Monday Things

The circle of life spins on. As the apple blossoms around back of the house burst into bloom, the orange tulips out front are finding ways to surprise as their beauty fades.

I think they are even lovelier as this yellow streaking becomes more prominent.

Another lovely day here on the Cape, though it was pretty windy out there in the sunshine. It took a number of shots to finally capture the right one of these lilacs. I found them in my friend Patience's yard, blooming just in time for her birthday tomorrow!

And the Purple Beat goes on.



The sunny but turbulent day brought some fantastic looking clouds to our blue sky this afternoon, drawing me down to the Rock Harbor Boat Launch for a nice clear look at them after work.

I didn't spot the Ferdinand cloud until I got home and looked at the pictures, though! Do you see him?


Meanwhile, back home in the garden, look at this cluster of Foxglove plants, keeping pace, height-wise with the nearby daylilies.

I'm excited that this is such a nice healthy plant, since I'm looking forward to it seeding itself around in this new garden, as it did back in Eastham. You just can't have too much digitalis.


Meanwhile, the morning glories in my bedroom window are growing ever larger, and should be finding themselves planted outside within the week. I'll need to get some string trellaces up for them post-haste, too, since they look more than ready to start climbing and twining!

Here's Emily appearing to be a good girl, as she encourages me to head out on our nightly stroll around the block.

She was patient enough as I put dinner together (that was about food, after all--tonight, chicken tenderloins baked with sweet potatoes and green beans, topped with a little cheddar cheese). But that seemed to wear a little thin when I turned my attention to cleaning the catbox. I'm sure she'd have appreciated the urgency there more, if she was sharing a bedroom with it, as I do. I love our gray dude, but sometimes he can be a stinky little guy.

Perhaps you're already thinking something's up, and if I mention that Em's poo this evening was a little less firm than it perhaps ought to have been, you might think ("Greg doesn't talk about this stuff...") you've been transported to another blog, perhaps the one by Tornwordo.

OK, so you caught me, it was all just a subtle little tribute to Mr. T. as he celebrates his third anniversary of bringing Crows that Stick to the internet each morning to go along with your morning coffee. Over at SC, things scatological and stinky are more likely! I'm sorry I haven't been visiting over there all three of those years, but there's always something interesting, amusing or otherwise thought-provoking.(And this kills me.)

The clouds are part of the celebration, too. Happy Three, Torn!

When we got home from that walk, I discovered there was indeed oriole frolicking going on in the apple tree. Miz O feasted her way through assorted sweet and tasty blossoms, while her boyfriend sang protectively from a branch a few feet above her.

Perhaps you are admiring the gauzey, almost Victorian painting quality of this photo...and maybe you are wondering what my secret is. And now I am forced to admit that you, too, can take such lovely photos, if the angle of the sun is right...and you don't wash your kitchen windows. (Despite the successful result here, I'll try to get those wiped clean sometime soon!)

And as we bring the day to a close, the Full Corn Planting Moon rises in the southeast. Gentlemen and ladies (and other ladies, and less gentle men), start your shovels and get out there and plant something!!

Orioles Return

I was giving the garden a little attention this morning when I heard a familiar voice behind me. I knew it was about the time the orioles would be returning, but I didn't know if I should expect them here in this neighborhood. But there he was, a flash of orange, sitting up there singing to let us all know he had arrived. I'll have to pick up an orange or two to cut up and leave out for his enjoyment and use in courting.


I remember watching the oriole couples frolicking in the apple blossoms in Eastham. As it turns out, the apple tree outside the kitchen window is about to burst into flower, so we might be in for a similar show this year and right outside the window. The cat will have a happy stroke.

The larger, earlier purple tulips are starting to show a little signs of wear, but the smaller ones which have appeared alongside the first flowers are looking quite enjoyable.

I wouldn't mind if they all came up this size. Perhaps that's something I can look forward to as the bulb ages.

