yesterday's garden...

Yesterday, Hershey and I spent the day in the backyard garden weeding and watering and trying to keep the green heron away. He must have been somewhere watching us as when I went inside for lunch and Hershey went into the garage for a nap, he was back at the pond within 10 minutes. Thank goodness, I have not seen him yet today!
We welcomed all kinds of other birds and this baltimore oriole and...
juvenille orchard oriole were brave enough to eat while we working.
If it were not for the iris currently blooming the garden is still all green. New ones opening up are this beautiful pink one (my fav)...
purple and yellow...
purple and cream...
and this beautiful yellow and white one (the photo doesn't do it justice).
There are several blooming with yellows/browns and I don't remember ordering any...they are okay but not near as striking...If I had to do it over, I think it there would be lots more pinks.
A few shasta daisies are starting to pop open as well as the baptisma (false indigo) and...
maybe by the end of next week I'll have peonies!
I have not even gotten all my annual planters done yet as it has been so terribly windy here in MN. The few that were done really took a beating and even stripped leaves off some of the plants - this pink beauty withstood it all and just kept on blooming.
Look for the June 1st update to my monthly garden walk series sometime on Monday. Things are filling out but not a whole lot of color until nearer to July 1st.

a BOLD one...

This guy is certainly a bold one - with me standing at the window he came in twice this morning for a fish breakfast.
The pond water is very green from an algae bloom caused by all the extra nutrients the grackles are giving it these days so it is hard to see my fish. I have been complaining to Jeff for two days though that I was worried the heron may already have been fishing because I usually can see them in the early morning doing their mating rituals up at the surface near the edges.
Several years ago we had one come in and get about 25 fish and this year I don't have that many to spare...so I am headed out to the garden to make my presence known and hopefully he will move on. I might have to move Hershey's bed to the bridge too ;)

en

Outdoor Wednesday - a Princess....

in POO-ville!Alexis is here visiting today and one of her favorite things to do is play in the garden and see the fish. But since the grackles have turned the garden to poo-ville, the extra fertilizer has the pond in a full fledged algae bloom making it hard to see any fish and finding a clean place to walk is hazardous! The Princess looks disgusted with all the poo...
until she finds a stick and starts scraping some of it away...
while Hershey supervises.
With all that poo...the stick needed frequent washing.
These two friends had a great time!
Finally, she had enough of the pooey mess and we went to the much cleaner looking front yard...
where we took time to stop and smell the flowers...
and beautify the birdbath with petals.
Today's blossoms are still covered with this morning's raindrops...the iris...




the pink Tinkerbelle lilac...
the fern peony...
a giant allium...
and the last of the
tulips!
Thank you to the wonderful hostess, Susan, A Southern Daydreamer for hosting Outdoor Wednesdays. Click on the link to her blog to see the other's participating.

evening visitor

Tonight as I was working in the garden, I heard the "bark" of a heron. I went into the house to grab the camera and headed to the edge of the grove...there he was high in a dead branch on a cottonwood.
I am thinking this is a green heron but if someone has a better ID let me know.
Several years ago we had one clean out the pond of goldfish so I hope this guy is not here to stay. He was not afraid of me right underneath him clicking away...
and I even called out to him to make him look at the camera.

Jeff and the dogs came out and we all made noise and he still stayed.
He even "mooned" us to let us know he was not afraid...
Goldies...beware!

bath time...

I love to watch bath time on the rock. Today, a yellow warbler came in but was disgusted by all the fecal sacs that are EVERYWHERE from the common grackles and left without bathing. I hate this time of year...the rock is full, the pond is full, the bridge is full and our windows/siding are full. We love that our home is surrounded by evergreens but that also means it is a perfect grackle nesting place. Oops, I'm whining again...a chipping sparrow wasn't as turned off by the poo pool...
and was soon splashing up a storm.
Mr. Oriole was next on the scene and it didn't seem to faze him either...
he spent a good 5 minutes a splishing and a splashing!