Can you take yet another critter?

I seem to be on a theme here although it was not intentional.

This morning as the dog and I were returning from a walk midmorning I noticed this critter on the front lawn quite near the curb and heading towards the road. It has been a number of years (perhaps five or more) since I have seen a box turtle in our yard. I'm not sure if it could be the same one or not. In the 2000 - 2004 period we would see a box turtle perhaps two or three times in a year and usually in the back yard area.

When I checked thirty minutes later there was no sign of the turtle so I hope it did cross the road and find someplace safe to go.

Introducing the newest critter

Here we can see the most recent critter to be graced with a name in my garden - meet TT (that would be short for Tomato Taker). Over the past couple of days I had been noticing a small pile of what looked to be tomato skins left on the deck railing. And in the early evening today I happened to look out at just the right time to see TT. So I made a mad dash for the camera and then took a chance and took the photo through the glass door so as not to disturb the little rascal at dinner.

Here is TT praying after a good meal that another will be available next time.

And here we see the remains. Not only is there tomato skins but also, well, you can see the damp patch.

What to do? You can see the next meal hanging right there for the taking in the above photo. And tomorrow the forecast is for strong thunderstorms with gusty winds. So the chances of the plant surviving are, well, reasonable if you remember my precautions. But for the chipmunk surviving? No, I would not do anything to harm the little critter. But I might just clear away all the remains and spray some nasty smelling liquid in the area.

You might recall reading about the rhubarb rascal. Let me tell you, that critter is still around and still eating.

Natural events

We have had an unusual afternoon and I needed to abandon my plan for an outing. Instead I was sitting out on the deck having a much needed restorative cup of tea and watching the birds in my garden. It finally occurred to me to go and get my camera and see if I could, at last, get a photo to post to show the hummingbirds coming to my feeder. Here you might have to click (I think it is a left click which will enlarge the photo for you) on the photo to find the bird just to the left of the feeder.

Look carefully and in this shot the bird is about to dip it's beak and get the reward. I did confirm my earlier sightings and I have three hummingbirds regularly visiting my feeder. One seems to come alone. But there are two who are very territorial who spend more time chasing each other away than they do actually getting the sugar water.

Before the hummingbirds I had been watching this yellow finch having a wonderful time on the coneflower. If you look carefully at this photo there are two finches. The upper one was easily feeding there for more than five minutes. However, the flower was some distance from where I was sitting on the deck so it was not easy for my little camera to get a good photo to show you.

And what caused me to have to abandon my plan for the afternoon? Well, the earth shook. Despite my disbelief it really was an earthquake and they are saying about 5.9 so I absolutely did feel it. I thought sitting outside for a while might be safer than staying indoors. But now here I am sitting inside again to bring you the latest news of nature from my garden.

Another day, another view

I seem to think that I had intended to also show you these two volunteer tomato plants. Last year I had a couple of plants show up in this planter bed and to my surprise they did produce some edible fruit although it was pretty late in the season.

By this spring I had to add a few inches of soil to the planter before again putting in the annuals (that would be flower plants) and I likely added some compost out of my bin along with the soil. The rabbit discovered the annuals and has, by now, totally destroyed the pinks that I had at each end. But that is the minor part of the story because in the meantime there appeared two really strong tomato plants. When my sister was here in July she was kind enough to go out there with a few strong stakes and some of my supply of fabric selvedges and tie up the plants.

And now I am picking quite a few tomatoes from the plants. I have no idea what they are but there are up to ten fruit on one truss. The fruit size is not large but they are absolutely bigger than a cherry tomato which is what I have in pots on the deck. So that is a fun little aspect of the garden this season.

This however is a not-so-fun event in my garden year. On late Thursday afternoon we had a series of violent thunderstorms pass through and at one point we had large hail (think at least 1/2" but perhaps 3/4" diameter) and it lasted for ten minutes or so. At one stage the deck was quite covered in the hailstones.

I wanted to open the door to take a photo but the dog was afraid of the storm and was glued to my side so I could not open the door when he was right there. These two photos were about 15 minutes after the hail stopped. And as well as the hail that you can see I had tomatoes all over the deck; ripe, green fullsized and tiny green and yellow blossoms too. So I'm not sure how much more fruit I am going to be able to pick from these plants.

But on the bright side, no pot was toppled by the storm thanks to my efforts, as detailed in the previous post, to secure my pots in the upright position.

My sisters will roll their eyes

And think of our dad when they see my solution to making sure that my tomato plant does not blow over when the thunderstorm rolls through. As you might remember I have to grow my tomatoes in pots on the deck - it is an agreement I have with the deer. And an agreement I have with the company that cleans the deck is not to have pots sitting directly on the surface of the deck.

So my plants are in big pots which sit on saucers that have wheels underneath. This works out well to begin with as when there is a storm brewing I whip outside and just wheel the pots over against the wall of the house out of the way of the wind. But once the plants grow bigger I lose that option. By then I have to start my cringe inducing campaign. The first step is to take long lengths of fabric selvedge and I tie the pots to the railing. Although this helps the pot to not fall over the wind that blows through just before a thunderstorm defies that and can topple the pot which is really bad for the plant. So the next step is to "chock" the wheels of the saucer like a airplane on the runway.

