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Birdfeeding

Today is sunny and warm.

I fed the birds.  I've seen a small flock of doves, several house finches, and a brown thrasher.  A robin shrieked at me while I was refilling the feeders.

My first shipment of live plants has come, this one from Oikos Tree Crops.  >_<  Optimum planting season for dormant things here is mid-March to mid-April.  Now in mid-May, the grass is knee-high where it hasn't been mowed and a bitch to dig through.  Every damn thing except one package of sunchokes is fully leafed out, which means 1) it all has to be planted as soon as possible, and 2) it's less likely to survive anyway.  Just to make things extra pesky, only some of the items were actually labeled and I had to extrapolate the rest by comparing appearance against the shipping manifest.  For fucksake people.  And regrettably, Oikos is the only place to get a lot of what they sell, which is proprietary cultivars and uncommon edibles or wildflowers.

Anyhow, I planted 1 'Edible White' Wild Violet, and what was supposed to be 2 Canadian Wild Ginger turned out to be 4, in the forest garden outside the kitchen window.   (I'll give Oikos credit for one thing, they often throw in more than I ordered of bagged roots, to the tune of half again or twice as much.)  I also dug up and potted a couple of catnip plants for a friend.  The stuff is naturalized here and bees love it as well as cats do. 

EDIT 5/12/21 -- Flock of goldfinches!  I saw 2 males and 1 female in the forest garden eating seeds.  :D

EDIT 5/12/21 -- I put jug covers and labels on the extra Canadian Wild Ginger plants, and I planted a leek in the wildflower garden.

EDIT 5/12/21 -- I cleared spaces to plant more leeks in the prairie garden.

Wild strawberries and black raspberries are blooming.  Blackberries have buds.  Mulberries have green fruit.
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Birdfeeding

Today is mostly cloudy, breezy, and cool.

I fed the birds.  I've seen doves, house finches, a pair of cardinals feeding each other, a rabbit, and a squirrel.

I spread compost and planted seeds in part of the wildflower garden.  I planted smooth blue aster, aromatic aster, cardinal flower, rudbeckia 'Prairie Glow,' wild bergamot, and yarrow.  :D

EDIT 5/11/21 -- I planted more flower seeds in the wildflower garden.

I saw a male goldfinch at the hopper feeder, mostly in his yellow summer coat, with a few smudges of olive winter feathers left.

EDIT 5/11/21 -- I planted more flower seeds in the wildflower garden.  I've used about a bag and a half of compost today.  \o/

EDIT 5/11/21 -- I pulled some grass from the wildflower garden.
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Monday Update 5-10-21

These are some posts from the later part of last week in case you missed them:
Poem: "Make It Worth Their While"
Birdfeeding
Community Building Tip: Tour Guide
Poem: "Christmas Chilies"
Poem: "Tasting Your Way Around the Sea"
Poem: "Crickets on the Hearth"
Birdfeeding
Poem: "Repair Just About Anything"
Chicken and Mushroom Stir-Fry
Birdfeeding
Today's Cooking
Poem: "A Crazy and Drunk Life"
Birdfeeding
Poem: "Quicker Than You Can Lower Them"
Poem: "Ways to Make the Pain Go Away"
Coping Skills: TV and Movies
Poem: "The Greatest Accomplishment of a Bartender"
No More Stolen Sisters
Birdfeeding
Cuddle Party


Poetry in Microfunding:

There are two open epics at present.

"The Hobbomak" launches the Bear Tunnels series. Emma and Jesse explore the images on the walls.

"A Celebration and a Consolation" belongs to Polychrome Heroics. Keira comforts her mother after the breakup.


The weather has been mostly mild here. It rained some. Seen at the birdfeeders this week: a large flock of mourning doves (including courtship behavior), a flock of grackles, a flock of sparrows, 4 bluejays, a few robins, several house finches who are draining the thistle sock, a pair of cardinals, a pair of rose-breasted grosbeaks, a brown thrasher, and a squirrel.  Currently blooming: violets, tulips, purple allium, white allium, lily of the valley, butterfly weed, honeysuckle, wood hyacinth.  Iris, peonies, and poppies have buds.