Of sunflowers, birds and Gizzy's new toys!

Happy First Day of Summer to the rest of the world because I feel we've started summer here about a month ago, but I'm determined to enjoy it no matter what because I refuse to wish my life away!





Magickal Graphics

Earlier today, Gizzy and I took a little stroll around the apartment to see how the plants are doing. Most of my big sunflowers from earlier have bloomed away and are hanging their heads. We're just waiting for them to turn to seed so the birds can have a go at it.

Most of the white Crepe Myrtle is done blooming and the red or pink variety is going strong.

For some reason they are not attracting as many bees as the white blossoms, but it might be because the white ones open earlier and the bees have been waiting to attack them more eagerly...just guessing, of course!

I planted several varieties of sunflowers, so I have different kinds growing that have not bloomed yet. I'm particularly impressed with these two giants that I had to stake down for the big storms as I did not want them broken (I think I would have cried)...look at all those leaves on these flowers. They are shooting out from the stems as if they might bloom on several places, not just on top:

Gizzy looks like a little bug next to them:

I don't recall the names of them because I had my seeds all mixed up and one packet had mixed sunflower seeds in them. So far, I've had sunflowers not much bigger than a daisy and others as big as a small tree. It's been really fun to see the different colors from bright yellow to rust. Many of the smaller ones have several blossoms on top.

No matter what the size, there are bees all over these sunflowers.

(see the bee at 1 o clock? - ok, 5 after 12)

But the prettiest flower in the garden has got to be the unique and rare Gizzy-flower as they are extinct. There's only one in the whole world and I'm lucky enough to call it mine.

After we perused the perimeter, we sat out back to watch the birds on my neighbor's bird feeding station. That is always very entertaining. Even Gizzy gets into it sometimes. Sadly, I don't have a very strong zoom lens on my camera, but I think you get the idea of what transpired here:

Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal

Mr. C looking majestic all dressed in red.and Mrs. C in brown on the other feeder to the right towards the top.

Here Mr. C is getting the food

...then flies to the ground

where he's feeding Mrs. C who flew down earlier waiting for him.

Then he's going back for more to repeat the process of feeding his mate.

This went on for a good long while and it was very entertaining to watch.

Turns out Mr. C is a very good husband

and not just a pretty face!

Speaking of pretty face, here's my boy sitting out back watching me take a photo of him.

I also wanted to show you my cantaloupe that is growing in the flower bed. I just dug out the seeds from a musk melon one day and put them straight away in the soil and now, it's a big vine that's been climbing over the kohlrabi and lemon bush and producing yellow blossoms, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be harvesting some cantaloupe this year...

I also have some Kohlrabi growing along the border of this flower/rose bed, but I have no idea when/if they will make it. I just make sure everything's watered and fertilized regularly and the rest is out of my hands.

When we came back inside, we played with his new toys his auntie Sandy from the Banks Lake Outpost gave him:

I experimented with the special effects feature of the Picasa photo editing program. Gizzy sitting on the table, surrounded by his unicorn, pilgrim and purple blob stuffed toys.

The unicorn is nice, but he prefers the purple blob. You can really sink your teeth into that one:

(and we'll spare the pilgrim till Thanksgiving!)

That's about it for today. I wish you all a very cool summer and enjoy your week. Until next time. Stay well!