The beginning of my 60th year on earth was a little rocky in places. My energy levels were low, and there was a lot of confusion as to which emotion I should be feeling. The actual day was not all that great; I spent the majority of it alone as Jim had to work.
The fact that he had already made me a quite wonderful birthday cake (chocolate with cream cheese icing) which I had shared with some friends as well as him made no difference to the mood. The day was rather gray weatherwise, and that is how it felt emotionally too, with atmospheric disturbances, sudden showers and some stormy periods.
The next day was fabulous. I was in a fine mood, I got a very very wonderful card from one of my clients, some people brought me little gifts, and I declared Tuesday to be my actual birthday. As it turns out, I had a birthday week as one of my friends stopped by to play Scrabble with me last night (I won one and she won one too) and brought me a selection of cards she had made for me.
The vegetable garden has been blessing us with massive quantities of zucchini. We have discovered that you can dehydrate zucchini slices and then when you rehydrate them they go into soups and keep their shape quite nicely. Good flavor too. The cucumbers have just started producing, and I have begun collecting the tiny fruits that are required for making sweet gherkins. The beans are starting to come on too, and I can pick sweet young carrots to enjoy. We have some tomatoes set as well.
The flower gardens are lush this year. This is how the Petite Prairie looks right now.
I love the way this has turned out. It is beautiful in all seasons. However, this picture gives you NO idea of the gigantic swarm of mosquitoes that has taken up residence back there. They are very hungry and it is a real challenge to get anything done back there right now. The only consolation is knowing that the wrens have plenty of bugs to feed their babies (who will be fledging soon), and also the unfed mosquitoes do not live forever and soon there will be less of them.
Spacecoast Starburst day lily
Enjoy this progression:
This is a sunflower that the bluejays planted in the raspberry patch last fall.
By the way, I haven’t been able to enjoy many raspberries at all despite the fact that the plants have LOTS of berries set. This morning when I went out to capture the sunflower, I discovered why there have not been any ripe berries. The brown thrasher was out there having her breakfast. She apparently is not all that concerned about whether the berries she is eating are fully ripe….
I have mixed feelings about this. I love having wildlife, and I conscientiously produced a yard that is conducive to providing habitat for all sorts of birds. I unwittingly provided a whole patch of what appears to be the favorite food of the brown thrasher. Too bad for me that it is also one of my favorites! Perhaps we will deploy a bird barrier. Perhaps we won’t. There is a lot of stuff that needs to be done around here, and adding one more chore to the list is not really good for our sanity. So this year the thrasher is in luck. Next year, not so much….
And so, off we go into the summer……….
