Signs of Life

Birds are a problem this year.  A cardinal has spent the better part of the last 3 weeks attacking his image in one or another window of our house.  And a guinea hen has settled in the area of the backyard.  One of these birds will not see summer.

We are pleased with the progress of our fruit plantings in the yard.  All of the pawpaw trees survived the winter, although the two tallest trunks died back after getting roughed up by deer last fall.  The elderberries are spreading to the point where I'm getting a little concerned they may become invasive.  The haskaps, which looked nearly dead last fall, have set fruit and we may get a pint of berries.  Hoping for twice that output of jostaberries.

Jostaberry blooms

Most importantly, there are signs of life in 'Kari.'  I pruned back a lot of dead branches, but we clearly have a flush of growth.

Weather is limiting garden work a little bit this weekend, but it makes for some interesting views.

Cell moving north-northeast across Fulton

Fraternity Mulch

My friend and fellow YMCA board member Tim also happens to be the chapter advisor for Phi Delta Theta here at Westminster.  Each year they donate some labor to the Y auction and this year it was our pleasure to be rewarded with their time.  What better way for a Phi Delt to spend a couple of hours on Saturday afternoon than spreading mulch?

We didn't have enough tools because we didn't expect quite so many guys.

A public thank you to Tim and the Phi Delts from Westminster!