What's in YOUR backyard?

mine...mine..MINE!!!

I guess I'm trying to squeeze out the last days of warmth and light of summer and have been spending my evenings (weather permitting) in the backyard.  While sitting out there listening to the neighbor kids playing or another neighbor cutting grass I noticed that there are some pretty interesting things in my backyard. Stuff I tend to overlook when I'm in the middle of weeding or trying to get Gidge to fetch the ball.

I have for years enticed hummingbirds to my yard by keeping the feeders clean and filled with fresh nectar.  This year the diligence paid off and I got a herd!  (I know that several birds are a flock, but these miniature buzzards have the feeding habits of hungry cows so to me they are a HERD!)There were always two at the feeder and as many as six at a time.  They provide quite a show with their bickering and chasing each other and get quite feisty when I had the audacity to let the feeder run out.

 

Gidgette enjoys the backyard also.  She likes being wherever you are whether it is 100 in the shade or not!  I think someone forgot to tell her that she is a dog!  Thank goodness she is cute because that is the only thing that has saved her bacon on more than one occasion.  Chasing the ball is all fun and games until it rolls close to where a neighbor cat has visited and then that little pea brain is off in another direction and the ball is long forgotten! 

I know she enjoys being in the yard almost as much as I do, but I can't trust her off a leash so she gets tied to the side view mirror on my car with her 30 ft training leash. That is all well and good but her sense of direction is somewhat skewed and she has an uncanny knack of wrapping herself around trees, chairs and bushes. cute...but TOTALLY clueless!

 

One thing about ole Gidge is that she has an uncanny knack for finding unusual things.  Usually dead, stinky things but she did fine something cool this time.  It showed up near the lilac bushes one day and she found it for me.  A few days later it was gone.

sunflower bud

Beside my herd of hummingbirds, I have finches that love the thistle in the feeders but they are also instrumental in disbursing the echinacea seeds and sunflower seeds.  The sunflowers also provide a nice perch for the hummers too!

This summer also produced a large number of dragon flies.  I saw several different varieties in the yard, but this one seemed the most camera friendly.  I'm not really sure what their purpose is, but they sure are neat to look at.

Spiders always amaze me. I'm sure if I had better sense, I'd be a bit more respectful of them than I am.  Last fall I stood at my kitchen window and watched in amazement as this little spider, no bigger than a pencil eraser, built a web from one side of the window to the other and completed it in a matter of minutes.  If I could only get the general contractor to move like that, I'd be in business!  Jim found this one hanging out in the shrubs out front.  He always hung on the back of the web (might have been the front, and I was on the back!).  I tried several times to get a good shot, but I think I ticked him off or he got eaten because he's gone now.

I love a bargain.  I purchased this butterfly bush at a flea market in PA.  I've wanted one for years and finally decided to get it despite the dire warnings from DNREC about it being an invasive.  They don't know how resourceful I can be with a pair of loping shears and a shovel!  I have yet to see a butterfly on the bush but these weird little bee buggy things seem to really enjoy it.  I'm sure next summer they will find it and I will be posting lovely photos of butterflies.  Like I always say...if you're gonna dream, dream BIG!

One constant in my yard is the clothes line.  I don't own a clothes dryer...as I tell all my incredulous friends when they moan about their electric bills being high because of the dryer...air is free and I aim to get my fair portion.  Nothing beats the smell of clothes hung on the line to dry and if I cart a bug or two into the house with the laundry, oh well, it gives Gidge something to chase around the house until it succumbs to her dog slobber. Not only is it economical and earth friendly to hang the clothes out-it also serves as a means of assessing the weather!  It is a good way to gauge how cold it really is in the winter.  If they freeze before I can get them on the line, yes, it is pretty cold, other wise-look alive and get to moving!  Fresh air is good for the soul and I haven't lost any body parts to frost bite yet!!

We also have many visitors in our yard.  Last week Jim told me that the neighbor's roosters came for a visit.  (Gotta love Sussex County!). I think they came to fertilize the lawn and to eat a few crickets.  We also get another regular visitor and her name is Gracie.  The world's most friendly boxer and thief.  She has carted off any forgotten toys of Gidge's and she nabbed one of my garden clogs off the step a few weeks ago too.  Dang dog!

Verbena after a rain shower

As long as the weather holds out, I'll enjoy my yard and all the little treasures that it holds.