as we approach the peak of gardening abundance, it is hard to squeeze in time to post and share all the beauty and bounty! this will be photo heavy and easy breezy on the words, in that spirit.
my entire last roll of film contained only photos of flowers with either a bird or a bee in the frame, and i’m sure there is something witty i could say about that, but… so little time.
the bees have been all over our yard, which is heartening! i have been reading many a report of lack of bee sightings, and i don’t think i have a particularly amazing bunch of apiary plants around, but i do have some tasty borage flowers (tasty for humans, too!) and a sprawling butterfly bush they like to visit, as well as several other types of flowering plants. bees are so important to the garden ecosystem, and i think often we forget that when we are in a rush to grow as much food as we can, and we tend to be heavy on the food crops and light on the plants that attract beneficial insects. the beauty for human enjoyment should also be factored in, and may even count towards more produce come fall, since i find the more flowers abound, the longer i tend to linger in the garden to just tend one more little thing…
quinn chose this gorgeous dahlia (it has lovely dark foliage) as his farmer’s market “treat” a few weeks ago. he intuitively understands the need for beauty.
there is the busy little bee himself, tending his strawberry plants.
our very first sunflower to open was also on the darker side, a gorgeous evening sun variety. this one makes me smile in particular because my bff not only loves sunflowers, but this is her color scheme- black-red-purple-orange? black cherry? hard to put a name on it. only a handful of our sunflowers have survived, but up against the house seems to be protected from the wind enough to let them reach maturity. (it gets pretty windy here during the summer.)
sunny number two was opening just this morning! and there are more babies on the way… exciting! just in front of the sunflowers, our popcorn is looking amazing, with tassles dripping pollen everywhere, and several ears already forming!
on the darker side of things again, my cat has developed a morbid interest in capturing hummingbirds. 🙁 i don’t think i’ve ever been angrier with her! thankfully, only one mortality has occurred, but she put two other tiny birds in serious shock, before i was able to get them from her and release them. the little one above is one of the survivors, if you can believe it. hard to describe, the feeling of a hummingbird in complete shock, heart beating a zillion times a minute in the palm of your hand, and them zoooooooommmmm! off it flew. sorry, babies. i am keeping kitty inside at your active times, because i am so happy your little family has been living in our yard!
may the boundless joy and energy of the hummingbird bless your garden as well!
Am so jealous you got to hold a hummingbird! My mom has a bunch visiting her yard- she has so many plants and feeders- they are so well fed that they just come to 'chill'. You can see a line of ruby throats just perched on the fence in the evening 🙂 do you have hummingbird moths in Oregon?
hmmm, i don't know! enlighten me! 😉 (i guess google would know…) for the record, i think i have anna's hummingbirds here. we used to get the ruby throated ones at our feeder when my parents had the place on saranac lake.
ah, those hummingbird pictures are amazing! and the little sweetie in your hand…as it's little heart beat away, i imagine your own breath and heart stopped. precious. i also love the purple flowers in the top pic…you seem to have captured this aspect of blue/purple flowers…they literally glow, especially come dusk.
thank you for feeding the bees! we have lots here in the city, since i guess SF has 500 independent bee keepers! lots of bumbles too. i am so heartened by their presence. i'm glad they found you. xoxo
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Oh those hummingbirds!
That's not a ginger plant the hummers are on is it? (red flowers).
Your garden is lovely. We're coming into a big flush of flowers lately and I too am more attracted, like the birds and bees, to our backyard.
6512 and growing recently posted..This day