ragbag

Just a quick ragbag sort of post, because time is getting away from me and even though a lot of my pictures look blurry lately (why is that? Time to read the manual, I suppose) I'd like to share a few.
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We've had a lot of hot, muggy weather and rain lately.  Piper got really fed up with it.

This is Piper, expressing fed-up-edness:

It is always easier to express dissatisfaction if one is crammed into a chair just slightly smaller than one's body.

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In a very welcome change in the weather, yesterday was just about as perfect as a day in early June can be, and this surprise was waiting in the garden:

If I could only see one flower, ever, I think it would be an iris.

And look! Just four days after planting, the first of my lazy beans has appeared.  I was so happy to see it. 

Even the bean looks happy, doesn't it?

Like it's singing to the sun.

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This morning I was about to step out the back door with Piper when I noticed this beautifully-patterned garter snake, in the leaves by the doorstep.  The snake was suddenly between a rock and a hard place, with Piper and me on one side and two big hens on the other side, considering their snake-for-lunch options.  I don't know if the snake could have escaped multiple hens (hens have a gang mentality that can be quite a shock the first time you see a flock go after something), and I don't usually interfere in their hunting and gathering endeavors.  But since this good-sized snake was quite close to the house, my first thought was the many, many mice one healthy garter snake could prevent from getting into my foundation and walls.  Thank you, garter snake!  Shoo, hens!

Roughly two seconds after the hens moved away, the snake zipped away into the ferns.  She was gone in the blink of an eye, but to my surprise, I think this (blurry) picture is a just-barely full-length portrait:

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When it isn't raining, the goats are hard at work on the vegetation modification plan.  This is Betula, enjoying a huge patch of asiatic bittersweet with a little native veg on the side:

He ate the attached sugar maple sprout, too.

Bet is an equal-opportunity vegetation control goat.

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Hope all is well where ever you are.  I am having issues with Feedly (which was working so well for me! And now it is NOT!) and can no longer tell when there are new posts on the blogs I am following.  I have an uneasy feeling that there are a couple hundred blog posts out there that I want to read, which is a bit daunting!  But my curiosity about what is happening in your corner of the world will certainly win out, so I will be visiting soon.

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