SURPRISE! ~ FLOWERS IN THE BACKYARD ~ TREE WALK AT THE ARBORETUM ~ PARTING SHOT

SURPRISE!

Last Wednesday afternoon Linda opened the front door to go outside and found two small packages left there by FedEx, one for her and one for me. She brought them in and we immediately opened them. We were delighted to discover that it was part of our Mother's Day gift! On Sunday we had both received an E-Card from Audubon letting us know that Emily, John and the girls had adopted a bird for each of us. It is a well-known fact that Linda and I love birds, so it was a most appropriate gift. Little did we know then that we would be receiving these cute little guys below in a couple of days.

Two sweet little birdies to wish us Happy Mother's Day!

The bird on the left is a Red-Tailed Hawk and that was Linda's bird. This is a bird that is found across the United States. Whenever you look up and see a hawk soaring above on the thermals, chances are it is a Red-Tailed Hawk. Linda saw one just the other day swoop down on our feeder and snatch up some little unsuspecting sparrow or finch for his lunch. Unfortunately, a bird feeder can feed birds in more ways than one.

The bird on the right is none other than the Northern Cardinal, which I think is my all-time favorite bird. We used to have loads of them in our backyard in Lumberton, and we so enjoyed it when they would bring their babies to our yard every Spring. Our backyard in Lumberton was a sanctuary because we did not have the Summer Girl back then, and Precious Baby was always an inside-only kitty. Sadly, the Cardinal does not live as far west as Yakima, so we haven't seen one in person since we left North Carolina. Still, we have fond memories of our Cardinal families. And now we can always hear its song.

FLOWERS IN THE BACKYARD

We have had some absolutely gorgeous days lately, as they sometimes are in the Spring before the heat sets in. The temperatures have been in the mid-80's and some days there hasn't been a cloud in the sky. This is when I like to sit out under our Catalpa tree in the backyard and just enjoy nature. I usually take my camera with me because you never know what is going to show up that might be picture-worthy. Sometimes, though, I have to wander around the yard and look for things to photograph. Thanks to Linda's green thumb, I don't have to go very far to find some beautiful subjects.

The picture above is of a plant called Gaillardia. These do really well here in Yakima and seem to love the hot, dry climate, which is a good thing when you live in a high-desert area. The fuchsia-colored flowers below are Snapdragons, which spring up in our yard all over the place, in a multitude of colors.

Snapdragon volunteers!

Below is a picture of our two Mary Rose bushes, named after my mother because they are actually from a cutting of one of her rose plants. I can see the original plant right now in my mind. She did love her roses, as evidenced by the fact that they were all around our house. Having been raised on a plant nursery in Florida, she had TWO green thumbs. I think if she had stuck a stick in the ground, it would have grown into a lovely plant loaded with beautiful flowers.

The Mary Rose bushes

More colorful Gaillardias

It's still fairly early in the season for there to be very many butterflies around, although I have seen one or two Tiger Swallowtails flitting about. They always move too fast for me to get a picture of them! My Butterfly Bush does not even have any blooms on it yet, but when it does maybe I can get a picture of one perched on it. My search for subjects on this day did manage to produce one little Cabbage White butterfly, who looked a bit worse for wear.

Cabbage White on Salvia blossom

Close-up of Mary Rose

TREE WALK AT THE ARBORETUM

In keeping with our efforts to get out and about more now that the weather is nice, we took a "Memorial Tree Walk in Honor of Memorial Day" this past Saturday at our local Arboretum. This beautiful green space is such a treasure and we are so lucky to have it in Yakima. Even though it is way on the other side of town from us, we still like to go as often as we can. We're only talking about a 15-minute drive, though. It's not like we live in a major metropolitan area such as Seattle! As soon as I saw the Facebook post last week about the Arboretum having a "Tree Walk," we made plans to go.

One of the Arboretum Naturalists led the walk all around the grounds of the gardens. He explained to the group about the Memorial Trees that have been planted in the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Arboretum in Arlington, VA. The Yakima Arboretum has some of these same species of trees planted in their gardens as well. We walked from one to the other, pretty much covering the main area of the grounds. We definitely got all our steps in that day. Below are a few pictures of some of the trees we saw while on this walk.

Osage Orange Tree

American Persimmon Tree

Although this tree below was not one of the Memorial Trees, it was one of the more interesting trees I saw. The bark was a deep rust color and was peeling off the tree in places. Hence the name Paperbark Maple.

Paperbark Maple

Close-up of bark

This tree below was all the way at the edge of the Arboretum grounds, but Linda and I took the long walk over to where it was when we were told the name. It's an American Sweetgum tree, also known as Liquid Amber. Our neighbors in Lumberton used to have one in their back yard, and we could see it out of our kitchen window. In the fall it would turn the most beautiful yellow-red-gold color, earning the name of Liquid Amber.

Liquid Amber Tree

At one point in our walk we came close by the Jewett Pond at the Arboretum. I spotted a couple of juvenile Canada Geese alongside their parents. They are the smaller ones towards the left in the picture below.

Canada Geese Goslings

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk among the trees at the Yakima Arboretum. Our guide mentioned that he will be holding another tree walk at the end of June, to be in honor of July 4th. Depending on the temperature that day, we may just decide to join in on that walk as well.

PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has been pretty lazy lately. She's just biding her time until the garden plants get bigger so she can hide from me. I caught her napping in the flower bed using a concrete edger as a pillow.

Necessity is the mother of invention

I am hoping to give you an update on the garden next week. I walked through this morning and was so disappointed to see that some mean bug has been gnawing on my little plants! I put out some organic Bug & Slug Killer, since it is most likely those nasty Earwigs that have been feasting on my hapless little plants.

More next week...