Critters

I've been working on my Camera Critters post for a couple days, doing a bit at a time.  I didn't see as many butterflies this week, but I haven't been out as much, either.  I do see a monarch every day, at different times of the day, including early in the morning.  This morning, I met our grandson and daughter-in-law at the cemetery so we could feed the waterfowl the extra fiber whole wheat bread that passed its date a few days ago, so I got some photos there, too.  We still didn't see any ducklings, but there are lots of places they could be hiding.

A few days ago, I saw this bedraggled black swallowtail on a pepper plant.  I tried to get it to move, because I was about to water, but it didn't want to.  Finally, I got it to go to another plant, but didn't want to disturb it any further.

I haven't gotten photos of butterflies on the verbena bon.  this year, but is that a mosquito on this one?

Friday morning, Larry called me to tell me I should go out with my camera because of the cool clouds in the sky.  He said they were rapidly changing.  By the time I got the collar on Heidi and gathered my camera, I think I missed the big display.  Still, I got some OK cloud photos, and when I walked down the block to see if I could see more clouds, I saw some critters.

This rabbit is in the neighbor's yard, where it has plenty of things to eat, even though it likes to come for the tastiness of my flowers as well.

As I was heading back home, I was too slow to get what would have been a cool photo of a couple of doves on a nice wooden fence.  They flew off as soon as they saw me looking at them.  The squirrel, on another neighbor's feeder stayed put, enjoying a feast.

When I got to the front yard, I saw some blue jays fly overhead.  One of them perched at the tippy top of a tree.

Not to be outdone, a grackle, I think, perched on another tree and did a vocal performance.

Now, here is a story of what I'm thinking is a pecking order at the pond.

The first birds to come enjoy some of our bread were the swans.

When the ducks saw the action, they came to eat, too.

Behind them, were the geese.

One goose, peeked up and looked at me a minute, posing for some photos.

Then, it decided to join us on land.  I wasn't thrilled about that.  Linda showed it some bread, then threw it in the water to go fetch, but it was promptly eaten by the competition.

Just as we were backing away from the goose, someone came and put dried corn in a container I hadn't noticed before, and there was a race to get to that food.

The ducks got some eating done, but the swans were right on their "heels" and most of the ducks made room for them at the corn.

I wonder if there was any left for the geese.

 Click on the Camera Critters link in the sidebar to see more critter photos or find out how to link yours.

The Last of the Daylilies and a Purple Datura

Most of the daylilies are finished blooming, and the few that bloomed today will be finished tomorrow, or else have one or two buds left.  I can't believe how fast summer is flying by.  The photos were taken at dusk, so aren't the best quality, plus, the blooms are getting ready to crumple up and die, but I wanted to take this opportunity to make note of the last daylilies to be in bloom, and join Tootsie's Flaunt Your Flowers.


Curb bed:

Front yard bed:

Curb bed in front of veggie garden:

Just inside veggie garden:

In a tub in the front yard:

Have a great weekend!

Front Yard Bed

I set out telling myself to just post the Surprise Lily for Jean's Bloomin' Tuesday, but seeing there were still some other nice blooms, I checked, and saw it had been a month since I'd done an update on the front yard bed.  Then, I saw I had gotten sidetracked the other day, and not gone all the way around, so a few photos are from Saturday, and the sunniest ones are from a few minutes ago.

You can see in this photo, part of the round bed where I used to have mostly orange and red flowers.  Some of these were already there.

This part of the bed has been blooming for a number of weeks.  What troopers!

The butterfly bush behind Heidi is finally starting to bloom, later than it did last year.

The surprise lilies have nice sized blooms.

The delphiniums are on the left.  The cleomes are blooming at different heights.  I forgot they do that.

Love lies bleeding is up and over the leaf burning cage.

The kiss me over the garden gate plants are getting taller.

Here's a view I always include in my front garden posts.  Our grandson is such a sweetie!  We'll go somewhere where there are flowers, and he'll say, "Flower garden!"

The little delphinium is filling out.

Here are the surprise lilies from the other side.  I'm loving the pink lisianthus.  The petite monarda is cut back and looking OK.

I think this foxglove had been blooming the longest of most flowers this season.

When I went back out to get more photos, I was tickled to see the reblooming iris has a new flower stalk.

I've been pulling out Octopus bellflowers to prevent them from spreading too far.

I divided the mums so they wouldn't overpower the September charm anemone like they almost did last year, and now, the anemone is larger than the mum.

I guess it doesn't know it's not September yet.

The area I put the fake flowers in has filled in better.

I thought the clematis was finished for the season, but it has some new blooms.

We've made it around the bed.  I'm sorry I didn't remember some of the names of the plants.  I would have looked them up from different posts, but I need to get some other things done around here.  I did put a link to other front yard posts in the first paragraph.

Well, I'm planning on using more self control and posting fewer photos for awhile.  In a couple weeks, I have an appointment with a dentist who specializes in TMJD, and is a professor at our university.  I didn't realize there was a professor's clinic, but I'm glad, because it looks like it won't be as expensive as the place my dentist referred me to.  I also have a book to read to help me function better in my body.  It talks about replacing our bad habits with good ones, and one of those has to do with posture. 

I hope you are having a good start to the week.