Garden and Fence Photos - and Baby Birds!

Yesterday was a busy day off, but between everything, I found the time to do some photos to share with all of you. It's Saturday today, and I'm looking forward to a quiet weekend (although without a fence, our privacy is nonexistent). We're supposed to be getting some showers too, which my plants will appreciate. DH picked up some new bean seeds - our pole beans just haven't sprouted at all, and they should have by this time. So ... he picked up a new pack of seeds. However ... when he got home and actually read the package, he realized they were bush beans, not pole beans. Nontheless, that's what we'll plant in that section of the garden. We're running out of time for an autumn harvest if we don't get something into the ground. 

You can easily see their little beaks facing the house 
clapboard. They're absolutely adorable, and Momma is 
doing a great job keeping them safe. 

So ... photos. Let's start with something really cute. The photo above is two baby robins on the nest that mama bird built on top of our front door exterior light. I love that the eggs were kept safe enough to hatch these little guys. Mom's busy trolling through our front yard grass, bringing up luscious worms and bugs for the two to eat. They're ever hungry, but VERY well trained. If there's anything moving in their vicinity, they freeze - utterly motionless and soundless. These two might very well live long enough to become fledglings. 

Here are the new fence posts in the upper yard, That's 
Laura's house at the back, and if you can see the dark 
fence at the far right, that's the fence of Chris and Colleen. 
You're only seeing a small portion of the 15 posts in 
this photo. 

Here's a look from the far West end down towards 
the East. You can get a feel for the slope it goes 
down as it heads that direction through our garden 
area. The lighter bit at the upper left is the curving 
stone of the semi-circled garden at the far left 
in the first photo. 

Now - on to the fence. Here are two photos of fence poles. As you can tell, any privacy we had is now completely erased until the new panels are installed. We're sending off the payment to the fence company today, so hopefully will be penciled into their schedule soon so that we can have our yard back ASAP. There are a total of 15 posts installed, that will hold 12 panels and a gate. Laura and Fakhri's house has lost their privacy from us at the same time. It's a good thing I enjoy having them as neighbors. 

Here's my beautiful purple columbine. I'm totally in love 
with this flower - I talk to it every day. Columbines in 
general bring back very happy memories of my youth. 

Here are my pink Columbines. For some reason, 
they droop down, I have no idea why. They're 
still beautiful, but they're just being stubborn! LOL

A little bit away from the pink Columbines, are my red 
ones. these are happy and perky and lovely. The Columbine 
(the purple/blue one) is the state flower of Colorado, 
so I guess I had a lot of interaction with it as I was growing 
up in the Mile High City. 

Finally, here are a few photos of some of the many flowers DH has planted for me. So pretty! He made sure to get some purple Columbine flowers for me because I miss the ones I saw growing wild at the heights of the Colorado Rocky Mountains of my youth. I didn't think the purple variety grew at lower altitudes, but DH said they did, and he proved it by planting this one. It's wonderful. The other two - the pink and the red - are also lovely, but that purple one has my heart. 

Our bleeding heart is going a bit crazy this year. Maybe it's making up for other plants that are disappointing DH for one reason or another. We haven't had a hot year yet, but it's still May - the true heat is yet to come. My tomato and pepper plants are doing VERY well, and the raspberries (DH thinned the patch - VERY needed) seem to be filling in nicely. It should be an excellent harvest later this year. Once the fence is back up, we can truly enjoy our back yard once again. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

A Hawk, Lillies and Prayers for Kei Again

I'm going to have to make a bit of time to write today because the latest prompt for LJ Idol is due tomorrow and I don't want to be eliminated for not having put out a tale. I know the direction I want to go with this prompt, it came clear to me yesterday but I didn't have any time to devote to it. Yesterday was a VERY busy day, and I didn't get half as much done as I wanted to do. Still, I got the majority of things I needed to complete done, so all things, it was a good day. 

Can you see my hawk? It was letting me get quite 
close to it, while it carefully watched all around it. 
It was very aware I was there, but didn't seem 
bothered by me. 

Most important to me was getting my hummingbirds restocked on nectar. I should have done this late Tuesday, I knew it was low, but I did it on Wednesday afternoon and the greedy little things had just about eaten it down. I got that restocked, however, and settled down in my chair on the patio to watch the feeder for a bit when I saw it - one of my two hawks, perched on a branch in my upper back yard, cool and comfortable. 

After a little while, it shifted a bit. Now you can 
see the white speckled breast of the hawk as it 
looks over towards the neighbor's yard. It left to join 
it's companion shortly after this photo. 

