A Hummingbird nest

On Sunday, we worked in our yard all day. I finished up the garden, finally getting the tomato plants in the pot and the "upside down" hangers, and finished planting the pumpkins and the rest of the lettuce in a barrel. I know this is stupid, but I went ahead and put in the sweet peas, even tho I know it will be way too hot soon.

I have way too much "junk" in my yard, I know. But it's the greatest yard EVER for an Easter Egg hunt.

Monday we put out some flags for Memorial Day, but I guess it can be the "theme" for the summer... Flag Day, 4th of July, Labor Day....

A few mornings ago, I was out having a cup of coffee in the morning and I noticed a hummingbird who kept coming and hovering right under the patio cover. I didn't think too much of it, but then on Sunday, it happened again.
We have an old string of lights ....red white and blue lights....strung under the patio cover...it gives off a twinkly glow at night, but I said to the Handy Man, "that hummingbird is going to electrocute himself in that cord!"
And then I said " A NEST....there is a nest."

Hummingbird nests look kind of like a big "spider sack" in a way.
I want so badly to get a ladder and see the hummingbird eggs. I bet they are teeny.

On Monday afternoon, I lay in the patio swing trying to get a picture.... and to show how small the nest really is.
It's very exciting to me to have a hummingbird nest so close.

Other bird nerd, posts are here.

Here she sits.

See how small it really is?

I caught her flying away.... on the left bottom you can see her. We make her nervous on our patio.

Random pictures from our yard work on Sunday

The tomato plants are in the barrels now.

And the Square foot garden is coming along.

taking a moment to decorate for Memorial Day

Just watching the show!! Old Monroe.

Oh....and the tomatos in the upside down baskets!

I like my new flower pot....it was so easy to make. I found it in Birds and Bloom.

And now.....I am opening myself to you......and showing you...THE DOG PATH!! He has destroyed the grass in this area. Grrrrrr.....dogs!

And there is my "Kitchen Window".

And coming into my yard from the garage. You have to walk under the Purple Globe Locust Tree.

yard notes

Yesterday while walking around my yard, I had a notebook and was writing down what we need at the nursery this weekend.

I am famous for writing lists. I write them for everything, so there was a always a list or two on our counter when the boys were still at home.
One, of course was a grocery list, and our youngest son, Mark, would always...ALWAYS write in "candy for Mark" on my lists. He's even done this as an adult, anytime they are home for a visit.

I left my notebook with my garden wants list on the counter and when I came back to it, it had "Candy for Mark" written in!
A ghost? LOL nope, just the Handy-Man being cute.
It brought back a nice memory of my son.

Disregard the bad handwriting... I had garden gloves on.

and then.... this is too funny.....My father in law, Phil, sent me this after looking at my blog...

Debbie,

I smile every time I see your square foot garden, cheers me up big time. And its coming along just fine, You'll be surprised how much you can get out of it. I love your back yard. Only wish I could still get out and work in ours. I am learning to sit and watch Greg and Scott as they do things for me.

Tomorrow Terri gets to have a nuclear stress test since she has been having some heavy feeling on her chest. I told her that her boobs were too big. She then asked if she could have them reduced and I said of course! She'll never do it though.

Have a great week end.



I'm laughing my rear off. Who else's FIL would tell about his wife's boob reduction?
Not that my mother in law is getting one, nor does she really want one. (well....maybe? LOL But the thing is...she never would have "asked", she would have told.) I'm sure the conversation was a stress reducer, considering she's been having some chest problems, with a history of heart problems.

They've always had fun yards....nice yards, yards that make you want to read a book and relax.
I'll find some old pictures and scan them soon.
It makes me a bit melancholy to think that both he and my dad are not working in their yards like they used to.

Just another Wednesday Morning in the big backyard

My garden...
You know I look at blogs like Mary's at "My New 30" and I think I'm so far behind. I've always wanted to live somewhere green, and I always envy those who do. My garden is sooo far behind some of you.

Having said that tho...I love the desert, the HIGH desert. (I cannot tolerate the Arizona heat in the summer time. Don't yell at me Arizonians, my son lives there, and I do like it, just in the winter time best )
I wonder what it takes to "love" the desert. How do we acclimate to our surroundings? How do we come to love a place? While I can appreciate other regions and I want nothing more than to visit them, and enjoy them....the high desert is home.

