On cue, the first Iris germanica (Bearded Iris) bud opened for Holi, the Hindu festival of colors which celebrates spring, and incidentally also the triumph of good over evil (hold that thought - the one about evil being vanquished)
The past few weeks have featured days and nights and days again of wind: strong, gusty, gritty, even a haboob, then more wind and oops! a sudden late season freeze.
The apricot and plum blossoms quickly offered up their frothy white petals to the wind.
It is too early yet to tell whether pollinators managed to do their work in all that tumult, or whether the few early morning hours when temperatures dipped below freezing have impacted fruit setting.
Daring the sandblasting, I finally managed to clear the brush pile in the Cafe Paradiso corner.
It seems that untidy stack of branches, sticks and random biomass had encouraged some rather special songbird roommates.
For a few years now, dried stalks of amaranth have found their way into that corner, and obviously some seed heads too. I suspect that’s what these beautiful little Lincoln’s sparrows are foraging for. But I don’t really know. It seems they are secretive and like to hang out in bushy places. Or brush piles.
There are at least two. They seem unperturbed by my presence when I’m eating at the cafe table or just entering the silence, watching them. Maybe they are winter visitors, maybe the unkempt wild zone, several brush piles and birdbaths are tempting them to stay and breed. I don’t really know. I do hope that dismantling that particular brush pile doesn’t send them away.
With the White Crowned Sparrows still hanging out and the House Sparrows ubiquity, there are now at least three different kinds of sparrow currently sharing the space with me.
Songbirds, all of them.
And just look at who I spied watching me watching them through the kitchen sink window. I wonder how long before these herbivores discover the tasty spring growth of deer smorgasbord, including cereal rye, on offer in the front yard.
Or the flowering fava beans, cilantro and arugula.
I’ve been meaning to install a driveway gate for years. I guess that just became a much more expensive project what with steel tariffs and all. Sigh.
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