Have You Ever Seen

Birds loitering? 

They were literally hanging out all over the garden and the yard waiting for a branch to open up.  It was like a waiting line at a popular restaurant before the covid-crazy struck.

The serviceberry bushes/mini-trees are ripening,

and it has attracted every hungry bird in the neighborhood.

I'm actually quite glad that the birds like the serviceberries,

because I don't really care that much for them.

They were advertised as a Saskatoon "blueberry" in the seed catalog, but the flavor is nowhere near the same.

Apparently, Native Americans used them in pemmican, and they are supposed to be very nutritious.  The old adage of the worse something tastes, the better it is for you applies to serviceberries.

The cardinals were singing at each other (rather territorially).

The robins were squawking and hip checking smaller birds away.

Goldfinches were buzzing through to see the cause of all the hubbub.  There were a few other types of birds that only appear in the yard when the serviceberries are ripe.  Of course, they are so shy that getting pictures is pretty much impossible.

Hopefully my neighbors don't get terribly upset when the berries come out the other end of the birds, probably on their cars.

Oh well, this too shall pass.

Yo-Yo Weather

Note for those who live someplace other than America, temperatures mentioned are in the Fahrenheit scale.

Last week we had a three day stretch of hot weather; one day even got up to 90.  For the last couple days highs have been in the 70's and overnight lows in the 50's.  (Thankfully our part of the state missed out on the frost advisories.)  Tomorrow it is supposed to switch back to highs in the 80's again.  In spite of the yo-yo temperatures, the tomatoes in the garden are growing fine.  This is a really strange weather pattern.  It is more like September than June, right down to the tropical storm hitting the southern USA.

Finally

The car accident was last Thursday.  I called my agent who got the claim started with the other driver's insurance agency.  I sent pictures to my agent of the damage; he probably forwarded them.  I got estimates from two local auto body shops, checked with my mechanic to make sure nothing non-cosmetic was broken, and sent scans of the body shop estimates to my agent; he might have forwarded them.  The claims adjuster left a voicemail late Friday afternoon.  I called him back, but he was gone for the weekend.  My suspicion is that he waited to call me until right before he was quitting for the day.  Monday I called again and it turned out that he had yet to speak with the other driver to verify that she was at fault.     She had not bothered to call him back - terribly rude.  Perhaps Mr. Clarkson's comment about Audi drivers is accurate.  I got another call from my agent and reviewed progress, or lack thereof.  Hurried up and waited another day.  I called the claims adjuster again Tuesday, and he had finally spoken with the driver.  Their liability verified, the claim was approved that far.  He gave me the name of the one auto body shop in the area covered by that insurance.  I took my car there on Wed. for an official preliminary estimate.  It came back at 75% of blue book value, and because of that they had to do a conference call walk around with another agent from the insurance company.  So I took the car back to the body shop on Thursday, so they could video conference.  It is now a week later and they have finally decided that they will pay to fix my car.  Because of all their horsing around, the next available date to fix my car is next Wed.  So, from accident to getting my car repaired will take at least 2 weeks, probably more like 2 1/2 weeks with labor and paint drying times.  If anything, this has verified that I never want Allstate insurance.  Their bureaucracy is ridiculous.  Who cares if a loaner car is available.  I just want my car fixed in a timely fashion.  Is that too much to ask?

Something Pretty

in a world full of ugly news.

It's an election year, cue the pandemic followed by orchestrated riots.

I much prefer riots of color in my garden instead.

Things are just getting started, so for your viewing pleasure.

Columbine

And Chives

The daisies are starting too, but the light was too low and the photo over-exposed, so those will appear on another day.

And here is the garden as it gets going.