A little hard to see maybe, but this week the deer, that visited us almost every evening last year when my sister was here, came back!
At least one of them is a male:

I hope we'll see more of them in the coming weeks!

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, unfortunately, the bullfrogs have emerged from their winter-hibernation (presumably deep in the mud of the pond) as well .. something we're definitely NOT as happy about!
Their croaking, especially at night, is loud enough for both of us (despite my deafness) to bring out the earplugs ..

                                                

                                                

That second picture shows how they look like when they blow up their cheeks and croak!

The blackbirds are still raiding my feeders, although I am limiting what I put out to just the cheap mixed-seeds for the summer. 
They don't mind and apparently eat anything, but besides some doves and jays I don't see many other birds anymore. 
The smaller birds certainly do prefer the sunflower seeds, but those are twice the price and I think that they really don't need them in the summer .. I do miss them though.

                                

The first grass has been mowed and already bailed as well, in the meadow of the neighbors:

And the blackberry bushes are flowering profusely .. it looks like were going to have another monster-crop this year.
Which is good, because I'm down to 'only' two one-gallon bags in the freezer!

The apple trees are looking promising as well:

                      

And, like every week, more flowers, flowers, flowers everywhere ...



Than for something totally different ... walking down the path towards the RV the other day, my (old) shoe rolled over a large piece of gravel and before I knew it I was down ... which resulted in skinned knees and hands and a sprained ankle!

    

(These pictures look weird because I took them with my reader and than had the biggest problems moving them to my computer. I ended up having to use my phone to take a picture from my reader)

Wonderful $%#@!&^%! I've applied ice-packs and kept my ankle elevated and the worst (egg-like) swelling has sort of melted down into a larger area of my foot ..

Not much of discoloration yet but I suspect that will happen soon ..

James doesn't want me to walk on it at all and I guess that will probably be the best but it's not easy when you're as independent and stubborn as me and of course there are certain things you do have to do yourselves of course .. (bathroom?)
But I'm trying to let myself be taken care of (and getting waited on hand and foot) without ordering him around too much ..
Poor guy, first I'm gone for 3 weeks, than I come back with the flu and now this ..

This all happened yesterday and we had plans to do the yearly garden-tour in Mcminnville today ... guess what .. that didn't happen of course.
Bummer!

Oh, well next year .. and James, always positive of course, had to point out that today was actually an extremely warm day, so it might have been not as much fun as it could have been to begin with.
He might have a point there because at 4pm today the thermometer showed this (that's Fahrenheit to the left and Celsius to the right) :

   

Holy smokes! It's only the 8th of June! 
I hope this says nothing about the coming summer ... I might go in (reverse) hibernation!

Something good about that (that's me being optimistic) .. dinner consisted of leftovers and could be eaten outside:

Samson has figured out we're often outside and around, more so than his owners, and he hangs out here often .. especially when there's food  

.. hope springs eternal!