In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Each day of the year I will post something here about nature. It may be any format, a photo, video, audio, sketch or entry from my nature journal. It could be a written piece. Each day I will connect to nature in some way and share it here by the end of that day. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed or be notified by email. See all the 365 Nature posts.
Yet another sunny day, but at least this one started out with a few clouds in the sky making for a beautiful sunrise. Early this morning I opened our back door to listen to the woodpecker which has been a steady presence over the last week and heard an incessant cheeping. I peaked around the corner of the house and found a Bewick’s Wren at the entrance of one of our nest boxes and it sounded like the cheeping was coming from inside the box. I was excited to finally see some activity around the nest boxes, aside from wasps. I’d be thrilled to have a nest in our yard this year.
As the day progressed the sun persisted and we worked on the veggie garden again. We finished the fencing and planted a lot of seeds and starts including peas, parsnips, carrots, spinach, radishes, various greens and probably something else I’ve forgotten. I also cleaned out and weeded part of the flower meadow we planted last year as parts of it were already being taken over by clover, grass and dandelions. As I removed the weeds, I added a bunch of sunflower seeds to the area near the front door hoping to repeat the bright entrance of last year, only with more this year. Last year they were a steady source of many types of bees all summer long and in the autumn, the birds were constantly flocking to them.
The nice thing about weeding – and gardening in general – are the insects I turn up. The bare ground which had been recently raked were buzzing with solitary bees while every time I pulled a weed up I seemed to find a larva of some kind or another. My favorite was a bright, orange larva.
