The past two days have started out on the sultry side - not New Orleans sultry but Milwaukee, next-to-the-great-refrigerator-known-as-Lake-Michigan sultry. The dew point is up ("it's not the heat it's the humidity") and the forecast calls for high heat indexes (90-100s). Up until now, we haven't had many days like this. Spring was unusually cool, even for here.
I planted tomatoes and green chiles a couple of weeks ago - they are still small but one of the tomato plants already has some fruit. This weather will be good for them.
Roxy has been with us 4 weeks now and has merged into daily life as if she's been here longer than that. Her tiny daggers known as teeth are about the only annoyance she has and even that is minor (although getting fanged in an open cut or blister is less than fun).
Jack, being a male and 5x larger, has had a few issues with the new puppy - he's too aggressive at times and plays pretty rough. he has some some good progress in restaining his boydog ways and seems to genuinely like most of Roxy's playful efforts. Most.
A robin is in the bird bath right now. Cardinals a flitting about the yard. Finch songs were everywhere a short time ago - bird noises diminish some as the morning progresses.
One robin appears to have raised some young in the corkscrew willow. I'll have to see if there's any evidence of fledgling flight yet.
We've resorted to manual removal of creeping charlie - it's everywhere. Too bad we can't turn it into energy - that would be one challenge solved. I think if I started long enough I would be able to see it grow. Sounds like a good time lapse photo experiment.
Finally planted the sumac on the upper tier of the river bank. It's supposed to reproduce readily - hoping for that. A mulberry tree blocks most of the direct sun but I think there's plenty for growth.
The big willow was trimmed of most deadwood 2 weeks ago. The tree surgeon was amazing. It was interesting to watch him work 30' up, planning his moves in advance so when he made a cut, the wood would either fall predictably or dangle from a rope and then be lowered to the ground. We got a few yards of mulch from those branches.
No owls yet this year. The two from last year are welcome back!
