“The kestrel is back!” exclaimed Grant. “On his waiting room perch!”
Myopically gazing out, I said I thought it was a dove, confirmed by the zoom.
The two birds have very similar colouring and that is the kestrel’s favourite branch.
The “waiting room” is barely clinging to life and it gets in the way of many of my photographs, but all sorts of birds perch in it, so we would never consider taking it down.
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The waiting room was already more or less dead when we arrived 8 years ago. More upsetting is the condition of two spruce trees, ruined by fungus and beetles. They have always been a part of our landscape and will be sorely missed.
Many such trees in the area are affected.
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That last day of June, we went again to the Georgi, since gardens change so rapidly. It is close by and a great place to enjoy the outdoors and some lovely flowers.
On the way, I noted that the corn is already well established.
The leaves catching sunlight in a most pleasing way.
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Our heatwave had not yet arrived, but the weather was warming, which made the Battenkill River most appealing. Visions of floating down it in an inner tube came to mind. When I was young, I would have done just that.
Usually, there are people fishing here, but there was not a soul in sight.
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The flowerbeds had come far since our last visit, not so long ago.
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Yellow is the colour of the moment and I was captivated by these blooms catching sunrays.
My handy plant identifiers both insist that this is Evening primrose and it does resemble on-line photos, but not so much the variety I have in my garden.
I note that these are Meadow evening primrose, so maybe that accounts for the difference.
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Mine are Common, as you’d expect!
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It matters not what they are called, as far as I am concerned, but I like to identify what I post.
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The sort of shape I don’t much care for, yet I quite like these.
How perverse humans are.
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Sometimes I know the app is wrong. Even I can tell this is not a Luna moth!
It got the right answer when I showed it a different picture.
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This is a Luna moth. Also quite lovely.
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The app insists this is False sunflower. Who am I to argue?
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Did I say yellow was the in colour?
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It was too early for the hydrangea trees, but the American elderberry bushes were in bloom..
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On the lawn, Grant found a tiny bird nest that must have fallen from a tree. I asked Google to identify it, but received no answer. It may be a hummingbird nest, but maybe someone will recognise it?
There was no sign of distressed birds, so hopefully they all survived.
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Amazed that the deer have not consumed your hostas.
There are lots of hostas around and they seem untouched.
Amazing! Mine were gone every time the rain washed off the deer-repelling, stale spices I used to sprinkle them with.
I have a lovely pic of my Iraqi-conceived cat chasing one around an oak tree as the deer nibbles the hostas around its base.
Our heatwave has returned. We are set for 10 continuous days of temperatures in excess of 30C in the south and east. When it doesn’t drop below 21C at night, I have great trouble getting proper sleep. Your flower photos are lovely, and it doesn’t really matter to me what their actual names are.
Best wishes, Pete.
That is a long stretch. I hope you get some cooler nights.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the beautiful flowers, yellow or not; all flowers are the essence of the world! I love this masterpiece of creation, the nest! Here, the heatwave is going to last for 10 days, and I have a fan on, day and night. I was lucky to find one that is silent, and I can sleep with cold air around me.
Joanna
My expert says the nest is that of a Junco!
I’ll accept that!
I’ve mentioned it before, but for me, yellow is the colour of summer (going well with summer flowers and the sun). The patterns on the Purple Foxglove are lovely. Thanks, your flowers brightened up my cold winter afternoon a bit!