Rachel
@raythewren
Bird watcher and word botcher. Boring on purpose. Data engineer, birder, gardener, stained glass artist. Solo dev of Witchhazel Woods on Steam. Crohn's patient with deep interest in healthcare policy due to my dependence on Very Expensive medications.
Some garden pics from today. The milkweed is so off-kilter this year - normally it would bloom in June and be done by now, but it didn't even emerge from the ground until mid-June this year. The joe pye is just starting to bloom and the bumblebees are very happy about it.
First monarch of the year in my garden! Saw her specifically landing on the milkweed, so hopefully she's laying eggs!
Got my lifer red-headed woodpeckers yesterday 🥳 they are uncommon here in MA. There's a weird melancholy though in knowing that I'll never get a lifer woodpecker again without traveling!
Look how much healthier and hotter I am now in my mid 30s than I was in my late 20s
The first of my monarda plants has started blooming and the tiny native bees are enjoying it. I've taken down the hummingbird feeder as an experiment to see if they'll switch to the flowers. We shall see.
More blooms. The geum (orange flower) is not native. I allow myself the occasional non-native treat. The tiny flowers on the beautyberry aren't much to look at, but the berries that follow will be (as the plant name implies)
And I got my lifer bobolink! All photos taken at Parker River NWR which is objectively the best place in the whole state for birding. It's a little bit of a hike for us from where we live now, but always worth it.
I only just got my lifer yellow-crowned night-heron a month ago, and it was a terrible sighting. Delighted to get a good look at a pair this time.
Was watering the garden and some very wet, grumpy baby bunnies popped out 😭
Obsessed with how the stepping stone path turned out. Creeping thyme, angelina sedum, and violets.
Here are the new blooms for June. The coreopsis literally just opened up today.
All this garden space was grass when we moved in 4 years ago. Very proud of how we've transformed the yard.
I got this ninebark this spring and it is blooming for the first time. I love it!
Me: hmmm I wonder what this cute beetle is on my coreopsis, I'll put it into iNaturalist iNaturalist: it is a coreopsis beetle Those entomologists sure are good at names
@gamesmellow.bsky.social I pet the cat in Blueberry and my cat heard it and gave me this look The game is amazing!! Beautiful art, and the story hurts so, so good.
Last fall I bought seeds from a reputable nursery that should actually be sundials. I planted them and have one tiny sprout so far. Next year I will have to cull the bigleafs so that my sundials can take their place. For now I'm just going to enjoy them though.
The lupines look soooo good right now. Unfortunately they are the "wrong" type. I bought seeds that said they were sundial lupine, but these are bigleaf lupine.
Weird find in the garden today. Looks like a normal native columbine in bloom but shrunk down 5x. It only has two true leaves. Why did it already make a flower???