unwelcome guests.....post edit

Traditionally Memorial Day weekend is spent (at least in our family) out in the backyard.  Completing unfinished projects, weeding, planting, dusting off patio furniture, swimming, tanning, firing up the bar-b-que, eating large amounts of sweet watermelon.

This year we had unwelcome guests.  Bees.  Lots & lots of them as a matter of fact.  Buzzing around our heads like little fighter jets warning us off from their new home in my cherry tree.  Which by the way is full of cherries almost ready to be picked. :(

After realizing they had no intention of leaving our party, I decided that spraying them with the hose would get them to leave.  hahaha - so.not.effective.  Matthew got in on the process and thought a shovel would do the trick.  Since the poor things were half drowned following my attempts, and after being told to "not whack my tree, to scrape them off" Matthew promptly ran in brandishing his shovel and whacked the hive.  Needless to say it did nothing except break tree branches which made the whole thing more visible.  Katie, even though she is allergic to bees, wanted part of the fun too so she got back in there with the hose and squirted off another huge portion.  Eventually Mike got involved and asked why we hadn't used the wasp spray.  Why hadn't we?  'Cause it wouldn't have been as much fun!  Of course that worked, and the poor things suffered what looked to be a painful death, but those that weren't killed skedaddled right out of our yard so we could enjoy the remainder of the day.  Of course the action was so fast and furious I got zero pictures of it all.

This morning as I am doing my morning things I wander out to the back yard and what do I see?  You guessed it, a massive cloud of bees around my cherry tree.  Of course my first thought was to hose them down again but there were so many I thought I'd probably be introuble.  So a calm mind prevailed, and back inside I came.  Not half an hour later as I peeked out to see if the coast was clear not a bee in sight.  Instead this is what I found -

I really hate bees.

Post Edit:  so the bees are gone.  apparently they were moving to a new and better address.  hopefully far, far from me.  i am feeling slightly guilty for all their aunts, uncles, cousins & friends i so unmercifully killed monday.  please forgive me, but i still really do have bees.

yum!

Nothing beats a tomato fresh from the garden.

We discovered last year we like yellow tomatoes better than red!

duh-lish-ous!

Herman....

Originally I was going to title this post "meet the neighbor(s)".

But this new neighbor isn't the friendliest guy around. Herman is our new neighbor, he lives in our garden most mornings and evenings. I am sure he goes to visit some girl at night because after dark I have no idea where he goes.

Whenever we are in the garden or trying to enjoy the roses he buzzes about our heads making these intimidating squeaking noises trying to stake out "his" territory. He is kind of pushy and bossy.

I think this is his brother Harry who does the same thing on the other side of the house....

I think these are all distant relatives who found out about the free buffet.....

There was some serious discussion here about cutting the line and waiting for your turn...but they were able to work it out.

I could sit in the yard all day (if there were more shade) and watch these little guys. They just crack me up with all their bravado for how tiny they are. Their battles over territory are so fun to watch. All in all I guess Herman and his entourage aren't such bad neighbors....

just peachy....

Out in our garden the peach tree is moving right along. All the beautiful pink blossoms (well, almost all) have turned into little peaches. I think this is the most peaches we have seen yet, about ten in all. I can't wait for them to be ripe and eat my favorite summer dessert of sliced fresh peaches with sour cream and brown sugar!

wordless Wednesday.....

wordless Wednesday...

wordless Wednesday...

wordless Wednesday.....

wordless Wednesday

Backyard friends

Every spring in the creek down the street there are tons of tadpoles. Every year we catch some, mostly because I encourage my kids to because I remember visiting my Uncle Tat and Aunt Mary in Murphys and I did it in their creek. I had high hopes of one day nursing my little tadpole into a giant toad I could enter into the Calavaras County Frog Jumping Contest. That never happened. Each year we would visit Yosemite or Big Trees National Park, camping on our way home. For some reason I was not allowed to keep a jar, with a lid, full of harmless tadpoles in the tent trailer. This meant they had to stay out in the cold. And every year they died. End of my frog jumping career.