But last week I had to take an additional step - I dragged over the outside chairs and placed them strategically against the pots so the chair back would hold up the tomato stake system and then I loaded old paver stones on the chair to give it some weight. And my plants have remained upright.


This season it is the yellow cherry tomato which is producing the best tasting tomatoes. I really think I should no longer buy the grape tomatoes as they do not seem to do well at all.

The intense heat and humidity we had in the month of July has not been kind to the plants but I am picking quite an amount of fruit. Now if we could just keep up with eating them! Sometimes during the day as I pass by the bowl on the kitchen counter I will pop a few in my mouth as a snack and they are good that way.

How is your garden doing this season? It is not clear from any of these photos but this year I have three tomato plants on the deck; a yellow cherry, a red grape and a red cherry. Oh, I was going to take a photo or two of the "volunteers" that are growing out down by the patio and are also now producing ripe fruit, but I forgot. Maybe another day.

A July Fourth Salute

Today is the day for the red, white and blue and flying the flag. And, if you live in the right sort of town, you can go to watch the street parade.


The parade route was changed somewhat this year and I think there were more people there to watch. Certainly there were a lot of balloons although we noticed a goodly number headed up into the clouds before very long.


These girls had spent time grooming their horses ready for the parade and were setting off to join in.

First up in the parade were the various politicians - both the current ones and the hopeful ones. But then came the fire engines, a perennial favorite.

We all hope there is not a 911 call during the parade.

Animals always feature in the parade.

The owners put thought into how to make their pet "parade worthy".


We were watching fairly close to the beginning of the route and we wondered how long this boy would last on his stilts.


There was a chance to bring your old vehicles out and show them off.

Check out the license plate on this one. (A left click on the photo will enlarge it if need be.)


There was an earlier parade for the "Little Patriots" to walk in but I guess they decided to go round one more time.


It may seem as though the parade is only for families with young children but here we see teenagers who were willing to get out there and parade also.


These three were spotted watching the parade.


After the parade passed by the action began on the village green with a live band in the gazebo.

The day will end with the fireworks show so long as the weather remains co-operative.

I'm thinking Rabbit Stew!

For quite a few days now Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" has been playing loud and clear through my mind with Elmer Fudd singing "kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit". Around this time of the year is when the Wolftrap Park is in the midst of their big summer season and often Casey and I go to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform such as Bugs Bunny at the Opera.

But I am not thinking of orchestras, I am thinking of that "wascally wabbit" because one has moved in to my garden. I have been gardening here since 2000 and have come to an agreement with the deer - they are welcome to help themselves to all the vegetation in the rear wooded half of our lot. In return I promise to only plant things in the front half that they do not like. Usually this works out just fine. I am used to seeing a rabbit or two visit my garden and usually I can be tolerant of that. But this year....well, I am ready to declare war. Or call in Elmer Fudd.


Look carefully here and you can see the pint sized problem eating the grass. I am happy for it to eat as much grass as it wants.

Instead...



... right next to the steps to the front door we have what used to be a fine echinacea (coneflower) plant.


Out back we have what looks like a miniature tree felling operation where the rabbit has been "felling" the delphiniums.


Or how about here, where we can see the remnants of what were thriving parsley plants. The deer have agreed that I can plant as many herbs as I want as they do not care for them. But the wabbit? Well, it seems to love the parsley to the right and left. The dill in the center front has been mostly left alone and the mint is growing like crazy (hint to Mr Wabbit - there is more than enough mint for both of us).


On the plus side is this flower bed. I planted it ten years ago as a very pretty blue, yellow and white combination. Blue Russian Sage, yellow Heliopsis (false sunflower) and white Echinacea (coneflower). For a couple of years it was a very lovely spot. But then the rabbit thought it would be fun to eat the helopsis so there was no yellow flowers. The Russian sage quietly faded away without the yellow there to cheer it on. Pink (or to be more correct, purple) coneflower reseeded from other spots in the garden. And, lo, this year there has been a welcome return of the yellow heliopsis. I guess the rabbit was so busy elsewhere in the garden it forgot that this used to be the favorite spot.


This planting of Monarda (bee balm) has burst into bloom in the last few days. There used to be lots of white phlox interspersed here and the deer loved nibbling on that.


And finally there is this planter box. Last year a couple of "volunteer" tomato plants showed up here and despite all odds went on to produce fruit. In other parts of the garden the deer loved to nibble on the tomato plants. So a couple of weeks back, knowing it was quite late in the season to be planting annuals, I went ahead and put some in this planter box. Within a day the wabbit had pruned the annuals at each end of the planter box to within a half inch. But for some reason, this years two volunteer tomato plants were left alone as were the half dozen blue salvia planted between them. Why is this? Is it because of the decorative tiny blue birdhouses on a stem that moves? And how long will it be before either the rabbit or the deer decide to heck with it and close crop everything in this bed?

Watch this space for the continuing adventures.