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I ran the sprinkler under my trees for over an hour this morning before I remembered. Always. set. a. timer 🙄
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Cwilllie, I have been asking the same thing myself!

The same as with many bird species, I think you tell them apart because the male is always brightly colored, and the female has very little bright blue coloring at all.
This one female looks plain and haggard (for now), but the male is very actively caring for the family. Busy birds, I will call them.
But I am just guessing. Lots of finding out going on since 3 days ago, I thought there was just one blue Jay, until I thought what is it doing so busy, so loud, so friendly, and keeping so close-by?

Maybe it's like humans. You can tell the one who is being well taken care of, often by the sacrificing wife. Gladly, it is not always this way, and the wife takes great care of herself as well, so the couple looks and feels great! Hmmm, I think that I might have offended everybody not identifying with this description. Maybe there are really bright looking female birds too. I dunno.

I read that the fledglings stay on the ground learning to fly after 3 weeks. There is no place for them to do that except in the street. Nature is planned ahead by instinct, not my business to say they could have picked a better place. But I really needed this new development, as I love the birdies.
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My only question is how can you tell the male from the female, they both look alike to me 🤔
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Newly hatched Blue Jays just 25 ft. from my window, I can watch them!

I provided a water source and the male drank immediately.

Making space in my life to observe, enjoy.

[So, is this post more positive than the first Blue Jay announcement?]
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Blue Jays have moved into neighbor's tree, located in a high traffic area.
Only 5 ft. from one neighbor's front door.

There are newly hatched baby-jays, yesterday.
Parent's have mouths hanging open @ 100 degrees F, very hot this week.

A happy, but unsafe occasion.
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Little late to respond here about monarchs, but I just noticed a swarm of tiny monarch caterpillars on one of the milkweeds in the rock garden. They must have been at it for a while, because all the lower leaves are gone. They seem to be working their way from bottom to top. I live in a condo, but we're able to plant and take care of plantings in established garden beds. A previous owner had created a lovely garden on a rock mound in the front of my unit, with lots of perennials and a few shrubs. They had moved to another unit some years earlier and had told the condo association they could no longer maintain the rock garden. It was in pretty rough shape when we moved here, but over the years I've tried to restore it. The milkweed showed up several years ago, and now I have to fight to keep it from spreading and taking over, but I leave plenty for the monarchs.
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R would be there gleaning what he could. He hates seeing stuff go to waste and is very good at making use of old materials.

It's a real shame to see useful things going to the dump especially lumber.
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The house up the street in dismantling their above ground pool and deck and just throwing everything in a dumpster so I scored a piece of lattice, one of the workers even carried it home for me😄. It's pretty beat up but hopefully I can use it to make my compost pile look prettier so my neighbour has one less reason for giving me the stink eye. Wish I could cull through all the rest, there's a lot of usable lumber just going to waste.
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cw - Yay!!! 🦋
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Years after allowing common milkweed to remain in my flower bed I finally have a monarch caterpillar 🐛
Yay!🦋
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Stepped out the back door this afternoon to see my container cucumber looking sad and limp, it was dry as a bone 😲, hopefully I caught it in time! On the plus side while watering I discovered my green and yellow beans have gifted me a small handful for my supper.
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Daisy, I hear you.

I can make it rain by washing my truck :-/
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I am doing a happy dance, I have 2 ginger plants coming up!

I can't tell how many I have planted over the years, only to be disappointed by no growth, now 2!!!! Yahoo!
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Chance of rain, just to clarify.
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40 percent charain later, so if water my plants it will rain, if I don't , I bet it won't rain. 🤔
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Willie, I've heard farmers saying that corn can grow so fast , that you can hear it grow. Google says it's true, but I've never heard it.
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I bumped into an old neighbour when I was out walking the other day and he said his corn grew 6" over night during the heat wave, his field is expected to be waist high by the first of July. I think most farmers here are on track this year despite the cool, wet spring; the first cut of hay is done and I've noticed the winter wheat is already starting to turn colour.
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Cwillie, hopefully next year you get at least 2, but you will probably get lots more!

