Unexpected Delightful Garden Blessings ♥

This time of year in the very early summer, I like to take a walk around the garden in the early evening with my notebook & phone to make notes & take pics of what sort of things need to be done. New places to plant things, plants that need some additional support, and things like that. Simple, evening garden chores. 

This evening while attending to my normal routine, I had a guest at the feeder just a few feet away.  I took an outrageous number of pics to get this one and the Mourning Dove never flinched once. I was about 4 feet away. 

After all that I very, very slowly walked backward toward the house and away from the feeder. The Dove remained the entire time. 

It's so cool to be in a wee bit of harmony with some of God's other creatures. Even if just for a few seconds. 💖

Status Report: December 2024 - Final Post of The Year!

After the festive Christmas rush of activity it's quiet again, and time for the last status report of the year. I like status reports - they're mini versions of blog posts & rando thoughts all wrapped up into one. So, here we are:

Been busy with: all the Christmas things.  From decorating to shopping, baking to basket filling and everything in-between. Somehow this year December came out of nowhere and Christmas was here long before I was mentally ready. Even with all that, there was plenty of laughter, lots of great food and I'm blessed that almost all of my people were able to be here with family this year. 

Contemplating: Writing out the story of Mrs. Dudley. Who exactly is Mrs. Dudley, you ask?  Yes, well she's among the top 3 most profoundly, godly, influential women in my life in my 60 years on this earth. It's always felt like her story needed to be told, for some reason. I have her name on my project list and it keeps staring at me. 😎

Feeling: nostalgic about Oregon. My twitter friend Beth humorously commented recently that "Oregon is home to Tillamook cheese and Bigfoot".  Well, yes. This is truth. But immediately my brain said: "And the Vortex, and the Sea Lion Caves, and Wildlife Safari, and the Dunes and mom's old house on the Umpqua River and all those amazing things." 😂

My family spent so much time there over the years it's really like a 2nd home vibe for me. I spent a lot of time there as a kid, then as an adult I've been blessed to take all my kids there too & relive some of the amazing adventures that we went on as kids. 

Oregon is a fantastic place to visit and explore. Highly recommend 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😊

Thinking: How incredibly enjoyable it is to actually have my very own "pretend" wildlife documentary show. I know it sounds funny and it really is, but with the technology of my simple little Ring spotlight cams and a free video editor I can document the urban wildlife in my very own backyard. It's also partly funny because 'wildlife photographer' was sort of my dream job if I ever had to pick.  

I'm often quite surprised by what I see on the cameras each day and until I actually had cams installed, I had no idea my back garden was as busy as it is at night. If you're curious and haven't watched, my wee little channel is Barefoot in the Garden on YT. So funny how 1 security cam turned into 3 wildlife food/drink camera stations around the back garden and pond. 😁  

Re-evaluating: My garden layout & plans for 2025. Nothing on paper (yet) but some big ideas. In my ongoing effort to refine what I'm growing and where, it's more of a simplified garden layout this year than it's ever been before, and I'm really looking forward to that.  

This will only be my 6th year of attempting to grow my own produce section of the grocery store 😄 and now after several trials and errors over many seasons, I know what grows well for me, what doesn't, and what I have room for. This year, I'm also leaning heavily into more perennial fruits to add to the ones I added last year. No such thing as too many berries. 

And with that, this month's and this year's Status Update posts come to a close. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have an incredible, blessed and fantastic day. 😊

If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel welcome to leave a comment. 

Garden 2024 Update #10

Other than a sad loss of cucumbers this year from constant rain and flooding, the garden is pretty much right on track.  I'm also including some fun pics of my walk at the river, because there's always something cool to get pics of.

This is my volunteer tomato plant looks to be a slicer!  Growing in the same pot is a strawberry plant, and some purslane that I posted a pic of last update.

Doubled in size since last week. Each time I've googled this plant, from any angle, it tells me it's a Black Mulberry. If you're a mulberry grower, I'd love to hear from you to confirm!

Sometimes, harvests look like this. My wee basket of cherry tomatoes and spearmint for the tea jar.

Spotted this dude on the blackberries.  Google tells me he's a Snipe Fly, or a Rhagio. 

I'm going with Rhagio, as it sounds like a cool name you might find in a Tolkien story. 

On the way to the walking path at the river, I spotted this lovely creature.  It didn't appear afraid of me at all, and let me get about 4 feet away, taking pics.  I'm more or less a Disney Princess now. 😂

Cool structure spotted in the woods, that wasn't there last week.  Lots of kids play in these woods so I suspect one of them or a group of them decided to build this. Very impressive!

Scarlet Runner Beans showing off in the middle of the garden 💖

First batch of garlic dills this year.  Half were mine, the other half I had to pick up at the farmer's market.  Cucumber Lane will be getting an overhaul this fall after the season is over, and I'll be building two new raised beds there instead of planting directly in the ground. 

Just being a Disney Princess again as these two doves let me walk right up to them. 💖

Thanks for stopping by and taking the garden stroll with me 😊