Today I was able to take some pictures of the baby birds. Luckily one was even leaning out of the milk jug. I suspect they will fly away soon. And on this one I cropped it a bit so it is more of a close up: There is at least a second bird in the milk jug. I try not to get too close and disturb them when I look. Glad everyone has enjoyed following the baby bird tale!

Carrie, In my fledgling garden, "everyone" wouldn't be a Freudian slip. My mom says "Dogs are people too". Well, when you raise a garden from seed, I think it's inevitable we will see the plants as a little village of children and friends. So in my book, when you tend to your garden, you are free to refer to every one of your black-eyed Susans, Johnny Jump Ups, and Angelicas as "everyone". I'm IN LOVE with your BES and gaillardias. Brilliant colors.

Well now, I was telling myself it was a juniper because the trees had small, blue berries. Then I saw the Eastern Red Cedar bit above and wondered if it might be that. Then it turned out that Eastern Red Cedar *is* a juniper! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juniperus_virginiana Whew! Taxing my taxonomy! Anyways, I think ERC is the winner. I would imagine that if you combined your ERC with some butterfly weed (A. tuberosa), a known hairstreak attractor, that you might get good mileage. Also, (though you probably know this), they seemed really shy. I spent a half-hour by one particular tree and only saw a few flutterings. So you might already have one... Jeff

Ewww, rats - I'm sure you'll win the war, but YICK to have them in the first place. I love the 'Silk Road' lilies. I really want to plant a bunch of oriental and asiatic lilies this fall. I had some gorgeous ember-red-orange asiatic ones called 'Avignon' at the old garden, but that variety is hard to come by now - I might have to try another similar one instead. I also had a lovely oriental called 'Bergamo,' that I think I can still find. And the "tiger" lily 'Sweet Surrender' is one of my favorites. The bulb catalogs are starting to roll in - I'll have my wish list made soon! Laurel