Orioles

Terry got home from North Dakota last night. It was a quick trip, only Sunday through Thursday, but I found myself overwhelmed by the extra chores that we normally share, such as getting the garbage and recycling together for pick up, bringing in the mail, and tidying up for the cleaning ladies. I ran out of clean socks and had to do the laundry, for heaven’s sake! 

In the midst of all of that, doing my blog post slipped my mind until this morning. So I’m late. Sorry.

The big news is that the orioles are back! It was just one male at first, as far as I could tell, and boy, was he mad about the absence of jelly. He sat where the feeder was conspicuously absent and sang his little heart out: “Hey! Hey! Where’s the damned jelly, slackers?” 

"Hey! Where's the jelly?"

I asked Terry (this was before he left) where the jelly dish was. He said he’d look, but when I hadn’t heard back from him by noon, I went out to the greenhouse and found one. Yesterday, I saw an orchard oriole and a first-year male. 

I am sad to confirm that I was right about the poor life choices of the toads. The vernal pond has strings of embryos stopped in their development before they wriggled out of the slime that enclosed the eggs.

Strings of dead toad embryos. So sad.

The rain has continued most of the week, but the toads have not come back for a second attempt. Maybe it is because it’s been cold; maybe one try is all they get in a year, although I’m sure there are other toads out there. We’ll see what happens when it warms up again. 

I’m pleased that all of the Virginia bluebells that I bought and planted two years ago are up this year, even though four of the five did not come up last year. Hooray! The one I planted under the solar panel is going to bloom. 

The large leaves are Virginia bluebells. The narrow leaves and blue flowers are scilla

The Dutchman’s britches is blooming, with its little upside-down-pants flowers. 

Dutchman's britches

It has been three years since I planted mayapples and trout lilies. The mayapples are finally taking off.

The umbrella-like mayapple leaves are beginning to unfurl. I count 19 in this photo.

The trout lilies seem a little more numerous, but no signs of flowers yet. 

The trout lilies are the mottled green and blackish leaves. The rest are weeds.

The ramps are still limping along. They don’t seem much inclined to propagate, more’s the pity. Hilda did not live long enough to see a harvest. At this rate, I might not either. 

Ramps that may never be numerous enough to harvest

I’ve been working in the high tunnel, as it doesn’t rain in there. I have planted three tomato plants, four herbs (rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme),

Supersweet 100 (cherry), Celebrity, and New Girl tomatoes in cages, herbs are in the bed behind.

And two cucumbers 

Cucumbers by trellis

The chicks are going to be shipped next week. We are waiting on a call for our bees also. The birds and the bees…Next week might be quite busy! Stay tuned!