Category: My Yard

Kildeer again

I went into our backyard on Tuesday. As DH warned me, we have another kildeer nest. No one was on the nest but I disturbed one of the nearby parents as I gingerly searched for the eggs.

I prompted quite a drama as the panicked bird attempted to draw me away from the nest zone.

The poor thing engaged in every kind of broken wing histrionics it could think of. I tried to be quick but was fascinated by the unfolding display.

Here is the next generation of kildeer that is coming to our garden. This little nest is likely a different family from the three that hatched last month. Kildeer generally have one brood per year unless they loose a clutch.

The eggs are surprisingly large compared to the size of the kildeer. They seem no smaller than a typical chicken egg.

Early spring

You know it’s been a long winter when a neighbor walking by gets excited to discover a tiny iris that’s popped up in our yard. This diminutive flower is no more than 3 inches (7.6 cm) high and it’s a volunteer that grows in a bed of miniature daffodils.

The daffodils aren’t ready yet, nor are our crocus. After all, they were under a foot of snow only 10 days ago.

Tomato bounty, 2018

Every year I plant tomatoes and just when they’re starting to ripen we start to have frost. You’d think I’d learn. I harvest what I can, bring it in, and ripen it in the window. Not that I needed reminding, but DH noted we had a lot of tomatoes we needed to use. I mumbled something about making tomato sauce.

DH said, “Tomato pie!”
Tomato pie?? Though neither of us had heard of it, I found a bunch of recipes online. Since I had a ready made pie crust I decided to give it a try. The result is above. Tomatoes, fresh basil, green onions…topped with a mixture of cheese and mayonnaise. I’m up for the occasional kitchen adventure.

This is the recipe I used. Would I do it again? Probably not this way. I like mayonnaise, in its place. Like on a sandwich or mixed with tuna. Across the top of a pie? Even with cheese, not so much.

Predation

I’d had high hopes for my flower bed this year. I ditched my usual dahlias and remembered I’d wanted sunflowers. And wouldn’t they go nicely with a bed of nasturtiums? This was all outside our fenced garden enclosure which protects the veggies from the voracious local deer. The deer have never touched the dahlias or nasturtiums so I figured I was safe. I thought I’d planned a very pretty little flower garden.

Wrong! It could have been worse. My friend Marie has emailed me pictures of her nasturtiums that are nothing but stems. But still. A gardener needs to whine sometimes.

By the way, the grey skies you see in the top shot are from wildfire smoke. It’s back.