It has always been a source of controversy, the question: which is better the forest or the wide open spaces?

People who grow up in the desert, with wide-open spaces tend to get claustrophobic in the mountains/forests.
They've even gone so far to say that "it's pretty, but all you can see is a tree. It blocks your view".
But people from more wooded areas can find the "wide-open" spaces (especially desert spaces) very bleak and kind of melancholy.
I like both (there's nothing like being a fence walker. Very PC, that's me. )
I grew up in Washington and Oregon, so I love the mountain/forests and the lakes. But I've lived in Nevada for much longer, and I truly love the high desert.
What I don't like.... FORGIVE ME FLATLANDERS.... or it's not that I don't like it, but I haven't had the opportunity to appreciate it, are the flatlands.

Okay, enough said, this is about my big backyard!!
We are high desert, dry, arid, wide-open spaces. It' get green and lush soon enough (if I put enough water on it.)


It looks like I am still in the beginning stages by this picture, but if you look closely, you can see that I have radishes coming up. And some marigolds.
It's just that I'm still adding stuff.

We put in these barrels to take the overflow.... tomato plants and some peas (even tho I know it's too hot for the peas now) and the rest of the lettuce.

I have some mint growing haphazardly there, (I keep trying to pull it up and it keeps coming back) and some rhubarb too.

I put the chair back in place...(I had moved it to get a picture without it. And the screens behind it. I guess we need to put them back in the windows. I just like looking thru windows without screens, but now that summer is upon us again, they must go back in) that is where the handy man sits while he watches me work.
That is such a switch in our personalities.... he sitting while I'm working. Usually it's the other way around.

The week before last we were worried about freezing temps at night. The Handy Man even bought some plastic to cover our garden, just in case.
Then on Saturday it hit 92 degrees and hasn't let up since!
Crazy weather.

We did have some wind tho..... and all the little worms from the Mulberry Tree came down.


I won't take a picture of this, but we've discovered that our cat, Izzy, goes to the bathroom in the yard. Just like a dog. Just like her big brother Monroe. LOL (our basset hound).

How weird is that? She'll scratch a bit of dead grass and a leaf or two up on it, but ????

The rest of the photos are just random of our yard, to see how it "greens up" over the summer.

Another frog....

The Handy Man HATES that I put little do-dahs in the middle of the yard. It upsets his mowing technique. His "grid" if you will.

This morning I stood "outside" my Kitchen Window, and took the same pictures I've been taking from inside my kitchen. I will use these on my food blog, when I post "What's outside your kitchen Window"

Work day on Sunday

My helpers. Monroe and Izzy.
When I go out to water at 6:00 a.m. with coffee cup in hand, they follow me around the yard. One day I'll trip and kill myself, because the cat wanders in and out and between my legs. Monroe just can't see or hear very well and bumps me from behind or stops right in front of me to smell the flowers (or poop. LOL ) and I just keep going.


I said to Rich on Sunday morning.... I never get your face in these pictures. He said....he once had a boss who said, they better be WORKING, and he wanted to see nothing but "elbows and assholes"
or something like that. so this is what you see of Rich.

His shirt says it all.......


We really are greening up!

I love lilacs!

Okay...now for the square-foot garden. I bought my compost, and my potting soil. Vermiculite? I can't find it anywhere. So, I'm doing without. I did fertilize the dirt in the bottom of my square foots.... it was organic.

Just trying to be as green as I can. I wanted a compost pile off to the side, but the Handy Man doesn't really want one. So, we'll see.

SEE? Between my legs, around my feet, over, under, up....one day I'll fall.

The Handy Man also asks me, "how can you work with that camera around your neck?"

Ha!

It was "I" who planted...notice I couldn't take pictures while I was planting? I didn't get my vine plants planted yet (cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, summer squash). And I started a lot of things from seed: carrots, beets, radishes, beans, lettuce. The peppers and the onions, broccoli, cauliflower I bought starter plants.

In the barrel that you see there....a few strawberry plants. Peas and tomatoes to go in also.

I have just one fear. That Izzy will use this as a bathroom. hmmmm....netting to go down tomorrow.

The Iris are pretty right now.

A new frog!!

Just my yard..

Getting the fountain barrel going again. Pretty soon, we'll have the grape vine all leafed out and over the arbor, that holds the wine-barrel fountain.