P nailed the dead AC in HK down to the HVAC fan, and ordered a replacement, which I picked up on Friday. The video made it look easy, and it would have been…were we three feet tall and boneless. Three screws, yes, but so inconveniently placed that it took us several runs at it to get them out (a PITA) and back in (a HUGE PITA). If I ever find the engineer responsible for this design, I’m going to kick him in the nuts. Teamwork won in the end, though, and I have AC for the coming week of summer hell!

One of the perfeshnl mechanics.

I’m too lazy to write everything all over again, and it was too hot over the weekend to actually do anything (nearly 80 when I get up at 6:00? WTF!) so I’m going to copypasta the email I sent to R.

I feed the birds year round, and the pond I dug provides water when everywhere else is dry or frozen. I top it up and keep the pump clear of debris in summer, and if it freezes over in winter, I go out and break a hole in the ice. I take care of my birds. It is, however, not free. They are expected to look pretty, and sing, and bring their ugly little babies so I can giggle at them. They’re also expected to work in the fields like the Flower Farmer does!

So P was very concerned (and I was as well) about the cats’ increased interest once the Baby Cs start moving around and peeping for their parents, so I decided to erect (hehe…erect) a temporary fence around the shrubs and part of the patio. It cost me a small fortune–that plastic poultry fencing is not cheap–and Buchheit had no posts tall enough for the fencing, and it’s not pretty, but if it saves the Baby Cs and helps Mr and Mrs, who have worked so hard, then it’s worth it. It won’t keep out dedicated cats, but it should be fine to keep out well-fed, kind of lazy cats that are mildly curious about the odd sounds in the shrubbery.

Should the step-in posts prove inadequate, I’ll grab some of the T-posts that I have around flowerbeds; Christ knows we haven’t got enough rain this year, nor had a spring long enough for my flowers to grow tall enough to need roping off.

Since it’s ugly and inconveniently placed to make people walk around, so people walking around will want to know why, and it’s a playpen for cardinal children, I made a sign.

Me, sweating my arse off, installing the playpen fence, caught on the security camera.

This morning, I was DYING to see the babies, and the parents had just fed them and flown away, so I hatched (hatched–ha!) a plan to get inside and take a picture. It involved two chairs from the back patio, and silent gratitude that the neighbours were still asleep.

Again, caught on camera, making my escape after leaving one of the chairs over there for next time. 😀

I thought I’d already posted this, but I hadn’t, so here’s how they looked on Monday.

So, the kids are still butt-ugly, and no way was I going to use a flash or spend more time there than necessary, but they have more fevvers, and their little eyes are open!

Random florage. Yes, this is a word…now.

The trumpet creeper has more flowers this year. On that side, at least; the other side doesn’t get as much sun.

Gloriosa daisy because…gloriosa daisy!

P was on the patio, telling me about Mr and Mrs C, feeding the kids, when he mentioned that she had flown away. I heard the key word, “away,” and ran over to see whether I could get a photo without being attacked by the parents. Success!

Oh my god, they’re ugly little things, but they’re actually so ugly that they’re cute.

I took one without the flash, just so I’d get a better idea of their actual colours. Lookit his widdle birb TOES! <3

This is just Kankakee mallow. I don’t have much of it, but the Japanese beetles haven’t got to it yet, so I took pictures.

Only two blooms on this particular bit of the trumpet creeper, but it was the only one I could reach.

Also, the best thing of all…rain, glorious rain! We got about 1.5 inches, and even better, the temperature dropped from 91F to 70F in a matter of half an hour because the heavy rain came with thunderstorms.

I didn’t mean to startle Mrs C away from her nest, but since I already had, I decided to see what was in there, and she did not disappoint. Only two, but I’ve never in my life seen a cardinal’s nest, let alone eggs, so I’ll take them!

The butterfly weed in Sarah-Flah’s Giant No-Mow bed inexplicably died over the winter, but a couple came back in the milkweed bed. So bright and pretty.

I’ll never not love gloriosa daisy.

I think I had a few flowers on one last year, but I’ll always take flowers wherever I can get them!

Last year was frogbit, and the year before, it was water hyacinth, but so far this year, it’s all about the duckweed.

If an upload from two days ago fails, the logical thing to do is STOP TRYING. Jesus Christ, WP…xan you possibly make your app worse? Wait… I already know the answer to this.