I hope you all will indulge me another long lingering gaze at these delightful bleeding heart blossoms. It's been so long since I've had one of these around. Does anyone else see Marlo Thomas as That Girl (but with pink hair) in these pendant little hearts?

Our neighbors to the west are almost never over there, so the grass and other denizens of the green are having their way with the backyard. Here's the view through a break in our own fence. It's a delightful sort of chaos that happens when plants get their way, isn't it?

That little splash of purple by the break in the fence is more money plant--it really does seed itself in everywhere. Oh, and I also took this photo to show you all the LEAVES which have suddenly appeared in the treetops all around!

Every spring this happens. Meteorologists apparently love to f*ck with me. They tell me we've got four out of five days coming full of rain and so I leave the hose and watering can aside for other pursuits. And then the storm changes track, or breaks up over Cape Cod Bay...and there's my garden, unwatered.

This week, it was supposed to rain Monday and Tuesday...and we didn't see Drop One of that. The storm moved out to sea, so all we got was some serious wind. And in a week where tropical cyclones and earthquakes have killed hundreds of thousands of people in other parts of the world, how do I find it in me to complain about a sunny day?

It hadn't been that warm, so I really wasn't too worried about watering...especially since it was still going to rain on Thursday and Friday. Now that schedule's been revised, too, with rain currently predicted/guessed at to show up Friday and last the weekend.

I'll be watering things in the morning, just to guarantee it.

Check out these crazy clouds over our street tonight. I swear I didn't photoshop them, but doesn't it look like the winds just going in all different directions?

Birds, Bees, Turtles and Frogs

This little purple finch (right) has set its sights on the front of our house. A few days ago, it tried unsuc cessfully to build a nest in the light fixture over our front door.

As an option, Owen hung a ceramic bird nest nearby, in hopes it will consider this alternative. We'll see what happens, but the finch's interest hasn't waned.

I'm not sure of the identity of that higher bird, to the left.

In the same neighborhood, a female cardinal (the same one that's tried to build in the andromeda bush the last two springs, perhaps) has taken to hanging out in the lower evergreen shrub next to the andromeda...which would be fine, if she could learn to be less skittish about our comings and goings. I always feel so bad for disturbing her.
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Another beautiful Cape Cod day here, nice and sunny and relatively warm, though it's cooled off again now that it's dark.

That oriole I've been hearing has been making himself more visible, singing around from tree to tree around the whole yard, but particularly, it seems, in the trees around the fringe of the back garden.

The apple tree is beginning to blossom this weekend, and you can see the bumblers have wasted no time in planning their visits.


Had another good day of work out there today. I planted a pair of small marigold patches, and then planted some seeds (alyssum, cosmos and bachelor buttons) and a few more of the gladiolas.

I got more weeding done in one of the beds further out in my arrangements, and was happy to discover most of the tree seedlings I planted for Arbor Day last year are leafing out nicely. As these seedlings are still all less than six inches in height, you'll understand my enthusiasm.

And I also got the paths mowed and edged, so things are starting to look pretty nice out there.


I've been noticing a cowbird out in the back this past week, and also another, gray bird. And today, I realized that the gray one is a female cowbird (there's also been a catbird hanging around, which was helping me to confuse the identity of this one), when I saw the two of them cavorting together in the apple trees.

I was just enjoying a quiet moment at the end of the work when he came splashing into one of the freshly-filled birdbaths. He had a pretty elaborate session and the sounds of his bathing attracted other attention.

Overhead, a this bluejay circled around and landed at another feeder, where he had a nice drink before flying off again.

Mr. Cowbird made quite a fuss about drying off after his bath, fluttering around near the sun-warmed upper branches of the apple trees, rubbing his beak on the tree branches.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, there were three turtles on Basking Log this afternoon. One splashed away before I even snapped a photo, but I managed to get closer than usual before the other two were disturbed.

And then there was one.


Further along the shore, an assortment of green frogs lay still in the shallow edges of the pond, waiting for bugs. It must be their hrrhm hrrhm hrrrhm we've been hearing for the last week or so.