if you need a laugh...read to the end

This morning I did dig up my irises. What a challenge, trying to dig through all the silt and sand the flood had piled on it. Though easy to move, it just kept sliding back into the hole I was digging. You know how it is at the beach and the sand keeps washing out from under your feet? That's what kept happening to me, while I was kneeling. After several close calls of falling flat on my face in the plants, I gave up and sat down in the dirt like a kid and got it done.

I was a little surprised at how solidly rooted these were.  Thankfully there are plants that thrive in the crappy Pennsylvania soil!  Here you either have sand/silt, or heavy clay.  I have heavy clay with lots of rock and stone in one garden, and the silt/sand at the other.  Now if they were all combined equally, that would be the perfect loamy soil!  hah  that's not going ot happen so we work with what we got.  I seem to be having better luck though with the silt. 

The house sparrows and cowbirds are relentless. Today it was reminicent of 'The Birds" (for any of you old enough to remember the Hitchcock film)  Easily over 75 of the 'little bastards'  as my Sister calls them. (Funny she also calls stinkbugs 'those bastards'!)  They aren't cautious where they fly at all. Other birds, butterflies and even the hummingbird had to use diversionary tactics. Zooming up or down as needed to avoid mid air collisions.
They were gathering in both gardens, along the stream and on my awning, which is aluminum, so you kept hearing their feet scraping against the metal while they were all chirping and whistling. It got eerie at times! So many birds!

The hummingbird still enjoying the bee balm.

One of the 'little bastards'  sitting on a brick, among the rocks that were washed up the other week.

Did you know that house sparrows, and starlings at the only two birds not protected by law?  

 They make such a ruckus, that the goldfinch would stop eating and look at them when they were particularly noisy, or all flying about.  I don't think they appreciate their low-life neighbors either!

When I was done working, I sat at the table with the idea of enjoying some pink lemonade and reading a book. The weather was absolutely gorgeous today. Sunny, mild temps, though breezy.  We've had no rain again, despite weather reports saying we'd get some, and with the wind today the garden is bone dry. Tomorrow out comes the hose. There's no choice!  I had noticed a few of my plants were celebrating the cooler temps by having a growth spurt. My fennel, swamp milkweed and rue all had very obvious growth. Some others too, btu I can't remember off the top of my head.
Of course I had my camera with me at the ready.  Just in case!  My momma squirrel did come to visit for peanuts:

She's still cautious but she knows I have the goods!  One of the other squirrels was coming down the tree to their feeder. This is how he looked when he realized I was right there:

Stopped in his tracks, weighed his options and scampered back up the tree.  Earlier the two of them were having a chase all around the tree, and then they were oblivious to my presence.

Another buckeye came to visit. This one in perfect condition

So are you getting the idea that I wasn't getting any reading done?
I have top include this, such a pretty marigold.  I'm surprised it's still blooming, since it was uprooted by the flood. This will be a tasty treat for my house bunnies.

So I'm sitting there, camera actually in my hand, while I was watching all those sparrows and cowbirds. And I keep wondering how is it that cowbirds keep laying their eggs in other birds nests. I mean if they are being raised by other birds,  birds that don't parasitize other nests by leaving their own eggs in it, that the cowbirds wouldn't do it any more?  :) If it were that simple. But mother nature has her own ways I suppose and human logic doesn't apply.  At least they aren't like a cuckoo hatchling that will boost other eggs out of the nest.  One study I read about shows that cowbirds actually fare better having 2 nestmates. That the begging of 3 hatchlings gets better food results from the parents. The parents will tend the nest better. But the cowbird hatchling will get 50% of the food, not 33% so reach their potential faster and more often then if they were a lone hatchling.  So that's where my thoughts were today, watching the young cowbirds that were interspersed among the sparrrows.

A high distraction rate today. (ok it's like this every day)
So I'm sitting at the table, book untouched, watching all the activity to the right. I glance to the left and see....a groundhog...charging across the yard, right at me. At first I sort of sucked in some air and said ...oh!  Now the groundhogs are usually a bit skittish. I'll see a groundhog run a couple feet, stop and look around, run a little, stop and look, etc, until he reaches his destination.
Not this one!

This was not Little Dude btw, this was one of the full sized groundhogs.  So here he comes, barreling along, within several feet of me. I make a small noise and he keeps coming.  Unlike me he wasn't distracted. I suddenly had a vision of him attacking my legs as he was going to go right under my chair. I was startled and I screamed.  Now I don't scream readily. Unlike Sister. ( she'll appreciate that comment) Her motto is ...scream first, ask questions later.

Anyhow, I pick up my feet and let out a scream, the groundhog stops dead in his tracks and tries to backtrack. He's can't get traction in the pile of dirt right next to me at first, then he runs onto my patio and gets to the bottom of my steps and stops. By this time I'm laughing and laughing. At both my own reaction and that of the groundhog.  He's so confused, standing there and he's whipping his head left and right trying to figure out what to do, where to go. Finally he squeezes past a piece of skirting and runs under my home! I happen to look across the stream and see another groundhog running for his life.  I look around and there's no birds, no butterflies, no hummingbird, no squirrels.  Nothing. It went silent in my yard. Everyone took off when I yelled.  It took them a good 15 minutes to start coming back. Then it was business as usual.  Of course 15 minutes later I'm still thinking about everyone freaking out, and laughing, outloud.  If anyone would have seen me after the incident, sitting there, alone, laughing...

I think they'd be very concerned about my stability.