Things are drying up here, been able to get out and at least enjoy what I did get planted, and better weather.
Farmers are out, the corn is not going to be " knee high, by the fourth of July" this year.

And I've been walking more, much more active, started to feel a bit blubbery, after sitting to much with hubs! All feels really nice!!
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After years of losing everything to bugs, birds, squirrels and chipmunks I finally have a bowl of my own strawberries to eat🍓 Unfortunately one bowl will probably be all I get 😆
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Gardening in fact can be very relaxing. I mix artificial plants with real - they are getting so advanced now some are so hard to tell the difference and look fantastic all year round. It cuts the gardening chores as well making them manageable. I designed my garden and its very relaxing with whites blues and purples... and an archway feature with an oldie woldie little boy/water feature, Its so wonderful to watch at night with garden lights (battery ones). Even if you do not have a garden a nice design on window sill could look amazing. Its in everyones capabilities to make a calm oasis. Next to a bench maybe some real relaxing lavender. A lady in work turned her garden into a vegetable and fruit garden and brough some in They were amazing looking and larger than in the shops and didnt have all sorts of nonsense sprayed onto them. even herbs on the kitchen window - that you can use while cooking.The skys the limit' - :-)
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Over on the gardening reddit people often post pictures of robust plants growing in places like cracks in the pavement or in eavestroughs or poking up through sewer grates, and they lament that their plants aren't half as nice even with all the coddling they give them. Plants just doing what plants want to do.
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I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you’re a great gardener. That plant really should have tried harder.
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Golden, still raining here, farmers are having a very hard time getting on the fields , rain stopped this morning, but cloudy 65 ish and damp!! Hey mushrooms are growing great. 😂
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itrr - great suggestion. I'll let him know. His skin is till really bad though the air quality is back to normal. Healing is going to take a while.

daughter - glad your flowers are growing well weeds - not so much,

way I love hydrangeas but never have been where they will grow. Enjoy!!!

More rain here -badly needed. The field next door is getting greener and greener.
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My hydrangeas are absolutely HUGE this year . The lavender smells lovely . A bit less humid this morning which was nice.
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Sorry the hubby’s are dealing with such yucky issues. Hopes for healing soon. I just came in from mowing half the yard, will do the other half in a bit. It’s officially miserable outdoors. We say we don’t breathe air we can’t see in the summer, and this week is the time that’s begun, lovely humidity. The flowers are growing, as are the weeds, but soon I’ll just be hiding mostly inside
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Golden, I would encourage him to use something topical that can act as a barrier. I love jojoba oil, which is a natural wax, for creating a barrier that holds up to several hand washings. Add Shea nut oil and it is luxurious on the skin.

Just a thought, my honey gets rashes from exposure and we keep a spray bottle for him in the shower.
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Daisy I expect it will take a while for your hub to fully recover. Sorry to hear about your friends bro not good news.

Way - that island sounds wonderful. Love the sound of waves.

ITRR makes sense. Thank you. He said it was better over night but now is aggravated by his hands being in hot soapy water.

Today thankfully it is cloudy and cool and the air quality is good which should give him a chance to heal. He had it before but this is by far the worst session.
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Just a heads up on oatmeal baths, you can use the oatmeal from your pantry if you can't get some at the drug store. Take a cup and put it in the blender and make it as powdery as you can. In the bath with it and collidial oatmeal bath ready.

(I do it this way always, way cheaper and that always works. I use organic oatmeal)

Golden prayers that R is healed quickly and doesn't suffer to much. Skin can be such a total nuisance when flared up.
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Daisy ,
I only like summer if I’m at the beach , otherwise I prefer Fall .
Being land locked the last 20 years, I miss summers when I lived on an island , where we could be at the beach in minutes whenever we wanted .
We went all year long . Even bundled the kids up when they were young to see light snow. So empty and peaceful , sound of the waves and the kids chasing snow flakes .
The beach was my church , it was where I felt most calm .
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