he was only stunned and then made it safely off the ground.

In Candyce's "Welcome home, Louise" thread I posted a shot of Polly Porcupine who visited us early this morning. She then climbed a tree and my DH was able to get this shot of her in the tree. The better photo is on the Welcome home thread.

Thanks, everyone, for the nice words about my MIL, who is really a wonderful gal and a dedicated gardener. I keep trying to get her to go on Dave's Garden, too.

Candyce: I saw my first rose breasted grosbeak just this week in Maine. So beautiful. Glad yours was able to recover.

Daisy:

Just let your DMIL know that some have ourselves and our daughters on DG. There's almost no better 'family time'. I say almost because our best family time comes around the dinner table, so for us, DG is number two on that scale.

Candyce, there was a bird that crashed into my window last Spring, hadn't seen one before, and I didn't know what it was. I think you just ID'd it for me, thanks!

Pretty chilly and rainy here tonight. The hosta and daylilies are really greening up out there in the gentle rain. We've got the heat on to take the damp chill off. Oh My! I think there's just nothing as pretty as the chartreuse green of the new spring leaves on the trees. The maples are almost shockingly pretty. Our old, ancient apple tree is filled with white flowers. Raw, raw, raw out there. It'll be another good sleeping night!

daisygrrl, loved the news about your Maine MIL. I love the birdhouse. My mom is not a gardener, but a traveler and left yesterday for Belgium and she is 93. I hope I have her genes. She will return for a month in Tulsa then head up to her cottage in Canada and do some canoeing.

Today has been damp and cold, but a perfect day to plant a mess of new plants for our endless stream area. It is finally looking like I hoped it would. I found wonderful plants at Bay State in Whately and at Nasami Farm for the woods. I also got a mail order from Rick's which were very nice plants.

We put up 4 new bird houses yesterday, but may have been too late as no takers yet. Patti

This message was edited May 16, 2008 6:55 PM

Nasty day here. Heat is on right now.

Patti - do you get tree swallows there? If so, I doubt if it is too late to attract some birds to your new houses. We have tree swallows chickadees "house shopping" here. They were fun to watch today. I love to have a tree swallow in the box near my veggie garden, because I can usually get within a couple feet of her eventually. They are so social.....lots of fun to have around.

honey took this shot earlier .... this is what the weather is like here

I was doing the same!

Cozy! Cute bedfellows!!

I woke up when she decided to use my face as a pillow

That turkey must loose a 1/4 pound just flying up there every pm ngam!

Temp 49.1°, Wind NE 14.1 mph, Windchill 37.5°. ☺

It is 49 here and has been 50 for almost the entire day. If we didn't need the rain, I'd call this one a real YUCK day! I'm glad I've held off putting anything outside until things really warm up at night more. That will probably be some time next week (keeping fingers crossed).

DonnieBrook, We do have swallows and they have nested here for years, but I didn't see one today. Bad sign as they are almost always here. They are our favorite bird. We have lots of chickadees too. They were investigating the old houses last week. We had them all cleaned out and ready to go. I wanted to add new houses this year and picked up some last week in Vt and NH. I hope we get some takers.

It is pouring right now. I hope I get a planting window tomorrow. Or I will just have to put on my rain gear and do the planting in the rain. I also am changing the elevation of a path and the beds on either side of a new gate that is being built. I have some serious hand digging to do, so the wet soil will be a pain. I also have to move a few yards of soil from one side of the house to the other to use to help raise the elevation of these beds. I should have done this work a month ago as I will need to seed the path unless I use some stone. More lugging. I figure it is better than going to a gym.

onewish1, cute doggies. My 2 just came in soaking wet and seem to be expecting to sleep on our bed. I don't think so! Night all. Patti

the one that is not cuddling ... all i have to do is lay out a towel on the floor she takes care of that... flops around like a fish and drys herself off... the other stands there like "oh my goodness how can you let this happen to me, I can not be wet"

I had planned a trip to Tree Peony nursery where the Gratwick's first propagated the strain named for them, from some trees from Japan 100 years ago.
It's open to the public duering the weekends in May for full blooms.
I called it off.
Rain and wind today with thunder storms. That means business in the Genesee Vally.
I'm bummmed:(

I'm up early to fertilize orchids, feed the finches, off to get a haircut and some orchid pots in VT, then I do the photo workshop at 3 PM here if anyone shows up, hopefully before it starts to rain!! Meanwhile I caught a bad cold and all I really want to do is sleep!! Once it starts raining it will continue tonight. Not getting much gardening done with work and rain.

Rain is welcome here but the wind is not.

