Hummers are back

I confess that when the hummingbirds stopped frequenting the feeder in my yard, I stopped refreshing the nectar and it fermented. Hummers are smart birds and memorize where their food sources are. My feeder was probably imprinted in their brains as one to avoid once the nectar was no longer palatable. So not only did I refresh the nectar, I moved the feeder about 30 feet away. The hummingbirds are back, plus I sometimes see one perch on the feeder and take long sips.

The 'Limelight' hydrangea is full of blooms but they are about half their usual size. I saw a Limelight at Home Depot that had been trained into a tree form and I almost bought it for the newly freed area by the front porch. Fortunately, I looked up their growth habit online and decided it was not a good candidate for that location. I would like something tallish and narrow but yellow or gold, to contrast with all the purple leaf stuff in the front yard. Alternatively, I may put a cluster of pots there.

The morning glory is putting out more blossoms but still not exactly going to town. What I mostly see from the deck is yellow - rudbekia and cupplant and lemony daylily, with some coneflower and zinnia here and there. I try to focus on the "good" areas, ignoring the sections that still require a lot of attention. A local nursery is letting a corner of their country property go wild; they have the beginnings of a nice meadow. My wild area is mostly common milkweed, Canada thistle, and creeping Charlie. Ugh.

I started widening the area around the 'Golden Spirit' smokebush and used the grassy clods I removed to fill in some of the holes the dogs have dug in the backyard. I've observed them just randomly digging here and there, although sometimes it is a cicada they are after. One place they dug a cavern was next to a fence post, and now the nearby gate will not latch. I called my fence guy, but a week later am still waiting for a call back. Maybe he went on an extended vacation because he can no longer purchase fencing material - it's all gone. Pea-sized pebbles are also in short supply, but I managed to snap up a half dozen bags the other day.

We still need rain here - I'm getting tired of watering and wrestling with kinky hoses - but at least the temperatures have moderated a bit. With the recent heat wave, I broke off dog walking, but when I took Clio in for her annual shots, she had gained five pounds. Now Clio and Watson and I are getting back into the groove of early morning jaunts around the nabe.