I have that nice, outdoorsy smell!

Farmer's tan...check.
Dehydrated...check.
Pulled muscles...check.
Dirt under fingernails...check.

It takes forever to do yard work by yourself.
But Geoff helped out the best way he could...he took the girls out for the day.
The hummingbird/butterfly garden is 90% done.
I would like to add a few plants around the bowl, but other than that, I am pleased:

Plants I used:
Milkweed, lobelia, Dutch Pearl fuschia, wild strawberry, beard-tongue, bee balm, and I think some moneywort has taken up residence. I also added a yellow bell-type of flower that I can't remember the name of. I need to find the receipt...
I threw in some broken pottery (My favorite piece of Fiestaware broke last year, and I knew I could use it somewhere). And there's a clay pot nestled in there for any toads who are feelin' froggy. Har.
And a fairy statue. And a broken angel statue, half-buried in the mulch, like she is sleeping.
There's also a hanging basket with a coco liner full of plants that I got for free from the nursery.
At my nursery, you grab a clipboard and write down all the plants you chose, then the staff knows what is being moved out. The last time I was there, a group of workers was standing there, gawking at me. I looked up, and one of them said that I deserved free plants for how precisely I was writing down my order. So they ended up giving me three different plants for free. Nice, huh?
There's actually four free plants, because one of the pots had a purple petunia growing out of some other kind of plant.
The only other one I remember is Oxalis, something or other. Very pretty, with triangular purple leaves.

The corner from above.

I am in love with moths. There, I said it.
This awesome dude was hanging out on the front door today.
I showed the picture to Isabelle, to see what she would say. I knew what was coming:
"That looks like really fancy bird poop."
I may just have to Google "bird poop moth".
UPDATE: I found it. It's a wood nymph moth, genus Euthisanotia.

What in the world is this thing? It's one of those caterpillar/worm critters that stands up on its head.

Every day, I love our yard more. I am turning into one of those people who can marvel at a wild onion in bloom.
Ooooh....Bloomin' Onion. Yum.

A dill plant sits at the edge of the prairie, waiting for some tiger swallowtails to alight.
(And I am waiting for some dill bread.)

The count of baby robins is now four. The last one hatched sometime today.

We had plenty of rain today...easy, soaking rain with some short spells when it would stop and allow the water to go down nice and deep without running off.
I could almost hear the sucking of all the trees and plants...like a million straws.

I would love for this to be milkweed, but I don't think I am that lucky. There's a whole lot of this growing around here. I would be happy with Joe-Pye weed or Ironweed, though.

Is this an oak sapling?
There are lots of these popping up on the side yard. Right now, they are the tallest things in the yard over there.

The sunset was a nice reward for such a long day of sweating and bending.


I think this is a new tree frog! The other one, at least what I saw of it, was more green. This one was brown. And damn cute. I heard them talking to each other while I was out there. Maybe some frog porn is in my future?
(Somehow, that just sounds wrong.)

Here's a quick video of the "Frog Love Song".

Click To Play