So Matthew and Katie carry on the tradition with sacraficial tadpoles from our creek. Ocassionally, well, actually only once,maybe twice - lesson learned - they (Matthew) came back with poison oak too. The tadpoles end up in our pond in the back yard. They are great at eating the mosquito larvae that happen to appear each year at this time.

Problems solved. Or so I thought.

A couple years ago one of those tadpoles actually survived. It even turned into a frog. Now this frog knows a good thing. He hasn't left. He hibernates somewhere and each spring one night usually in the wee hours after midnight and before 4am it starts. This awful noise. Croooooaaaaaak, over and over. Mike always wakes up. Sometimes I do. The really fun part is when Matthew wakes up - the pond is outside his window - and asks in sleep stupification what is that noise?? I lovingly remind him it's HIS FROG!

another wordless Wednesday.....

They're back!

Every year we've lived in this house the Oriels come to back to nest each spring. There is a very old giant oak tree on the property behind us. This is "home base" for them. I am not sure how many pairs there are, but every year they are here without fail.
How do I know this? Early in the morning (and I mean early), especially for spring break, or summer vacation they are out flying from the big oak in the back.......

.....to this tree in the front! They aren't quiet either. There is a very distinctive chirp they have. Almost as if they are hollering to their friends, "hey, that family is still sleeping, let's get them out of bed!". Of course it doesn't help that our bedroom is right in the flight path............

.....plus the tempting little detours I have set up along the way. The oriels are not like the humming birds. They are very shy. If I am outside (stalking them for a photo) they will fly from tree to tree, or tree to fence, scolding me that I am in their way and I should move!.......

.....eventually hunger wins out and they will land and drink their fill from the humming bird feeders.....

.....first we will just see the males with their bright colors. Late in spring or early summer the females start showing up with the babies.....then they are off for another year. I will be busy now keeping the feeders full! This feeder was full last night so they are definitely hungry little guys!

This is the first bird I've seen this year. I heard him last night, but couldn't see him. Everytime I tried to go out to take a picture he'd fly away, so I finally took these thru our bedroom window!

wordless Wednesdays....

In order to challenge myself to take more pictures and be more creative I am going to try and post a new picture I have taken each week.....so, welcome to.....

Wordless Wednesday!

First sign of spring...

Recently my freesia bulbs started sprouting, but no flowers yet, so no pictures,

the peach tree is full of buds, but nothing opening yet,

no action on the cherry or plum tree,

the lemon tree doesn't know whether it should grow or die -

but the forsythia is ready for spring!

buzz off....

I have several humingbird feeders throughout our backyard for my little bird friends. This year we have birds that have been coming to eat all winter, so I keep them happy and keep filling the feeders. We also have some unwelcome guests that showed up late in the summer. My guess is there is a beehive somewhere close by and the stinkin' bees are after a free and easy meal! The bees are pretty agressive and will buzz around the hummingbirds until they fly away. They will also follow me with the feeder! I HATE bees....they need to move away before summer when I will be out in the yard all the time!

Feeding the birds....

Every summer it seems our house is in the path of migrating humming birds. I love to feed them and watch them fight for their next meal as though it will be their last. The feeding frenzy is twice a day. Usually early morning (7am 'ish) and again in the early evening when it has cooled down a little. The chirping and squeaking noises the little hummers make wakes me up, there are so many of them. It is quite an endeavor to feed these little guys - at one point I was refilling the feeders about every other day and I have seven of them around the yard! The favorite feeder seems to be on the north side of our house where I have two feeders hanging on the fence and another two hanging on either side of the kitchen window. When Katie went to hang the feeder for me she was getting dive bombed by the birds they were so anxious to eat! We decided to experiment and see if she stood still if they would land and feed. Sure enough those little sugar addicts needed their fix!