As if Nature is taking with one hand and giving with the other, while I slumped on the porch, contemplating the ruin of my lilies, a ruby-throated hummingbird zipped up and drained the pink salvia of nectar, then swooshed up to the tips of the cedar tree, and began making tiny, jerky motions that I suspect were him catching bugs attracted to the cedar. (And here I thought cedar was a bug repellant. Eh, go figure.)

A phalanx of chimney swifts, like teeny airfoils, went zipping by overhead. I glanced up. Yup, chimney swifts. Nothing terribly exciting. Seen ’em before….err…haven’t I? Of course I have.

Except that I have not actually ever noted them down as a bird, so that was a lifer, by virtue of correcting poor bookkeeping.

I spread blood meal around the lilies, one of the recommended deer repellants, and tonight, under cover of darkness, will demand James provide the scent of omnivore urine. (Hey, I’d do it myself, but he can pee a perimeter much more easily than I can.) We’ll see how committed to gardening James really is…