Out in the yard again

With a new iPhone and a new computer come disruptions of old habits and the sometimes puzzling fun of working out new ways of doing things. I thought I could blog from the phone and use photos but I'm guessing I need  one more app to complete the equation. But getting photos to my Picasa web albums from the phone is easy, and getting them from there to Blogger on the computer is easy, so maybe it's ok that it's less easy to work the complete process on the iPhone.
I'm spending most of a nice weekend pottering around the yard, cleaning up here and there and rejoicing that my knee has decided that squatting occasionally is ok. Maybe it likes spring too.
I have several different varieties of sedum out front (no longer or never labeled) and was surprised to notice differences in the location of their first spring shoots. I thought of the plants as roughly similar in form but  with different flower and foliage colors. So I expected that they would all sprout from a rosette of leaves at the base of the plant. I was diligently removing old dead flower stalks and stopped just in time on the last plant, when I realized that, unlike the others, it had no basal rosette, but was starting to sprout new leaves on the old stems.
I expect plenty of praying mantises this summer, if the number of egg cases are any indication.
I'm seeing a lot of bird activity. A male house finch seemed to be inviting a female to assess the attractions of our forsythia bushes. One surprise is that, although many migrants have returned, the juncos are still here.
Here's a daffodil:

In the yard today

The peonies and Siberian iris are blooming. The sweet woodruff I brought home from Maine traveled well and is blooming next to a small pink astilbe beside the front steps. The 3 echinaceas I planted in back last year are coming up nicely. I've added mixed zinnias, cleome, white alyssum, and a few snapdragons here and there to fill in some gaps, plus half a dozen little dahlias (figaro). I grew up with a family prejudice against dahlias but these had the right size, color, and adaptability for a spot in the back, and unlike petunias might not be tasty to rabbits.

Last weekend included a big cleanup effort in the back corner, battling invasive vines and rearranging some day lilies. Today the anti-vine effort moved to the front but there is still a lot left to do. I had intended to cut down any and all honeysuckle until I saw a female hummingbird breakfasting at the vine that's climbing the viburnum. Now it seems heartless to cut it all down!

Neighbors

Start at the back door to see:
--Tiger swallowtails and a monarch sharing the butterfly bushes and a hot pink zinnia.
--By 8 a.m. sun like a spotlight on the orangey red zinnias, cosmos, blackeyed susans, and echinacea in the back corner. (The year is turning around: A few weeks ago the sun arrived at 7:30.)
--Hummingbird swooping past the butterfly bush and up into a hemlock two yards away
Moving to the front yard, don't miss the bumble bees, and an occasional honey bee (suggesting a nearby beekeeper?).
Head down the street to the next corner and startle goldfinches who rise, twittering, out of a neighbor's mass of echinacea going to seed.
Further down the street, pause to admire the Sri Lankan monks' peppers and beets growing neatly at the feet of a statue of the Buddha meditating tranquilly in a 50 year old American suburban lawn.

Catching up with Fall

Last Sunday, before I went out and cut down the asters that were going to seed, I saw a small bird among them. After some hunting for the binoculars I got it in sight just as it flew up onto a branch, where it sat posing and bobbing its tail. I'm not positive but I think it was a palm warbler in fall plumage.

We have had some cool nights--not a hard frost, but there is a white dusting on the grass in the morning. I'm guessing that the temperature change explains the morning glories' color shift: the brilliant blue blossoms now are paler and have a purple cast.

Summer's still here

Yesterday's excitement was a hummingbird's extended visit to our butterfly bush. I think she might be nesting nearby. The last caterpillar disappeared on Friday. I am hoping that they all went off to pupate safely and will emerge later this month as 5 lovely butterflies.






Meanwhile, the yellow squash (Early Prolific Straightneck) keeps producing. The one plant is about right for our squash-eating pace.

Summer in the backyard

I've neglected this blog, but I've been inspired to revisit it as part of a convergence of interests: knitting and ordinary nature. By "ordinary" I mean what's here next to us wherever we are, visible every day if only we look.
So where does the knitting come in? Well, I've started reading Michele Rose Orne's book Inspired to Knit. Her designs are a bit frou-frou for me, but her process intrigues me enough that I've joined the related knitalong. The idea is to create our own seasonal "mood boards", starting with summer, with a view to using them as inspiration for our own knitting designs . She suggests collages of things torn from magazines, found objects, etc. I just took my coffee out to the back step and sat a while.
Here's what I've noticed so far:

• Summer here is hot. The strong sunlight calls for strong colors--zinnia shades, not sweet pastels.
  
  
• At this point in the summer everything is overgrown.
• There are beautifully striped black swallowtail caterpillars on the bronze fennel, and all sorts of bees on the mint blossoms.
  
  
• Butterflies in flight include Eastern swallowtail, Cabbage white, Buckeye, various skippers.
  
  
• Flocks of goldfinches (more black and yellow!) visit the zinnias for the seeds.