catching up with the bluebirds

The bluebirds are now on their second brood. The first little darlings have fledged. Here's the first brood, in May:

FOUR EGGS
The female lays one a day. There ended up being 6 total.

2 DAYS OLD

6 DAYS OLD
Notice how big the beaks & eye spots look relative to their heads!

8 DAYS OLD
Eyes & feathers developing, heads larger now.

DAD GOES IN
At this stage, the parents are feeding them seemingly non-stop.

11 DAYS OLD

Soon, they will fledge.

falling behind

Nature marches on. Flowers that are harbingers of spring - dainty snowdrops, majestic daffodils - will bloom in the snow if need be to maintain their schedule. I, being neither dainty nor majestic, more readily succomb to the forces around me, & regularly fall behind. Sometimes I end up altogether abandoning my intentions. Occasionally, I feel badly about having to do so. More often, after briefly weighing the choices, I feel relief about having one less thing on the list, in spite of the fact it left the list undone!


My "lists" sometimes take on a life of their own. At any given time, a large portion of them exist solely in my head. If I ever saw all of my lists in front of me at the same time, I think medical intervention would be necessary. It's a built-in safety mechanism that I usually don't know where half of them are. I don't know that they save me any time. Before my dear friend Suzanne arrives for our shopping trip, I'll spend 20 good minutes (the breakfast dishes could have been done) sifting through stacks on my desk looking for that list of things I've been compiling to buy on just such a trip. Sometimes I find it. Sometimes not. But in the end, shopping trips with Suzanne are much more about spending time together than they are about buying the things on the list. The fabric softener can wait.

And so, in a fashion parallel with the rest of my life, I am falling behind on this blog! I had started a post about my children on June 7th, but didn't finish it, so saved it as a draft. I since posted twice about Aislinn's new dress. Yesterday when I finished the 7 June post, I realized that it would show up below the two dress posts, already buried, never having it's moment at the top. So if you're interested, scroll down a bit to 7 June: siblings.

Many gorgeous flowers put on their show during the past month, & are just now getting recognition here. My apologies to those that performed spectacularly without a single photo ever being taken (like my 5 or 6 varieties of tradescantia, and most of the aquilegias). Of course, that gives me something to post here next year!

So, some catching up, also titled What was blooming then....

I am frequently asked what my favorite flower is. You might as well ask which is my favorite child, or whether I'd prefer to give up food or sleep. I look forward to each new development in the garden with anticipation. However, one of my favorite combinations is when these three water irises are blooming at the same time in the rain garden. It unfolds over three days. The yellow flag iris blooms first. The second day the copper iris opens, & on day three, the Darby iris. Alone, they're pretty; together, sublime.