I actually was able to get fairly close to it before it switched to a different branch and I returned to my chair. So I'm sharing a couple of hawk photos with you today, as well as a photo from the garden. We don't have much in bloom right now, but the lillies are quite lovely, so I thought I'd share those. 

We don't have a lot blooming right now, 
in fact, this year has been extremely 
disappointing because the ground 
squirrels and moles have really done a 
number on the yard. But the white 
lillies are blooming right now, and 
they're quite lovely. 

Shortly after I resettled on the patio, I heard the second hawk call to the first one, and saw them fly off south after prey they had spotted. It's too bad they're not into mole diving. I sure could use something to go after the moles that are eating up my yard this year. I've never had such a bad year for moles and they're digging everywhere. It's more than likely the main reason our plants have had problems this year. 

Please continue to send positive thoughts and 
prayers to my friend Keiless who is still 
in hospital after more than two weeks, and 
still doing poorly. We need lots of positive 
prayers. I'll know more at the end of 
next week when a mutual friend flies over 
to be with her family in this difficult time. 

Have an excellent Thursday. I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week. I'll be back tomorrow and as always these days, Slava Ukraini. OH ... and please continue your prayers for my friend Keiless who is still in hospital and still NOT doing well. Another mutual friend will be flying out the end of next week to see her and help her family during this difficult time. I'm holding them in my thoughts and prayers and ask for you to also spare a kind thought for Kei's recovery and return to her home and loved ones. 

Housecleaning Has Started and Birds, Birds and Birds

Let me start out with the important things right away. Voting for the latest LJ Idol stories is now open at this link ( https://therealljidol.dreamwidth.org/1123882.html ) and I'd really, REALLY, appreciate your vote for my latest tale - a conversation between my BFF Sharon and I in the "Unconventional" challenge. I used the format - dialog only - as well as the topic, my own unconventional activities while in High School, to meet the parameters. If you haven't read it, you can click on the story from the voting page listed above. We're getting down in numbers, and I'd really like to be one of the few left standing when all of this is over. 

I'm having a ton of fun writing for LJ Idol, and I'm now 
one of under 20 writers still left in the pack, after we 
started with more than 80. But, it's more important than 
ever to get the votes, so if you liked my story for 
the "Unconventional" theme, please follow the link 
and put in a vote for it. 

I actually got quite a lot done yesterday. Not as much as I wanted, of course, but quite a bit. One of the major things I did was pull the area rugs up from the "guest" bathroom and toss them into the wash. That's not as easy as it sounds, I keep those carpets safe and in place with carpet tape under each one, and getting the tape off the carpet or floor was a PITA. Still, as the saying goes, I persevered. LOL I ended up being so busy yesterday, however, that I didn't even have time for a half-hour in the garden. That was disappointing, but I got repaid later in the evening. 

This example is a bit more mature than the juvenile that 
was in my tree last night, but it's the right breed. A 
Cooper's Hawk - beautiful bird that BETTER NOT 
attack or spook my Hummingbirds. 

After dinner, before I settled down at my computer for the night, I went to the back door because I was hearing a bird call. A little patience and I saw one of my young hawks flew into the maple tree that extends over our patio seating area. It perched there, calling out, for several minutes before moving to another branch in the tree. I think we've been adopted by at least one, and maybe two hawks and I'm thrilled. 

We've also been adopted by at least two 
Least Flycatchers which like to hang 
around in the upper back yard. They flit 
around the yard, and preen in front of our 
side door. They're delightful birds, and 
I'm very pleased to share my trees with them. 

I also had a chance earlier in the day to restock the hummingbird feeder. They've found it now and it's on their flight path. I'm having to restock it every few days, 2-3 times a week. It's a good thing DH picked up a new bag of sugar the other day. I'm going through it like crazy for my little hummers. 

I have one of these - a Hoover SteamVac 
Ultra - that DH bought for me decades 
ago. It works really well, but I haven't used 
it in a LONG time. I think I need to do a 
deep clean this year, so I'm bringing this 
out and I'll use it because my carpeting 
really needs a good clean. 

I pulled out my carpet steamer/vacuum, cleaned it off thoroughly, gave it a good look-over and downloaded the operators manual for it (since I couldn't find my original). It looks quite do-able,  and I still have the various detergents and spot cleaners, so I'll begin tackling carpeting on Friday. The other thing I'll do on Friday is set up the new WiFi Extenders that I got. I wasn't happy with the last ones, so I've replaced them with a different type which will, hopefully, work even better. We'll see - LOL. So ... time for photos and then off to the pool for my final swim of the week. Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.