Garden Photos, with Subtropical Surprise

I swear I will not turn this into a gardening blog. But when you have a cold, and you're stuck at home, there's not much else to write about. (Fortunately, as of this morning, the cold seems to be on its way out.)

Remember that packet of wildflower seeds we sowed last year? We had blue cornflowers, red poppies and some kind of yellow daisy-ish flower. This year, a bonanza of tiny seedlings appeared in and around the pot where we scattered last year's seeds -- so they re-seeded themselves quite effectively! Here's one of our first poppy blooms.

The bees seem to love the nigella, including that vase of blossoms broken off by the dog -- I put it outside, too. The plants are already setting their bizarre, alien-looking seed pods -- even the plants in the vase with no roots! Hardy little devils.

The squirrels are continuing to go to great lengths to get at our suet balls...

...and these were a surprise when they showed up yesterday evening. (It's not the first time, though.)

This is from what I think is our best rose bush, producing big, salmon-pink, deeply scented blossoms. (Strangely, bees don't seem drawn to our roses, though. I wonder why that is?) Anyway, I couldn't resist bringing this one inside.