God, This is a Boring Post

There's a large white climbing rose growing over the trees in the back of the garden. It's actually grown over the fence from the neighbor's, but I don't mind because it's beautiful and along with our own pink climbing roses, it puts on quite a show. It's past its peak now, and its white petals are fluttering down like confetti, landing on our hydrangeas (above) and everywhere else.

I was home all day yesterday, but as usual, I had several projects. I cleaned out the alley at the side of the house where we store our rubbish bins -- just the area streetside of the garden gate. It was full of campanula and other weeds and the shrubbery was growing into the bin storage area, so I weeded it and trimmed everything back and swept it all out. It looks much tidier now. I didn't clean the side return behind the garden gate but I'm leaving all that campanula for now, because it's still blooming and the bees like it. Besides, no one can see that area besides us.

I also moved our fiddle-leaf fig outside for its annual shower. I noticed on Friday night that it was looking pretty dusty. I hosed it down and I think it appreciated the "rain." That pink geranium at bottom left is one I rescued from a neighbor's yard waste bag on the street. They threw it out, and I grabbed it and brought it home and stuck it in a pot and it's perfectly happy. It's a beautiful color.

Remember how a squirrel was climbing into our peanut feeder? Well, I was afraid it would get trapped in there, and that combined with the RSPB advice not to feed nuts during the summer persuaded me to take the feeder down entirely. But now the squirrel has figured out how to climb into the seed feeder as well! Argh!

I don't think it likes the seeds as much, and it seems to struggle to reach them through the tiny openings for the birds, so maybe it will eventually grow discouraged. (Ha!)

God, this is a boring post. Sorry about that. What can I talk about that doesn't involve houseplants or bird feeders? How about Donald Trump and his completely bungled refurbishment of the Reflecting Pool? I am amused as heck by the incompetence he and his team displayed on that job, with the pool's fancy new coating coming away in sheets (within days!) and the water a poisonous-looking algae-green. Trump was so arrogant, insisting he could do the job right at a fraction of the cost of previous restorations, without properly understanding any complications -- and now he's paying for that arrogance. (Though as usual he refuses to take responsibility, blaming leftist vandals. Even if you buy that excuse -- which I don't -- what kind of properly installed pool coating allows people to cut or tear it off?)

And how about his apparent insistence that the scaffold remain in place in front of the Kennedy Center, so no one can see that his name has been removed by court order? He's such a baby. The entire country is being run by middle schoolers -- and I've worked with middle schoolers so I know.

Then we have politics here in the UK. The sudden return of Andy Burnham to Parliament, after a stint as mayor of Manchester, apparently poses an existential threat to Starmer. To an outsider it may seem peculiar that Burnham, who was only just elected to Parliament days ago, would leapfrog everyone else to become Starmer's chief rival -- but he was in parliament for years before his Manchester gig, including in the cabinet, so he's quite experienced. I think Burnham is an appealing figure but as I've said, as unenthusiastic as I am about Starmer, I'm not sure I want to kick him out. I think there's something to be said for maintaining the continuity of the government, especially after several years of very short-lived prime ministers.

As long as I'm boring you with gardening and politics, why not go whole-hog?

Here's the latest footage from our Garden Cam! Woo hoo! It wasn't a super exciting week, but we have a few mildly interesting moments.

We start with Crooked Tail and then Sharpie, sniffing around in the rain. (That was on June 10, so we're actually going back more than a week.) They don't seem happy with the precipitation.
-- At 0:22, the next night, it's still damp but at least the rain's not pelting down.
-- At 0:35, the following night, it's drier still. 
-- At 0:45, Crooked Tail (I think?) shows up with something in his/her mouth. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe a dog treat from that still unidentified source? There's more back-and-forth by various foxes.
-- At 01:15, a great tit nibbles something from the ground.
-- At 01:20 there's more foxes wandering around.
-- At 02:14, another fox shows up with more food. I'm not sure what it's eating. It settles down for a nibble. (It's hard to discourage our rodent visitors when the foxes keep bringing food into the garden!)
-- At 02:35, Huge Cat makes an appearance. I like its triangular face mask.
-- At 02:49, we see a starling and a "little brown thing" (that's a birdwatching term), followed by a very poised squirrel.
-- At 03:08, a fox walks past and apparently surprises a cat offscreen, because we hear it yowling.
-- At 03:37, we see two clips of a blackbird (and hear a leaf-blower, ugh). The bird gets chased off by a squirrel.
-- At 04:09, a fox begins a long itching/grooming session. It may seem to go on for a while, but I actually cut out a full minute of footage!
-- At 04:55, a magpie seems to be collecting sticks. For a nest, maybe? Seems kind of late for that.
-- At 05:16, pigeon, squirrel and hoverfly.
-- At 05:31, various passing foxes.
-- At 05:54, I turned the camera for another angle on the garden and captured our old friend, the rat. (I moved the camera several times after this just to get different perspectives.)
-- At 05:59, a fox trots past. The video skips slightly.
-- At 06:01, the magpie is back, once again collecting sticks.
-- At 06:14, the foxes make a few more passes, curious about the camera's new location.

And with that, I'm going to retire the Garden Cam for a while. Let's give the poor animals some privacy for the summer, shall we?