Not much

So. Eventually there were four beautiful robin's eggs in the hanging petunia planter. I kept a safe distance from momma and her eggs, even to the point of neglecting the petunias planted there.

It was to no avail. I checked the nest a few days ago after noticing that momma had been unusually quiet lately. Lo and behold, all the eggs were gone.

I don't think they'd had time to hatch, nor that baby birds had had time to learn to fly, so I'm assuming the nest was raided. I read that blue jays will steal eggs, so they're probably the culprits. I'm disappointed.

Violet, our nine-year-old great niece, visited us last week. We always enjoy having Violet around.

One afternoon we attempted a hike on Sawyer Mountain in Limington.

Somehow we managed to choose the wrong trail, which resulted in our traipsing through dense vegetation and over fallen trees. Eventually we came to a "Do not trespass" sign, so we took the hint and headed back to the car.

Along the way Violet spotted a tiny toad. She loves creatures of any  kind, so this little one found its way into her hands before it knew it.

I enlisted Violet's help in getting the fairy house in my rock garden spiffed up. Last winter's snow had taken a toll on it.

Violet did some new landscaping and made the place look welcoming again for the garden fairies.




Violet attended a miniature horse camp for three days while she was with us. She loved her assigned horse, Peaches, and was sad when the three days ended.

I'm enjoying the various flowers on our back deck. Ken just finished the labor-intensive project of sanding and putting new preservative on the deck, which makes it look new again, so I felt it needed lots more flowers than usual this year.

I have mostly geraniums, but also moss rose, begonias, coleus, and also basil and one tomato plant.

Things are looking good there, I must say.

That's all from here!