Macro Mushrooms

Walk into the garden and point your camera anywhere. I am standing just outside the back door.The young squirrel with the scrawny tail is sipping water from the birdbath while the older grey squirrel with the luxurious tail is tearing around the oak trees, free falling from branch to branch.

The oriole has forsaken the hummingbird feeder for the arbutilon, siping nectar from its unusual bell-shaped flowers. His brilliant orange/yellow head can be seen through the foliage.

The edge of the water fountain is lined with goldfinches who have made it their own. They are unphased by the sharp spines of the agaves and can frequently be seen sitting right atop them. It must be good protection for such small birds.

Lizards dart in and out of the drystone walls, doing a few pushups in the sun before heading back in. They are singular creatures in spite of the fact that there are thousands of them harbored within the cracks between the stones. It is unusual to see two of them chasing each other up the trunk of a huge oak tree.

The flowers are still blooming in their serried ranks up the hill...pink and orange and yellow roses, pink and white guara (bee blossom) and yellow Jerusalem sage. Giant yellow striped black bees bumble around in the Russian sage.

The hummingbirds dive-bomb their feeder fiercely chasing each other off before they can take any nectar.the big raven continues leaping up from the ground to reach the suet feeder, flapping his wings in a mad attempt to stay aloft. It is at just this vulnerable moment that the scrub jay comes screaming out of the plumb tree in a vain attempt to chase him away from the suet.

The only thing missing from the garden this year is the butterflies. But I do have a jar on the kitchen counter with a chrysalis in it that Dana pulled out of a huge clump of grass before she gave it a haircut...