If I had a yucca...

As I drive around town, I see that others have blooms in their yards: yucca, daylily, what I call ditch lilies, etc. My yucca is gone (despite its efforts to the contrary), my ditch lilies have not even sent up flower stems yet (probably because they don't get much sun), and ditto the last remaining daylily. Many plants are on the verge, though. Maybe next week?

The rudbeckia and aster on the south side of the house are much more upright than last year, although there are a few floppers. I erected some no-dig fencing from Menards to help out. I think there is ironweed there, too, but I'm not very good at identifying natives before they bloom.

On the north side of the house, across from a sea of hosta (another almost bloomer), I installed nine or so 'Solidago Fireworks' goldenrod. The plants are from Bluestone Perennials, purchased during their end-of-season sale, and despite the late date, arrived looking healthy and rarin' to go.

Otherwise, I've been in maintenance mode: hand-weeding and spraying weeds. The pokeweed, trumpet vine, something I call sticker grass, poison ivy, etc. just will not stop trying to stage a comeback. There's northern sea oats growing where I don't want it, too. And tree of heaven and mulberry. The list goes on. Ugh.

Also, I watch birds. The immature ones are a hoot. The baby wrens have flown their nest. And the bluebird box is occupied.. by bluebirds! In the past, all I got in my bluebird box were sparrows, but they don't like this box, as it is deeper and lets in more light than they like. A similar model has a bar across the entrance, to discourage starlings, but I didn't see any show an interest in this box.

Then there was this pair of robins, sitting in the mulch, feathers fluffed out, heads thrown back, beaks hanging open. They looked like they were sunbathing. I assume their posture has something to do with parasites. (Some day I will get that new camera, maybe with a zoom lens, so I can take photos from across the yard.)

The tulip tree doesn't look any better, and perhaps is no worse? I've been watering it, just in case that helps. I've been watering everything that is new, a regular evening chore. The weather people keep promising us rain, but so far, they've been wrong. Maybe tomorrow?

At least the dry weather made for a pleasant trip to the county fair. My SO and I took my granddaughter and two of her friends. I didn't make them go up and down *every* aisle in the animal barns, but we watched enough of the horseback riding event that they grew bored. I later took them to a city park so they could go for a run. (They are all three on the cross country team at their school.)

Siesta time

The county fair was scheduled earlier than in the past, because the state fair dates had been moved up; I think it caught some folks unaware, as things seemed a bit skimpy. Of course, it may just be me, as last year's fair was really packed with post-pandemic excitement. I planned to go off diet and indulge in onion rings and a root beer float, but there was no root beer float vender. I did get some onion rings, but they were too greasy to finish. Very expensive food waste. :-(

In case you forget where your meat comes from

I used to make a dish I called Chicken Surprise. The surprise was it wasn't chicken; it was rabbit.

Have a surprising week!