Today's Garden and Bird Watching Photos

This time we remembered to bring the camera with us...

It kind of amuses me to see the size of the hosta next to the bird bath. Several birds landed here while we had coffee but we never managed to catch them in the photo.

These are the only sunflowers in my garden this year so I can't wait for them to open so I can finish the painting that I started of them last season.

This one looks like it's got something to say!

I guess they were relaxing a bit too, they're getting pretty used to us...

I was trying to get a better shot of the sunflowers but thought you'd enjoy seeing the geraniums I repotted yesterday.

City Gardening and Wildlife

The summer has gone by fast. I'm eagerly awaiting the 3 sunflowers in my yard this year and looking forward to planting lots more of them next year. The bird feeders are busy and I enjoyed the company of both watching and listening to the birds as I rearranged my container plants (pulling out the ones that weren't doing well and putting the best of what's left in the large urn in the corner of the yard.) This gives me 3 empty pots that I'll put away until next season and quite a bit of a nice soil mix that I'll  use to get some more transplanting done.
It's a nice feeling to walk out in the yard and find birds at the feeders and birdbaths. The rabbit was sitting by my chair, when you hear about the trouble with bees around the world it's nice to see them looking happy and healthy here. There weren't any butterflies out today but that may just be the change in the weather (we're expecting thunderstorms in the next few hours)
The sun is out right now so I'll enjoy that while it lasts and deadhead a few more lilies before grabbing a cup of tea and heading for my favorite chair.
It's too bad that gardening is such hard work but on the other hand the exercise is good. The main reason I garden of course is for the flowers I draw and paint, somehow the art is better when I've chosen and grown them myself.

Signs of Spring

The snow is still with us but there's warmth and a hint of color here and these to give us hope and the sun felt so good as I changed the water in the bird bath and checked the feeders that I couldn't resist pulling a bit of the lawn furniture out today.

In this part of the country we just enjoy the warm spots when we find them. People driving by seemed quite entertained by the fact that I was running around without a coat in the middle of all of this and stepping around snow banks to get the long shot you see in the middle photo.