Garden goodies and cedar sculptures

Howdee all,

More Garden goodies from Sicksta Dells Garden.

Some real purdy Day lilies ..

I took a whiff but its not scented.Sicksta Dell wanted me to take a picture of this Hydrangea

  It has purple flowers

White turning to purple…Sicksta says she hasn't seen many with purple flowers..Last year while visiting Sicksta, Dell and I took a walk down the street.

We walked by a beat up old home that had a terrific garden with sculpted cedar trees.

The fella who created the garden was outside and we chatted for a bit.

He told us he used Red Cedars that he took out of side ditches and then shaped them into triangles, circles or squares…

We loved his sculpted trees.

So this year we thought we would try to make a few.

Being the Half ass sickstas, we didn't research how to do the sculpture..we just did it!

I didn't take a before picture..but below is the after…as the tree grows it will require more trimming.

Notice the three ball sections..  Today I thought I would try to make one myself…

Jeff trimmed off a few branches from the Hickory tree, that was shading the Cedar…

      Then…  I shaped the Cedar

Another three baller….

there are a few more Cedars in the yard that I will sculpt.

Its very easy and adds a bit of whimsy to the garden.

While walking around the garden I found this interesting specimen..

Slime Mold

This particular slime mold seems to come back yearly on the same dead stump in the garden. I pushed it around a bit with a stick and it is indeed slimy.

Well that's all for now…No big plans..maybe I can convince Jeff to take a trip to the coast to check out some shorebirds…or to Pee Dee NWR to see what birds are there.

In the meantime..I keep an eye on the yard birds…

The bluebirds in the nest box have fledged…Must have missed that the one day I was resting with a headache..boo hoo..I haven't seen them around..but noticed a single blue egg still in the nest box…Guess it never hatched.

Chickadee and family have been seeing their reflection in our bathroom window and flying close to it and yelling at it..

Blue-gray gnatcatchers high up in the trees eating bugs.

First year Male Summer Tanager singing around the yard…so far no female has joined this poor lonely fella.

Haven't seen the American redstart in a while.

Eastern wood-pee wee sings almost constantly around the yard.

A pair of Great-crested flycatchers sing and catch bugs high in the trees.

Titmice and Cardinal and American Goldfinch regulars to the feeders.

Indigo bunting sings from the nearby field..

Blue Grosbeak seen several times around the yard.

Carolina Wren sings too much..hee hee

Blue Jays building nest in tree in front yard.

Red-bellied Woodpecker couple fly in and out of treetop with dead wood collecting bugs to bring to nest across the street?

Ruby-throated hummingbird going to the garden flowers for food.

Cedar Waxwings come by in the evening for bugs..high in the trees

Brown-headed nuthatches come in the evening and go to the feeders.

and probably a few other birds I am forgetting..

I am compiling a yard list of birdies..

This below I could never forget

Whip-poor-will is always present at 5:30am outside the bedroom window telling us to wake up as it sings non stop for ten minutes…Still looking for the off switch on that noisy critter.

Followed by the Carolina Wren..and from then on a constant drone of birds..

Missing birds from last year…

Orioles..

Ruby crowned kinglet

must have missed Rose-throated Grosbeak migrate thru

White-throated sparrows left to go north before we arrived most likely.

Red-headed woodpecker..haven't seen them this year.