coming in first

[OT from cottage renovations]

having lost the annual hummingbird race the least I can do is post an image of the winning feeder and location.  the first customers were seen before these azaleas came into bloom; surely that mass of red helps reinforce the attraction. 

(click through this thumbnail for higher resolution image)

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Chestnut Avenue

bluebell update (9)

[OT from cottage renovations]

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

Bittersweet Cottage garden

6 May

detail:
6 May

( ... previous days ... )

Mertensia virginica

simple pleasures

[OT from cottage renovations]

I have long held that the primary beneficiaries of the Grove are our cats and our children.  for that cats it's obvious: the environment is optimal for them, or at least the closest approximation I've ever encountered.  for the children it's even better: not only do they get to grow up here, but they can think of it as normal.  it goes into their internal baseline, against which they compare everything else for the rest of their lives. 

but some things are so elemental that they don't really have anything to do with the Grove.  for example, the sheer joy of running through the spray of a neighbour's sprinkler on a beautiful spring afternoon can be experienced anywhere water is used for irrigation.  nonetheless it goes into that baseline, a contributing resource as it were. 

(click through these thumbnails for higher resolution images)

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Brown Street

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( .. two more .. )

Annika