July is half over! How did that happen? I can guarantee that January and February did not go this fast.
These WERE my pansies!
My pond in a better year!
Those damn critters – One night earlier this week, my yard was invaded by plant munching creatures. They ate my annuals back to the ground. I don’t have a single pansy or hibiscus flower and my impatiens are pathetic. They didn’t stop there. They were skinny-dipping and ate my water lilies while wreaking havoc in my pond. I had stones thrown in; plants dumped around; and currently have no lily pads for my frogs to sun on. I don’t know what it was. I saw deer but there probably were others. It may have been an old-fashioned hoe down as I heard fox calls around 3 a.m. two nights in a row. It’s bad enough they eat my stuff; they don’t have to announce it to me.
Landslide – The edge of our property slopes both to the side and back creating a drainage culvert for rain. During a heavy rain, it will get washed out no matter what we put in there. Last year we invested in larger river stone, tons of it, to stop the erosion. In the past week we had two torrential rains in a short time. After the first rain, a couple of tons of our stones were washed down in the retention pond (which is normally dry) located in back of our property. The beloved husband spent an afternoon or two hauling them back up. He put in railroad ties and terraced it. All better? Nope! Nature wasn’t having any of that. Another torrential rain came along and sent those stone back down. You just can’t fool with Mother Nature!
The knees have it – A good friend of mine had a complete knee replacement a week ago. Back in the old days, knee replacements were a big deal with long recovery times. She will be back to work in two weeks, was walking on it the same day and is all around great. She had more trouble with the medications she had to take than with the surgery itself. Yay for medical advancements!
Mystery meat – Earlier this week I was cleaning out the freezer and found (what I thought were) two hamburgers. It wasn’t labeled which isn’t like me but I keep the food revolving so I knew it wasn’t old. It looked light in color for beef but I thought that might be the wrapping. Turns out, it wasn’t. After it defrosted we didn’t know what it was. We don’t buy ground turkey or chicken so we settled on sausage patties. The beloved husband grilled them and it didn’t smell like sausage. It smelled like….chicken. A few months ago, a niece stopped by with her son on their way somewhere else. We were serving beef hamburgers. She doesn’t eat red meat so she brought her own. I must have thrown the leftovers in the freezer (because I’m neurotic and can’t throw out good stuff). The beloved husband said it was good while I ate an onion and tomato sandwich.
TUNA! Gotta have tuna!
Update on Hazel’s diet – I am sorry to say that after sustaining her 8 ounce weight loss for a month, she put it back on plus another half pound. She was complaining about PMS and her uncontrollable craving for tuna. Tuna is the chocolate for cats. I don’t understand it. I can’t see any cat catching tuna in the wild.
So how was your week?
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
Cat comes running if I even think about getting tuna out of the cabinet – how do they know?
Probably deer dancers. Raccoons are the culprits around here. They do love the ponds. Sigh, your pond – just love it. My hibiscus are all small coming up from roots this year after last winter. Miss those red flowers
Have you thought about planting pampas grass in the washout zone with the rocks and railroad ties? My parents had the same battle, but those plants somehow worked once they got a foothold.
(Yard become gym workouts at times)
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I’m thinking my problem is aggressive groundhogs. I am thinking about getting an infrared camera to see who it is so I can work on a better solution. Love the pampas grass idea but the whole area is shaded by white pines. Not sure if the grass would prosper. Gym workouts is right. Nasty gym workouts. Thanks for your suggestions.
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Their “gully” was shaded by giant oak and other trees…not sure anything deters pampas grass …neighborhood kids did start “hiding” there to smooch though
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Smooching would be acceptable as long as it’s not groundhog smooching.
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Our gophers stayed underground and stuff caved in..yours must be critter golfers
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I happy you captured a photo of your beautiful pansies, Kate…so pretty! It’s so hard to believe that July is almost over. Soon we’ll be freezing again…NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Have a great week!
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I’m happy too…it’s been a long day. Sorry to fill your blog with typos. 😦
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Your pictures are so beautiful…sad about the ‘night raiders’. We gave up ‘ponding’ several years ago after losing the battle. Ranch life attracted too many raiders; oh well. They need a little excitement too…I suppose. Now we settle for birds and the transient cats…they like vacationing in our ‘natural’ backyard. The transients entertain our Gibby who is a city girl herself. They ask her if they can come in and visit…then…she gives them her ‘evil eye’.
Hazel has that ‘who cares’ attitude with poundage; me too!
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I hate to think of giving up my pond. I will try to find a way to discourage them. I pulled out some prickly juniper this year that was around the pond and maybe that encouraged them. Hazel really doesn’t care about weight but she’s starting to walk like a fat cat so it’s just not healthy.
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In other words…she’s waddling? Gains too much and she may slither…fat cats may have a language all their own.
