Fountain visitor (Coopers' hawk)

Yesterday I had a visitor stop by our front fountain:   a Coopers' hawk!   YES!   A nice, big FAT ONE, too.  I think this is the momma.   There are 2 young ones additionally in our neighborhood.   In fact, one of our neighbors (next street over) stopped by and chatted and they visit her yard, too.   I sometimes hear them cackling to each other.  I always know when they are around because ALL the birds in the yard have disappeared!   Sometimes when they take flight, they bump into my craft room window...poor things.   And sometimes I find their feathers all over, so I know one has been a meal for one of the hawks.   But, that's nature, right?

I did find a young hawk DEAD in the front yard last week.   I looked at it and couldn't see any cause of death, and since I'm still recovering from week 3 of a TERRIBLE, coughing, NASTY flu, I didn't do anything with it.   It sat out there until one morning I noticed the whole thing WAS GONE!   I believe that one of the neighborhood feral cats made off with it.   Nature's cycle completed.

Anyway, here's the link to the You Tube video that I made about the visitor:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFrsDOy-8gU

Garden, Spring 2019

I'm so sorry I haven't posted on this blog for...2 years!   I can barely keep up with my other two!

Anyway, if you want a little sunshine, here are some photos I took of my garden last Spring.   I had sunflowers and hollyhocks all over the front yard and around the mail box!   The hollyhocks got to be over 6' tall.   I planted black oil sunflower seeds from the bird seed I use in the yard and they weren't quite as tall.   They also weren't as sturdy as the hollyhocks and many of them broke in our March winds.

My sunflower garden this year

Since I am now retired (as of May 1, 2016...), almost 2 years ago, I can no longer to spend outrageous amounts on my garden passion.  Therefore, this year I kept it simple:  I book the sunflower seeds in the birdseed and planted those.  I also have sunflowers coming up from all the dropped and scattered birdseed from the feeders!

YES!

And, you should SEE my gorgeous sunflowers out in the back yard!

Here is one photo and I'll be taking more today!

This one opened up the last week of... FEBRUARY! 

Amazing, eh?
~Cheryl Ann~

I have a vegetable garden this year!!!

For the first time in over 25 years, I have a REAL vegetable garden!  I'm planing my veggies out in the back, in a nice sunny spot.

So far, I have 3 tomatoes, 3 New Mexico chili peppers, 6 red cabbage, 6 green cabbage, 2 lavender, some alyssum, 1 Swiss chard, and 2 pineapple sage (to attract hummingbirds).  I have sage and basil, also.

HOWEVER, SOMETHING is nibbling on my cabbage plants!  I thought it was a rat, so I go out every late afternoon and cover my plants with plastic bins from the 99 cent store.  I even found 3 for $0.99 at Dollar Tree!  What a find!

I wanted to interplant some herbs with the vegetables in the hopes that they WOULD keep some pests away and they do seem to be doing their job!

I'll update this as things move along...

Daisy macros~Macro Monday~October 24, 2016

I had a single daisy plant that made it through our summer, but ALL of my purple salvia did.  I'm starting to go out now and buy plants for the fall garden.

One morning I went out and took these photos of my daisy.  I LOVE my daisies!

Macro Monday for October 24, 2016.   To visit Macro Monday, please go to:   http://macromonday2.blogspot.com/

Photos taken with my old Nikon D40.  It STILL takes the best photos in low light!

Spring in the desert

Our desert here is EXPLODING with color right now.  It's been several years since I've seen this much color!  Fortunately, my allergies ARE NOT bothering me, but other folks are pretty miserable.

 Lots of cacti blossoms

 Pretty yellow flower

 Palo verde tree

desert verbena

Garden center

I drove up to our local garden center Sunday morning, since I hadn't been up there for over a month.  I wanted to buy some cosmos and zinnia seeds.  They didn't have any that I wanted.  Instead, they had some strange looking cosmos and NO zinnia seeds.  But, camera in hand, I wandered around and enjoyed seeing all their plants!  :-)

Why can't I grow roses like these?  I've given up on roses.