Friday Noontime

This daylily, Joan Senior, continues to pump out some lovely cream colored blossoms, with an array of buds promising more blooms in the future.

Here's the first bachelor button to bloom as a result of my seeding efforts earlier in the spring.

Below, an orange calendula glows in the shade of a nearby milkweed stalk.


Although it's always better to water earlier in the day when it's cooler, I do often enjoy visiting the garden around noontime, since that seems to be rush hour for pollinators, especially when the Oregano That Ate Eastham is in bloom.

Blue-tailed flies, bumblebees, orange wasps, blue ones, moths, butterflies...it's really kind of fun to just sit back and watch.

Today I was happy to see two more honeybees out there working the oregano blossoms.

That makes a total of only three I've seen so far this year.

This chickadee was flying around in the underbrush, and perched in the little peach tree (we have two) and sang for a while, letting me take some photos of him (*or her).

But the day's real excitement came as I made my way back to the house, and heard some rustling in the dead leaves, and spotted this young Eastern Box Turtle bumping up against a length of garden fencing which had gotten in his way. (I do know that this was a male, since they have pinkish-red eyes!)

I know generally I am not supposed to interfere with nature's business, and for the most part, I don't. But I did put the fence there, so I felt justified in picking up the little guy and offering him a ride to the other side of the fence (which I will be removing this weekend).

He seemed grateful to be moving on and quickly made his way off into the woods.

For the record, it would appear they ARE faster than dial-up.