Camera Critters -- Band-Tailed Pigeons

This week I had a flock of maybe 10 or 15  band-tailed pigeons at the large feeder and hanging out in the stream. I had to take pictures very carefully from the window, because every time I moved even the slightest bit, they all flew off, only to return a few minutes later.

Band-tailed pigeons are a PNW native bird, and according to Wikipedia, have a call like an owl and are the largest pigeon in North America. I never heard the call while they were here. It's possible the ones I saw were migrating south.

These are the best of the many photos I took.

Check out Camera Critters to see lots more photos of all sorts of animals.

Fertilizer Friday -- A Few Final Flowers

The heat is on, in the house. The cold rains have returned, too soon. Bummer.

I have a few plants still flowering, but it won't be much longer, I think.

Blackberry lily (Belamcanda chinensis), planted last fall. I really didn't think, earlier this year, that this would flower. Something out there (slugs? earwigs?) was chowing down on it. But it finally has. I love how the unopened buds are all twisted.

My Rose of Sharon has been blooming for quite a while, but I just recently noticed it. I seem to always be looking down at the perennials and annuals, I hardly see the shrubs.

Sedium spurium 'Tricolor'

Hosta 'Patriot'

A close-up of the pollen-laden stamens

Well, that's it for me for Fertilizer Friday. Visit Tootsie Time to see all the other posts around the world of people flaunting their flowers.

Today is My One-Year Blogaversary!

I started this blog about my garden exactly one year ago today, on Sept. 5, 2009. Here's a link to my first post, about the changes I wanted to make to the back garden. I included a series of pictures, and I thought in today's post I'd show those pictures again, along with new ones showing what the area looks like now.

So, here goes.

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Last year:

Today:

Well, my life in general hasn't changed much since then -- my son got married in October -- but the garden certainly changed a lot, didn't it? And I have still more planting to do!

Fertilizer Friday -- Dahlias and Other Stuff Grown From Seed

It's time once again for Fertilizer Friday! I have some new flowers to flaunt, starting with a couple of Dahlias that I grew from seed. The first is Dahlia 'Harlequin,' grown from seed saved from one I grew last year in a pot. The flower is slightly different from the parent plant, a different shade of red, and with a different "collar" -- those extra little petals around the center.

This one came from commercial seed, it's called 'Black Beauty.'

I'm surprised they flowered, given the strange spring and summer we had. I have plenty of others in the garden that have no sign of flowers yet.

This is another daylily, called 'Daring Deception', that I bought at Lowe's for $4.50, past its prime. It rebloomed for me.

A couple of Lupines grown from seed, growing together in a clump. One has a blue flower, the other pink.

In February I bought a bunch of bare-root native shrubs from the Pierce County Conservation District. I don't actually know when they are supposed to flower, I have a feeling that they are a bit thrown off by having been uprooted and then replanted. This Snowberry (Symphorocarpus), has both white berries and delicate pink flowers right now.

One of my Lonicera involucrata is also flowering.

 

 Well, that's about it for this week. Thanks so much for visiting! Please make sure you go to Tootsie Time to see all the other bloggers who have joined in to flaunt their flowers!