June 2nd, beautiful June

June really is the best month. Birds are in full force, flowers are just starting to bloom, plants are lush and green, the heat (usually) is just right.

Today started off well. I attended the Fireman's Breakfast, a fund raiser in our little village. My daughter was there as part of her job with the Fun Squad at the radio station. $10.00 bought me a breakfast I couldn't possibly finish and all money going to a good cause, I am sure. I got to visit a bit with my neighbours and a colleague who has since retired and is loving it.

Remember when I wrote last Sunday about a good kind of tired after a day of bending and squatting and kneeling and walking? (No? You don't hang on my every word??) Anyway, the result of that is a partially weeded flower bed and a wrecked knee. I can't believe I have injured myself somehow in just one day. Now I am very hesitant to do anything that requires squatting or kneeling (yes, I did use a kneeling pad). This would never have been an issue 15 years ago. So my flower beds taunt me. Maybe if I got a low stool to sit on?

Since my fuschias hanging on the porch have been attracting so many hummingbirds, I thought it was probably time to get out my hummingbird feeder and make some syrup to put in it. As I was getting out the bag of white sugar, I honestly had this thought that maybe I should cut back on sugar for the hummingbirds, that I shouldn't be so liberal in my bird sugar consumption! Like the metabolism of something that flies so quickly its wings are a blur has to worry about weight gain! I've always read and heard that a three to one ratio for hummingbird syrup (at least the first bottle, to attract them) is good. I do not use red food colouring, as used to be the practise. The bottle that I use is red glass.

After rototilling my vegetable garden a while back, life got busy, temperatures got colder, and the rain came down. So I have yet to put a single vegetable seed, or seed potato in the ground. I have one tomato plant and one cucumber plant that I purchased at another fund raiser sitting on the back deck, patiently waiting. So, I got out my basket of seeds.

I'll have a look and see if any of them are viable for this year. Do you use seed packets for more than one year? Or do you buy fresh every year? I never use all of my seeds each year, so usually have leftovers. I buy tomato plants, rather than starting them from seed, although some years, I replant rogue tomato plants that have sprouted up from the compost, or in the garden itself.

I'll figure out what I need for this year and buy some things this weekend.

So, we definitely have a raccoon. Not just one raccoon, but mama and babies. They live in the big old spruce tree. It is right outside our bedroom window so there have been evenings that I have heard her reading them a bedtime story!! (If I could understand raccoon, I'm sure that's what it is!)

Twice now, I have walked out onto the porch, look up when I hear a scratchy sound, and see mom descending the tree. This has been in the middle of the day, as well as the morning. Aren't they supposed to be nocturnal?? She runs away when I make the universal "get out of here, wild animal" hissy sound. She is BIG, by the way. We really need to trap and relocate her, but we can't do that until babies are out doing their thing, so we can get everyone. We don't want to be responsible for taking away a mother with babies still depending on her. As I've said before, raccoons are incredibly destructive. At a more nuisance level, they tip over my water buckets, rip down my bird feeders, and make muddy pawprints all over the cement pool deck. They have also been known to take up residence in people's attics and create all kinds of problems in homes, sheds, or garages.

Does anyone out there have a good trimmer / whipper snipper? My reliable one bit the dust today. The inner mechanisms have cracked and it chewed up and spit out the last of its plastic cord. We have a gas operated one, but it is way too heavy for me and we don't have the shoulder strap for it. I did have an electric one, but our property is one acre, and so playing with extension cords (three attached together!) is ridiculous and just makes me mad before I even begin, as well, the cord kept popping out of the machine itself.

With the amount of rain, and (I hope) heat, our property will be a jungle if it is not kept trimmed. My husband said, I hope jokingly, that he would buy me a new one for my birthday. Don't you dare!

I shall leave you with this June iris from my garden.