So much of birding is luck…I glanced out the window and saw, from the exact right angle, a bird shape on the edge of the garden. It was exactly the same color as the ground, a gray brown shade, and it could just as easily have been an optical illusion, like the one hummock that insists on looking so utterly like a rabbit.

I picked up the binoculars, and to my mild delight, it was a hermit thrush! I’ve seen a fair number–they weren’t uncommon in the suburbs–but they seem to be rarer out here in the rural areas, and this is only the third or fourth I’ve seen in the yard.

Meanwhile, I have to go fix the birdfeeder…the deer are so hungry they’re eating birdseed, which means that they’ve yanked the perch ring off the bottom of the feeder and I need to go screw it back on.

Had insomnia last night. Stayed up looking at garden porn. ‘Tis the season, apparently.

This weekend, weather permitting, Kevin has agreed to kill two small invasive trees that have been a thorn in my side for the last year. One is smack in the middle of my island bed. I plan to replace it with a giant metal chicken from the African import place in town, because the garden, while heavy on plants, lacks the critical Giant Metal Chicken Feng Shui element so crucial to a successful garden.* And that spot needs something tall, and they are Very Cool Chickens.

*I am generally skeptical of "garden art" and never need to see another plaster cherub, small child urinating, or Flat Animal On A Stick. (Although I cannot completely dismiss the Animal On A Stick genre, as I have seen some really wonderful creations in the genre…) Or gazing balls. I have never understood gazing balls, and I am secretly convinced they must DO something and I just don’t know about it. Regardless, I will not be keeping a dragon orb in the garden unless they send along Cyan Bloodbane to do the raking.**

**If you got that reference, you are a sad, sad geek, although probably not as sad of one as I am for making it.

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