Memorial Day Weekend

Lots of updates to get down here, after lacking time and a working internet connection over the last couple of weeks. The highlights:

- This May was FAR LESS RAINY than last year. Still, it is too wet to till, and I would not have been able to plant had I not constructed the raised beds last fall.

- Everything planted in the raised beds in April is up and going like (tiny) gangbusters, with the exception of the Golden Purslane. Not bad for a batch of year-old seeds, and kind of ironic considering purslane is actually a weed, and should be easiest of all to grow.

- The chestnuts are in and have funny names. They have already put on a bunch of new leaves.

- Bird action has been non-stop and furious, all the usual: hummingbirds, orioles, bobolinks, goldfinches, tree swallows, red-breasted grosbeak, red-winged blackbirds, woodcock, crows, and eagles. Actually I missed the last eagle sighting. Sharon tried to yell and wave her arms to get my attention from her garden on the other side of the field, but I was too absorbed in digging to notice her or the eagles circling.

- Wild ducklings: captured by Jessie, brooded in plastic box outfitted with chick accessories here since Saturday. Eating, drinking, doing well. I am concerned that they need supervised, protected outdoors time to develop properly, so am working on transfer to a wildlife rehabilitator. If not otherwise employed, would not mind sitting in a lawn chair all day guarding them from foxes.

- Big gardening weekend #2: squash, beans, sunflowers, herbs, cukes. Details to come.

- Chicken coop has not been cleaned yet.

- CSI Richmond: Seems like a long time ago now, but back maybe three weeks ago when Paul Harvey was finishing up fiddlehead season he came upon a fox hole in the woods with a pile of feathers outside. He didn't think they looked like wild turkey feathers. I was able to ID them conclusively as Cuckoo Marans feathers. There was also a pair of Speckled Sussex wings on the ground near the entrance to the burrow.

To wrap up May: The weather guy on the radio pointed out that spring foliage in early to mid-May rivals the fall foliage display. I certainly agree. The new leaves of many trees are reddish when they come out, and the others have that glowing chartreuse quality. It happens fast though, and now everything is fully leafed out and deep green. The lilacs appear just before Memorial Day and smell great. We mow a lot.