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She’s not far from slither…
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Mystery meat is always suspect! I’d go for the tomato sandwich, too, as that is always pleasing to me. 🙂 I’m sorry you’ve had raiders in your yard. I am always torn. On one hand I’m pleased to be close to nature in my urban landscape, but damage is damage. It becomes a wearisome cycle sometimes! And I don’t know what happened to July either! It’s a mystery, Kate.
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July is in the dryer with all those socks.
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Blahahaha! Or maybe not so funny for Hazel and me. I think I have regained 8 ounces lost and put on a few extra too. How come the deer and the antelope can eat all day anyway? Our Mountain Laurel is gone, along with numerous hosta plants and a hibiscus. You are not alone. 🙂
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This is the worst year we have had for plant munching. They haven’t completely invaded the pond before and the hibiscus was on a covered porch. They might as well have pressed the doorbell and came in for a night cap. Hostas? Forgettabutit!
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So discouraging to wake up and see your hard work and beautiful plants history. Too bad the critters can’t be trained to eat only weeds. Teddy is sticking to his diet…much better than his mama.
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Last night was another bad night. They ate down the last good plant I had in my pond. Now it’s just a glaring pool of water with no shade for frogs or fish. I am bummed. It’s easier for Teddy to diet. First off, there aren’t other cats with food to tempt him and he doesn’t have opposable thumbs like his mama.
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I love that they were skinny dipping…can just see them pushing each other in your pool, giggling. Your friend with the new knew…medicine…it’s awful she can’t just heal with rest and a little Advil…doctors.
And yes…July flew by…before you know it we’ll be seeing school supplies in all the windows.
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back to school stuff, jeez!
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At least here, any second. Boo
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I wish I had known that secret twenty years ago. A tomato and onion sandwich, and no one will talk to you? Maybe you should think about securing a patent for that idea. 🙂
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Works every time!
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Sounds like your husband won’t need to lift weights at the gym this week ~ rock hauling is hard work. Sorry about the critters littering up your yard and raiding the lily pads.
We no longer have any mystery meat (or any meat) in our fridge or freezer.
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I do like tomato sandwiches especially with butter and a slice of a nice sweet mild onion. Of course no one talked to me the rest of the night.
Thanks for stopping by.
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Hilarious (except the rock hauling – ugh – that is one tiring job). My flowers look a bit like yours – they’re either drowning from the rain or parched from 2 days of sunshine.
Hard to believe it is July 20th, feels like May around here.
MJ
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I have one water lily blooming today. I had tons of buds but they were just bitten off. More rocks to haul but today should be a fun day.
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Oh Kate! Sorry, but I have to laugh.. I could have written your Random Five! I couldn’t have written it as well as you but I HAD petunias too, and impatiens. I am pretty sure a doe with triplets is the muncher of the impatiens but I caught a gray squirrel gray handed merrymaking in my petunias.. only the purple ones. I chased it off and now the only pot of purple petunias has chicken wire around it. Looks like crap but I want to smell my petunias in the evening. NoBODY better touch our “hibiscuits”! I just ran out and took a picture of them for a Good Fences post.
We have a big slope too and put in a dry creek bed to cut down on the erosion and caught raccoons moving those rocks around. Don’t have anything in common with your knee R5 but happy your good friend is doing so well!
CH is the one that can’t throw anything away in the freezer but I wouldn’t have been eating the mystery meat either.. especially if I could have a tomato sandwich but without the onions! Poor Hazel.. I need to drop 5 pounds but it isn’t going to happen during BBQ season!
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Yeah, Hazel doesn’t lose weight during BBQ season, or holiday season or….any season!
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I’m having a hard time believing it is July 20th. Mother Nature has been having some issues these days and unfortunately her wrath continues on this week. Please tell Hazel she can call me any time to discuss her struggle, we are one in the same.
My week was smooth sailing until Friday. I went to pick up my mom like I do every Friday for our day out and instead of our usual adventure we spent our time at the hospital. She is having a pacemaker put in tomorrow and hopefully she will be back to her vibrant self by Tuesday.
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So sorry about your Mom! Hope all is well. (and Hazel may take you up on that!)
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Sorry about your mother too Top…but she’s a trooper, like Jackie, her idol.
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Raccoons used to be the vandals in my garden when I had a pond. Discouraging news about the water issues, too. The municipality installed a gigantic retaining wall along the river, at one of the meanders, to prevent erosion. The next spring thaw, every last morsel of the wall had vanished. These were enormous five ton blocks spanning 500 feet. The water didn’t just topple the boulders in a heap at the bottom of the slope. They were carried away, or pulverized. Impressive and humbling, that.
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We discussed raccoons. They do that in ponds but we haven’t seen any at all in the 11 years we’ve been here. Nature is awesome. It has a power I don’t understand.
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