retirement activity

Views around our yard

/ Roadtirementvintage / 19 Comments

Wild strawberries

Water drops and fungus

Morning glories

Morning glory vines on mint

Wild strawberries, sage, and a Canadian rock

The last photo shows a rock labeled “Canadian”. We did not get it from a trip to Canada, rather it ended up in Central Indiana by means of widespread glaciation during the Pleistocene epoch. This piece is a metamorphic rock made of granitic minerals. There are thousands of such rocks of all sizes that were pushed here by the glaciers, and left here when the glaciers melted. This one now has a home in our flower and herb garden.

 

Tomatoes and onions on the way

/ Roadtirementvintage / 13 Comments

Our tomatoes are coming along

An early step in tomato growth

The first one to show up

This one is catching up

One of three sprouts we got from one onion

We had an onion that sprouted in a sack with some others. We went ahead and split it and planted three separate sprouts. We’ll see how this goes. We’ve read that when the green shoots begin to dry out and turn brown, or if the onion starts to flower, it is time to “harvest”. We’ll let you know in about three months or so…

Morning views of some of our garden plants

/ Roadtirementvintage / 55 Comments

Wild strawberries on a decorative rock. Do the berries remind you of anything?

Rose in full bloom

Asiatic lilies, sage and tomato plants

Not sure what this one is. Any ideas?

Sher’s project is still vacant, but hope it will be occupied soon.

A visitor to one of our Asiatic lilies

Got some pictures this morning before it got real hot. Our high today is forecast for 95 +/-. It is not desert hot, but the humidity (near 90%) is what gets you.

 

Grackle feeds its youngster

/ Roadtirementvintage / 22 Comments

The gray bird landed, and we did not recognize what kind of bird it was. Soon however two grackles showed up and it was obvious that they were here to feed their offspring.

We did not recognize this species

Ah, looks like a parent is here to feed the youngster

There is the second parent and the youngster demanding more to eat

This was an interesting and enjoyable event for us to observe. It was the first time we had seen an immature grackle. There is always something going on with the wildlife in our backyard! We enjoy sharing our photos with you.

 

Portrait of a mourning dove

/ Roadtirementvintage / 10 Comments

We see doves nearly every day in our yard

Here is another one of our welcomed friendly backyard visitors. The mourning dove is in the same taxonomic family as pigeons. It is one of the most common North American  birds. Doves have very sad and mournful calls, and have been compared to the cries of owls. Doves also make a very characteristic pulsing sound as they fly. Amongst agricultural societies this bird is known as “the rain crow” due to the legend that the calls of doves warn of the impending arrival of rain.