The Birds Have Flown

The baby brown thrashers made it out of the nest and out of the rosebush without being caught by either of the dogs! I am losing track of days here -- I think it was Wednesday night that I gingerly stuck my head near the bush and found the nest empty. The adult thrashers were hanging around outside the fence, going "Tsk! Tsk!" and I am not sure if the babies were still in the bush or not.

I held off pruning the bush, so rose canes went right to the fence, and the fledglings could easily have stayed in the bush as they went through the fence. Now I have no more excuse to avoid pruning that spiky thing.

Oh, wait, the heat! It hit 90 degrees F. today.

So did I stay in the cool house and knit? No, instead I leapt over a wall of procrastination-guilt, went outside, and planted my sprouting four-o'clock roots. I planted my ten pepper plants (five each of Kaleidoscope mix and Super Thai) and my six tomato plants (two each of Black Cherry, Yellow Pear, and Black Plum). My son and I planted morning glory seeds (Mount Fuji, Rose Silk, Tie Dye Blue and Tie Dye Pink) and nasturtium seeds. Then we turned the sprinklers on the garden.

Then I hung laundry out in the sun, sizzling my bare feet like bratwurst on the hot sand under the clothesline.

Finally I came inside, had a lovely sponge bath, put on dry clothes, and had a mint julep and lay in the hammock. Kidding! Instead I had some iced tea and read "Walt and Skeezix", a collection of the 1920's cartoon Gasoline Alley.