Everything is green!

Eric planted a poppy bed last year and we found a surprise poppy bed underneath the walnut tree. They are both doing very well and have gigantic buds that really look like space pods. Someone was eating them until I sprinkled dried blood all around them. So, now I get to admire their other worldliness, waiting for them to pop open. We have no idea what color they will be, but I am hoping for the classic red poppy, just like the paper ones the Veterans of Foreign Wars sell this time of year.


I put in two new flower beds last year. I lost a few things over winter, but most everything came back very well. One bed is being expanded with prairie perennials and I have been moving violets into the other. I am trying to get as many different kinds of violets as I can. Right now, I have six different varieties, including the birdsfoot violet, which is the sole host plant for the larvae of the Mourning Cloak butterfly. I am hoping to one day have the yard carpeted with them. So far they are reseeding like gangbusters! The iris in this same bed are doing very well; I may be successful in reviving my Great-Grandmother's iris, yet.


Eric built me three new orange feeders this spring. He had made a multi-armed one last year and I found that it was impossible for more than one bird to use it at a time, anyway. So, the three new ones are spaced out in the yard so that it is impossible for one bird to dominate at the feeders. This plan has worked out well. The Orchard Oriole is having less stress at the feeder from the larger Baltimore. We are also seeing a good variety of other birds as well. The Cat Birds are regulars and don't even bother to scold us any more. Purple Finches are there often and the biggest surprise is a jelly eating Robin. We fill an empty orange with an All-Fruit style jelly everyday and the Robin is a daily visitor.


We saw our first Monarch in the lilacs this morning and Eric discovered a baby Robin in the grass while mowing. The parents were having a fit while we tried to return it to the nest, but it just jumped right back out. Since there weren't any others in the nest, I am assuming there are several of them in the yard that can not fly, yet. So, Eric stopped mowing so that they would have some long grass to hide in. There is another nest of Robins in another tree, I could still hear them in there this morning. They'll probably be out and about in the yard in the next couple of days, too.

More photos are Here.