I am long overdue on some posts to the web site. Work has been absolutely crazy, and I just have not had time to get to it. So I will have a few posts to try and catch up.
For this post, there’s not a lot ot share really. June was busy, with Justine on her big family girls trip to London, so we had one weekend together and one where I was on Galiano solo. This post is mostly updates on the state of the cottage, the gardens, and of course, the birds. But nothing too exciting I’m afraid.
We’ve had a cool start to the spring - lots of sun, but not really all that warm. Thankfully we’ve also had a fair bit of rain through June as well, which we desperately needed. The upside is that the gardens have been getting lots of water and everything is growing like crazy. The daisies, foxglove and lupines are in full bloom.
Justine loves the daisies, but it makes cutting the grass a bit harder.
The firepit garden is growing really nicely, with the lavender being one of the only things the deer won’t eat. You can see how many foxgloves we’ve got this year.
This one foxglove is close to 7 feet tall.
THe new deck has been an amazing addition. We love the extra outdoor space.
One of the things that we love about Galiano is that it’s always changing. As an example, we’ve always had Violet-green swallows on Galiano during the summer, but this year, they’ve been on the property all summer! And they are nesting in one of the boxes that we put up.
Such pretty birds. You can really see the namesake colours in this photo.
The deer have been quite regular in their visits. We have two - one starting to get larger antlers, and one with tiny horns.
It’s a spectacular array of colors on the lupins.
The “deer” garden.
The other new “regular” around the property is a red-tailed hawk. We have not seem them routinely in the past, but this year there has been one that we’ve seen a lot. It’s funny how quite everything gets when he soars by.
Spectacular sunrise
And of course, this tie of year we’re inundated with hummingbirds! Both the Rufous and Anna’s have hatched their chicks, and they are everywhere. It’s so entertaining, watching them chase each other around. They even use us as human shields at time.
A juvenile rufous hummingbird.
The lavender is amazing this year. It’s a constant hum of bees.
Foxglove
The last “new” species this year are these guys - band-tailed pigeons. They are actually a native species, unlike most of the pieons you see around. Equally dumb and annoying - there have been 2-3 hanging about this year.
When I am on Galiano, I try and golf most mornings. I can get out, and door-to-door including playing 9 holes, it takes me about 2 hours. I’m also usually the only person on the course when I head out early. The deer on Galiano are generally not that afraid of people, and on the gold course it gets to the point where you have to hold of of hitting shots for the deer to cross.
Momma duck and her ducklings on one of the course ponds.