I don't want rain till 1 or 2. Supposed to go roadside and sell - akkk

Started raining late afternoon yesterday. Rained all night and is still coming down at a nice steady amount. Temp is at 42 degrees and wind is calm.

Sun and 50, Going to hit the road pretty soon.

Rained hard all night and still coming down and it is windy. It is suppose to clear later, but that sure seems unlikely now.

49 degrees wind at 22 mph and gusting to 38

Not so good for my work plans in the garden. I can deal with the rain, but not the wind. I should jump on the boat and try to make it to Boojum's photo lesson. I could use your help, big time. Sorry you have a cold. Let me know if your orchid pots come home empty. I will do some major work in the GH instead. We will move all the plants outside this week, so they all need haircuts too. Patti

53.8 now, with winds at 10 mph. Good day for working in the courtyard where that NW wind won't get me.

goodness- i missed a couple days- I'm so glad to hear that babies are home, and dexter is recovering well too..
and it has rained hard most of the night here, clearing now with birds chirping away- I think the grass has grown at least an inch since the rain started..
Today's big event will be prom pictures in the back yard!!
sarah

send prom pics when ready.
It's a special day.here too ,grandson graduating from Morrisville on to Florida Atlantic for three more years ,Architect engineering.

The sun is shining and it's 49 on the way up to 71 - according to my on-line forecast. It was pouring when we went to bed after a steady rain all day. They are predicting clouds to move in and more rain this afternoon with a possibility if thunderstorms tonight. Looks beautiful right now!

Same here might go toTree Peony nursery anyway.
Tall bearded iris couldn't help but post here.

57, windy and perfectly clear. Congrats to the grads and prom kings and queens!

We are especially proud of grandson, he has mild terrets and studies very hard. Won a merit scolastic award, placed top 1% in the state.
Just a gramma braggin

56, sunny and breezy. It rained all day and all night here yesterday. It was soooo cold! Had to pile on extra blankets last night.

Allison, your dogs are so cute!

Jo Anne, big congratulations to your grandson!!

Can't wait for the prom pics Sarah!

I'm taking the entire week off next week. Yippie! I hope I get stuff done finally!

I'm late with my report today. I was off doing the grocery shopping. Stopped by HD and averted my eyes, but I saw a beautiful display of snapdragon flats - some of the taller ones. They looked gorgeous and very tempting!!

It is absolutely gorgeous outside right now, but if the breeze isn't blowing I still get bombarded with the 'no-see-ums'!

It rained a gentle rain overnight (of course it did, as I had watered the gardens yesterday morning!), and I couldn't wait to throw open the curtains and see what glory the raindrops had encouraged the garden into displaying! Everything must have jumped up an inch or more. Can you say 'Happy Gardener'?

Currently
67° and it may hit 70!!!!
Wind: N at 14 MPH
Humidity: 25%
Dewpoint: 33°
Pressure: 29.35 in. and falling

Almanac
Normal High: 70°
Normal Low: 43°
Record High: 93° in 1977
Record Low: 27° in 1957

Sunrise: 5:20 am
Sunset: 8:04 pm
Sunrise Tomorrow: 5:19 am
Sunset Tomorrow: 8:05 pm

Moonrise: 6:08 pm
Moonset: 3:39 am
Moonrise Tomorrow: 7:12 pm
Moonset Tomorrow: 4:03 am

Next New Moon: Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Next Full Moon: Monday, May 19, 2008

Temp 68.5°, Wind W 14.6 mph. ☺

My Scotch Broom started blooming today. It's blooming like popcorn! - Well maybe a bit slower, about 1 new bloom every 1/2 hr. This was one of the first blooms this am.

Very nice! Getting cooler now as the clouds roll in. 71 degrees.

Beautiful Scotch Broom, WC!

70 degrees here too, Victor. This has been the most gorgeous day. It rained all night and then cleared just in time for a nice walk early this morning. Everything looks so lush and pretty outside suddenly. My DH tilled the upper part of my veggie garden after lunch so I can get my onions in. We followed a tip from a DG'er on eliminating the Gallant Soldier weeds that almost killed me last year. She said her 90-year-old Mom covers her whole garden with clear plastic all winter, so the heat from the sun will kill all the weeds under the plastic. Well, we did that, and we just took all the HUGE plastic tarps off. The green weeds are looking especially lush from under the plastic. I'm so hoping that the weed seeds parched better than the old weeds that wintered over so nicely. LOL

Look who was visiting this afternoon not 30 feet from the side porch, where 4 of us where laughing and acting up, ignoring us while finding bugs in an ancient apple tree.

When I tried to tiptoe around to take a picture, he took off to one of our new apple trees, daring me to come closer.

Any guesses?