A nest of wrens

 

This gourd contains baby wrens. The storm last night knocked it down. With all the sticks in it, I think the babies all survived the 5 foot fall. They were chirping away as we hung it back up. Parents are still visiting it so things are back to normal

listeria?

first hardy hydrangea blossom

These swallow babies are outgrowing their nest and no longer hide. I think they will try to fly out today. A new nest is being built on our porch. Construction began today. We will see how long it takes.

Again the Blogger picture editor is acting up though occasionally it will behave itself when I edit the post. The second wave of storms hit with a vengeance in the middle of the night. Tornadoes touched down in the SW corner of the county(we are in the NE corner). Theoretically, there should have been sirens but with all the wind, hail, thunder and torrential rain, maybe I didn't hear them. I turned on the Weather Channel to see what is going on at 1:30 am. Did they provide any useful info other than a scrolling message about the tornado warning? Nope. They decided to show over and over some super cooled lake in Minnesota freezing instantly. Now if the storms hit a large metropolitan area, maybe they would cover it. Useless channel but the local news had a continuing radar loop. All sorts of colors indicating 'mesocyclones' (will look that up) and where there would be floods and tornadoes. I watched the sky which seemed to be continually lit up with all the lightning. After an hour or so, the system passed and we awoke to sunny skies and lower temps and humidity. Lots of branches down but we had just minor damage; the wren nest knocked down along with a flower basket.

Yesterday, I met a friend for lunch for Ann Arbor's restaurant week. Afterwards, we drank spritzers on her deck while her oriole flew to and fro until the first wave of storms hit.

Every morning, I take my coffee and walk around the gardens to see what else has bloomed. Soon, maybe today, I will have a huge thatch of baby's breath and lots of lilies, both tiger and Asiatic. Some of the callas are starting to bloom in my container garden. I love summer. Below is the prestorm sky. It looks so strange.