Summer flowers are blooming everywhere!

It's officially Summer again! The Solstice crept up on us while we weren't looking but I guess we were a little too busy doing other things ..
I can't believe my sister has left already a week ago .. how time flies!

They left last Sunday. Everything went as planned, we arrived at the airport 2 hrs and 15 min ahead of their departure time, checked in and printed their boarding passes .. and that's where it got nasty for a while.
There was a huge line line for dropping of luggage and after that a similar long line to go through customs so they really had to hurry and only had time for a quick bathroom stop before having to board!
Too bad that after an uneventful 3 weeks they had to leave in such stress!
But they made it and arrived back home safely so .. all's well that ends well!

Like I said, time goes on and at the moment we're literary surrounded buy Chamomile (Mayweed), wild Oxeye Daisies, Purple Sage, Columbine and Woolly Fetch ..

     

My vegetable beds are still not doing much and I have to confess I caved in and bought some starters at a local garden center ..
Somehow things just don't want to grow. I suspect the soil stays too cold and too wet for too long here in the Pacific Northwest.
I think next year I won't plant things out until the 4th of July!

                                           

My berry-plants are only a year old and aren't supposed to produce anything yet this year but I had one (!) blueberry and 2(!) raspberries. Yeah!

We've a few ducks at the pond all week. I think this is the female duck that came by in the evenings almost every day for weeks to bathe and drink and snatch up some fallen seeds at the bird feeders.
The male was here during the day but than took off when she arrived.

I'm almost sure they had eggs, followed by ducklings, in a nest not too far from here and now the babies are almost as big as mom is, and can fly, she brought them over here.              They must feel safe here!

The bird-feeders are still attracting Red-winged Blackbirds but much less than before and some of the smaller birds are coming back now they're not bullied anymore ..

Like this White-crowned Sparrow

In the meantime, James didn't loose much time to start getting the office finished and closed the hole between the shed and the office already!

       

He also moved the cabinet with the file drawers to it's permanent spot and lowered the copier a bit:

                                                                                 

                            

He'll be painting and caulking those panels soon!

I had a project to work on myself :

It arrived in about 20 pieces and 62 screws and bolts and took me a while to put together!

                           
Ra, Ra, what is it?

It's a compost bin! Yeah, yeah, we're getting very 'green' around here!
It has 2 separate compartments which you fill up one at a time and than let sit for a couple of months while you fill the other side.
You're also supposed to turn it over twice a week ..

    

I placed it behind the office where you won't see or smell it.
I've read up a little on how to fill it (kitchen scraps, cardboard, paper, garden waste, grass clippings etc.) and am crossing my fingers that it will work!



I hung a small container on the inside of the door from my kitchen cabinet.
It has a little lid on it so it's closed and won't smell and I can slide the whole thing off it's hook to empty it in the composter.
I'm pretty proud of myself to finally make this effort. Living rural as we do it's harder to separate our waste and even worse to get rid of it, so this will help a lot.
We'll see .. at least I'm trying to make a difference!

                                                            

Other than that we haven't done much this week.
We're both very tired somehow. It must be because we're coming off 3 busy weeks in which we were traveling and sight-seeing a lot ... we had a great time and really enjoyed the time they were here but now it's time to relax and take it easy for a while .. I know, we're getting old!