It’s Sunday morning, but I took these yesterday.

I actually accomplished something yesterday. I cleaned the interior of HKLRSC (long overdue), cleaned the kitchen sink (less overdue, but still needed to be done), and frosted four panels of glass; one of which I fucked up, but didn’t notice until it was fully installed and back in place. I’m not redoing it now; I’m not happy with the way the frost came out on these ones, but that window is right behind the chimney anyway, and nobody ever comes inside our house, so who’s going to see it?

This is the Summer something-or-other agastache that was supposed to be red. That’s a very interesting shade of red!

Golden Glow butterfly bush. It is sprawl-y, but I won’t know until next year whether that’s just the way it grew potted or whether that’s its growth habit. If it’s the latter, I’ll have to move it. Blooms are pretty either way!

This one Gaillardia arrived kind of droopy and I wasn’t sure it would live, but it eventually grew huge. I thought it would never bloom, but there is one bud on it, so I guess it just took its time getting established. The lantana (this one and the other) did okay, but I really wasn’t impressed. Too bad they won’t come back next year.

In news I’ve waited 40 years to report, I have seen a live Baltimore oriole! I went outside and P said he’d seen a red and black bird at the hummingbird feeder that the woodpecker uses. He said, “a cardinal or something”. I asked if the bird could have been orange, then showed him pictures of the male Baltimore oriole. He said that looked like the bird. Just as I was grumbling about my having waited so long to see one and his being the one who actually got to see it, the bird came back. I ended up seeing him three separate times, but didn’t even try to get close enough for a picture, and when I had my binoculars, he was nowhere to be found. He’s migrating south, so I may never see him again, but nonetheless, I ordered an oriole feeder because both he and the woodpecker make the hummingbird feeder drip, and…”That’s how you get ants.” I’ll pay attention to orioles next spring on Journey North, too; perhaps I can convince one or two to stay the summer!