June's Crescendo

I spotted this tiny yellow flower blooming happily in Emily's part of the yard. It's a pretty little thing, isn't it?

I've not identified it yet, but I do know I'll be moving it into one of the back garden beds, to see if it will seed itself around and add to the show.

As I wandered back into the garden this morning, there was plenty of wild activity in progress. A pair of chipmunks were chasing one another around in circles, robins and mourning doves were foraging in the grass paths, and this cheery oriole (can you spot him?) was happily singing his way from birdbath to birdbath.

On another front, we suspect that our catbirds who are nesting in the rhododendron outside the living room window may have babies, since we see what looks to be a lot of feeding activity there. No tiny baby heads are visible or anything, which is why its just suspicion. I'll keep you posted as further information becomes available.


In the back gardens, wild daisies are blooming all over the place, a precursor to the Shasta daisies which should come into bloom in a couple of weeks.

This year's new red rocket snapdragons have begun to bloom this week.

I think this is the only variety of foxglove I've not photographed yet this year. These all-white spires have pale, chocolated-colored speckles inside each blossom. To the side, you can see some of that hawkweed I mentioned the other day.

Meanwhile, the tiger lilies first spotted last Friday are making great progress, greening up nicely as they thrust for the sky.

In the northern margin of the garden (under the peach tree), this red rose wanders through some thorny raspberries. It needs a sunnier location, I think, where it can thrive without being so crowded, and so I'll try that later in the season.

An earlier attempt to move this plant two years ago split it in half. That other half now grows on the "DNA" trellace, and looks just about ready to bloom itself.

Over by the grapevines, this double magenta rose is also offering a few blossoms. It's still not blooming very heavily, though, which again may result from over-crowding, since the grapes still encroach on them. The late season may see a good pruning and cleaning out of the area around this rose, in hopes I can encourage it to more fantastic bloom in 2008.

Here's a shot of the new moon over Rock Harbor tonight, as I made my way home from work.