mid-may

middle of the month and the everbearing strawbnerries are...bearing...which suits me some and the birds to a greater extent...

the basement teosinte has moved to the great outdoors and continues to flower...however, despite a swelling in the stem below the bloom i cannot detect anything like silks and so doubt the possibility of seed...viable or not...

some of the five containerized teosinte plants ( there is a dog here now ) are working a third leaf...pleasing...

the grape vines on the trellis and the ones in the caltalpa tree are leafing out...

as are the ones in the fir trees...

and the concord is showing good new vine growth as well...

my mooseberry bush ( high bush cranberry for those of you who did not grow up with rocky and bullwinkle ) is being skeletalized by what i believe to be virburnum leaf beetles....i try to be organic and will use neem oil if and when the japanese beetles appear however that will not control these beetles so i have utilized a systemic insecticide which i applied around the base of the plant and i have been dousing it with insecticidal soap...we will give mooseberry every chance we can even if it transgresses some tenets...

mason bees are working away at filling nesting tubes in bee houses scattered around the yard...good news and i will need to place more around to accomodate the leaf cutters coming next month...

and, finally, it has been rainy here...last month we received more than double the april avarage rainfall ( i know, averages lie )...and it has been a wet may to date...so...

fungi are popping up all around...and...

the dead elm at the back of the yard is supporting an irruption of dryad's saddles...there's bound to be more going on as the month progresses...we will see what transpires.

new habitat?

got a dog...a terrier with an inherent avocation for digging...she has dug a trench along one side of the yard, although she has mostly abandonded it for a new interest in mole hills, the abandonded trench is not dead...

it has become habitat for at least three nests of ground bees...this is the first time i have noticed them in the yard and i am inclined to believe they have been attracted by the trench since they are digging nests into the trench wall...they are not aggressive, they were buzzing me as i took photos but no one even seemed interested in stinging me ( although they can sting )...so they can stay as far as i am concerned...an auxiliary to the leaf cutters that will arrive next month...

april was "unseasonably warm"...or, perhaps, simply the new "seasonable" and my rain gauge recoreded 4.7 inches of precipitation which exceeds the 2.52 inch average ( yes, i know, averages lie ) for the "normal" april...and with a shade over an inch of rain already in may it seems destined to continue..we will keep an eye on that...

the surviving tesointe plant that has been in the basement most of the winter...

has flowered...i will be keeping an eye out for any swelling in the stem below the flower and for any sign of silks where the leaf just below the bloom meets the stem...seems unlikely to me, however there is hope...

and in other zea news, one of the ten or so zea mays parvaglumis seeds i planted in a container ( remember the digging dog? ) has germinated...i will be watching this and the seed i planted last week on campus as well...more as it comes up.