After The Rains

Our long heat wave and drought finally came to an end - not with a deluge but with gradual, gentle rains which slowly brought the land back to life. The east side of the barn, however, was faster to recover as mushrooms sprang up overnight:

Curiously attractive little fungi of several kinds, I found them kind of charming. That they signaled the end of the drought certainly added to their attractiveness:

The new row of Day lilies bloomed:

Including a third variety which I hadn't seen before. This one was called a Pink Paradise, which a friend said would make a good name for a gay bar:

And speaking of flowers, I put more in a vase to brink to church, but this time it was all wildflowers - Purple Loosestrife and Joe-Pye-Weed:

  And the gentle rains brought forth these miniature plants, Dwarf Cinquefoil:

They are so tiny that it's hard to believe they're related to their more common, bigger cousins. A close-up view, however, reveals the similarities:


The fantail pigeons continued to hatch babies and a number of them survived and are doing well. This one, up on a shelf in a cake tin, always seems to be deep in thought when it looks at me:

A parent on a cake tin nest:


This baby was newly hatched on the floor when I first saw it, still almost the size of the egg from which it emerged. Babies raised on the floor initially face more danger but escape the wrath of older birds which babies from high shelf nests endure when they first land on the ground:

The parents of the newly hatched baby (above) rushed over to cover it when they saw me taking photos:

Alas, it's not all good news. My one and only Globe Thistle turned brown and died for unknown reasons. I sprayed it with fungicide, thinking that might help, but it did not. It may be back next spring but if not, I've already got my eye on some new hardy roses: