Garden and Critter Update

Today, Mommy saw the first hummingbird of the year. He came to check out our massively blooming bottlebrush tree while we were feeding outside. While I was taking photos of the aloe vera bloom-stalks, Mr. Hummingbird came back and was silhouetted nicely against the gorgeous blue sky today.


Here's another shot of him:


The garden has been doing well lately. We've been eating spinach, cilantro, swiss chard, and Chiogga Beets (actually mainly just their greens, as we haven't found a great way to cook the beets yet). Those big plants in the back are the two artichokes that I planted a little over a year ago. They got much bigger than I thought they would!!!

Here's our first beet. We love the greens, but aren't yet fans of the beet.

These little ladybugs were trying to help out my garden, but they just didn't do enough, and didn't do it fast enough. The aphids pretty much killed off the rest of the broccoli and a few other miscellaneous relatives.

Not only do we have the beneficial ladybugs, but we also have these little bees. They were amazing to watch as they hopped from broccoli bloom to bloom. Some of the bees looked a little pollen-drunk, as they flew around in crooked patterns covered from head to tail in yellow.