On Saturday we hiked up to the peak of Hawksbill mountain in Shenandoah National Park, then did the Rose River loop. It was pretty, but hot!

The morning glories are starting to cover the arbor. Their vines reach out looking for other places to grow, but I turn them back to the arbor and they stay in place. The kittens are growing and will soon need to find new homes, but Michelle's going to have a hard time letting any of them go.

Somebody dumped a cat about 6 weeks ago, a very fat cat. About 2 weeks later that cat lost her fat.

Don't know what this is, but it had no fear of me. I guess it's a chipmonk, but I didnt' know they came out at night.

The flowers are very small, but quite beautiful.

Three nights in a row now the peanut butter feeder has been disturbed during the night. The first two times it was knocked to the ground, and last night it was taken off the hook and carried further up in the tree.

This evening I planted Morning Glories and Cypress vines at the base of my arbor. Gale, our organic farmer down the hill, gave us the seeds and told us they should work well covering the arbor with flowers. Last week there were several male Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks hanging out around the feeder. A couple of days after the males arrived, the females came too. Once they came, the males left. Now I only see a female from time to time. They are very laid back birds that don't seem to mind anything, even the crazy hummingbirds, with one exception. They seem to have really bad feelings about nuthatches. When a nuthatch appears they dump the laid back stuff and get really mean. I saw one nuthatch hide behind the tree, spread it's wings, and rock back and forth trying to look like some kind of monster to scare the grosbeaks away. Oh, one other thing. I think I saw the mating dance of the hummingbird. The males fly quickly side to side in front of a female while he makes an odd noise something like a cicada.

I put an arbor on the entranceway over the weekend. Trip two to Lowes will be to get lattice to cover it. Once I have the lattice installed we'll plant some morning glories.

 

Yesterday there was a small flock of Indigo Buntings came to my Goldfinch feeder. They look exactly like a Goldfinch, but instead of bright yellow they are deep blue. The Goldfinches were quite upset until they left. The male hummingbirds arrived the same day, so there's a lot of adjustment going on in the neighborhood.

The dafodills and tuplips are in full bloom now. I also fixed a place for the fire ring. Biker loves going for a run in the yard.

We saw this hike off of Route 33 coming back from the Monterey Maple Festival a few weeks ago. It's fairly short, about 2.5 miles round trip, but is quite steep in some places.

I added some flat stones in front of the entrance way and some little white fencing around my lilac bushes (I hope they grow). I also added some mulch.

One of my orders arrived during the week and I did some planting. Today I decided to go for instant gratification and purchased some flowers for the mail box garden. I also got my side deck set up for my kitchen garden. I don't know if it will work, but if it doesn't I'll put some seasonal flowers in the baskets.

Sunday morning we picked a hike from a map. This place is on the other side of Mount Jackson, and although it's only slightly less than 3 miles round trip it's pretty agressive. All three of us needed a nap afterwards.

Today I transplanted my giant pumpkin plants from the starter try where the rest of my plants are to their own individual peat moss cups. They seem happy enough, but I'll need to see them greet the sunshine in the morning to know if they are OK for sure.

I mounted a flag pole over the weekend and today my first seasonal flag came in.

I planted some of my garden in a starter box a couple of weeks ago. It’s really doing well. I hope I can maintain it until it’s warm enough outside to plant. Yesterday I noticed a tulip or a daffodil poking up through the dirt in the mail box garden.

It rained off and on all day yesterday while the temperature hovered around freezing. Sometimes the ice would build, and sometimes it would melt, but there was always about a quarter inch thick coating on everything. Watching the birds out my window I could see they were really struggling with it. Normally they simply land on the tree branches to wait their turn at the feeder, but with the ice when they landed they would just slide off. It was quite a sight!

We went for a hike on Tibbet Knob Trail (http://www.hikingupward.com/GWNF/TibbetKnob/) this afternoon. It's a few miles from the house, and at a place called Wolf's Gap. When we got there we recognized it as a place we had been to before several years ago when on the bike. Nice hike, but very windy.