Farewell to Forest Street

This is the final blog post from my backyard here in Massachusetts.  I have enjoyed living here, but
it's time for me to move on to a new chapter in my life, and now another family will get to enjoy this beautiful place. I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed doing it.

Turkey town!

Local wild turkeys are thriving this year.  I've seen them crossing the street just up the road from here, I've seen them while walking my dog around the block, I've seen them in the neighbors' yards, and I've even seen them up a tree! The other day I counted 14 of them in the yard next to mine, three of which were large and the others much smaller.

Infrequent backyard visitors

To my delight, I spotted two birds this summer that I have never seen in the backyard before.They must have been just passing through as I have not seen them since, so I'm happy that I was able to photograph them.

Cedar Waxwing

Eastern Phoebe

The backyard bursting with blooms

So many beautiful flowers this time of year, it's hard to pick a favorite.  Click on a photo to enlarge, and tell me what your favorite is.

phlox

day lily

day lily

day lily

tiger lily

hydrangea

marigold

New Guinea impatiens

Queen Anne's lace

petunia

marigold

zinnia

geranium

petunia

The mimosa tree

The mimosa tree has finally blossomed after eight years!  This tree came from my former residence here in Manchester where it was accidentally dug up during construction of a stone walkway.  I saved the remains of it in a container and brought it with me, transplanted it, and it has now grown to about 20 feet tall. It has small fern-like leaves and delicate pink flowers. A robin built a nest in it two summers ago, you can see a photo of that in my first post.

Summertime is finally here!

After a very wet June, we are enjoying a very hot, humid July so far.

The hydrangeas need a lot of water to stay hydrated.

Mid-July, blueberries are out!  These blueberry bushes are about six or seven years old and, despite not using a net to cover them this year, it's the best crop I've had so far.

The rabbits are out around dawn and dusk, feeding on clover and other greens.  The chicken wire keeps them out of my one row of green beans, however. In the heat of the day they rest beneath the shade of the hostas and the evergreen by the bird bath.

May in the backyard

The hawk keeps an ever-watchful eye over the backyard.

Mid-May the catbirds returned from their winter home, someplace far south of here. They  have an amazing variety of songs, calls and sounds that they make, and they love to play in the bird bath!

Yellow flowers

It's finally beginning to look and feel like spring around here!  Lots of yellow flowers everywhere.

March and April in the backyard

We had two snowstorms in early March with high winds, which resulted in many downed limbs and a tree blown over.  It was time to call in the tree care professionals, and they did a great job of trimming, cutting, chipping and shredding. Now, in early April it's still cold and windy, but we have the first flowers of spring!

Early spring birds

These are some of my favorite backyard visitors from March, which was generally cold and snowy this year.

Double click on an image to enlarge it.

female cardinal

blue jay

woodpecker

chickadee on a cold, windy day