I was outside, watering, when I noticed a turtle amongst the foliage. I saw what I thought was yellow, and hoped it would be Roxy, but when the turtle moved away from the sound of my voice, I guessed it probably wasn’t. Once he came out into the open, I saw that he was an Eastern, not Ornate, and a dude. I’m still hoping for Roxy–I really want her to be still alive and still in the area–but I’ll take the more common Eastern. A box turtle is a good thing, regardless of species.

When I pruned the Lonicera flava out front, I decided to try rooting the end cuttings, since I’d heard those can be rooted in plain water. So far, so good, but a few days ago, I’d noticed that there were a few small holes in the leaves. I thought I’d probably just not noticed them when I took the cuttings, but this morning, when I checked to see whether the cuttings needed water, I saw there was over half of a leaf missing. Now that I would certainly have noticed before, so I flipped the leaf over to find the culprit. I don’t know whether he’s diffinis or thysbe, but he’s certainly Hemaris! He’s going to be relocated to the plant out front. I’d put him on the sempervirens because I have so much more of it, but his mama put him on the flava, so I’m not going to argue with her choice. It’s vigorous enough to handle the munching of one little ‘pillar.

I cleaned the house all day Friday (even vacuumed the baseboards!), and then we had to go to Mt V on Saturday morning, leaving so early that I was too tired to do much on Saturday except stop at Lowe’s and buy a Physocarpus ‘Summer Wine’ and a serviceberry ‘Standing Ovation’ (didn’t even know there were named serviceberry trees). Also had to water, since (surprise) we’ve got no rain, it’s hotter than the hinges on the gates of Hell, and no rain in sight for the near future. WTF is wrong with this place!? Anyway, random stuff from Memorial Day weekend.

I knew I had some on the snakeroot, so just in case, I checked the Dutchman’s Pipe. Sure enough…

So…a week or so ago, Onje had chased a female cardinal out of the smoke tree/hydrangea area. I didn’t think too much of it; I just assumed she’d chosen a bad place to perch for the night. Then, P and I were sitting out on the patio, and Onje was at the smoke tree again. I chased him out, and wondered why the hell that bird kept sleeping there, so close to the place where people and cats hang out. Yesterday, P was mowing, and came really close to the smoke tree. What comes flying out of it? A female cardinal! Okay, this was getting weird. I had a suspicion, so I investigated. Sure enough, she’s got a nest in there.

It’s not visible from the outside–I stuck my phone amongst the branches–but Onje doesn’t need to see what he can smell and hear is there. I cut some branches off my rue and broke/crushed them (god, rue stinks), and hopefully, he’ll stay away. I’ll bring out the big guns in the form of ghost pepper powder if I have to, but I’d rather not do that to Onje if it’s not necessary. If I’m outside, there’s always La Chancla! Anyway, we’ll see, but she picked one hell of a spot for a nest!

Missouri primrose. I think these are just beautiful, and I may put some out front somewhere, just because they are so lovely.

I got up at 5:15 today (Monday), and since I knew it was going to be fucking hot, and I wanted to get these in the ground so I don’t have more pots to water, I was dressed, caffeinated, and sticking a shovel in the ground at 6:00AM. I had bought the Physocarpus ‘Summer Wine’ for the front flowerbed where the butterfly bush inexplicably died, but decided against putting it there after all. I just don’t care for the leaves, and besides, it’s for birds that spend the vast majority of their time in the back yard. I’ll think of something else for the front.

Physocarpus took the place of one of the “ninebark” plants I got from that asshole in MA. The ones that turned out not only to be maple and not Physocarpus, but Norway maple, which is a weedy species, and of which I pull hundreds of unwanted seedlings every year. That asshole…I remember who he is, and if he ever sells on eBay again…

I didn’t even  know there were named varieties of serviceberry, but apparently there are because this is ‘Standing Ovation’. I have only one surviving of the three or four tiny seedlings I planted a couple of years ago, and serviceberry is always welcomed by birds (or will be once it has fruits)! I dug up a volunteer ash(?) and a pokeweed plant for this one. Holy SHIT, does pokeweed have a taproot–that thing had to be five inches across!

EDIT: Forgot the big dude. This is one of the first wave.

Honeysuckle on the fence, which is so pretty when it does its big spring bloom that I cannot help but take pictures even if I’ve seen it many times. 100′ of hummingbird feeder!

I didn’t plant this, and I keep meaning to move it, but then I end up leaving it for one reason or another. Penstemon, which I shall assume is the native variety, since it’s nothing like any of the penstemon I planted (though I wouldn’t have been surprised it if had been ‘Husker Red’ because I swear that stuff has legs and just walks to where it wants to grow).