Around our (Maryland) Yard in June 2013

The irises have bloomed profusely and the chives have gone to seed by early in June. The pyranantha has tiny green berries that will be brilliant orange by fall.

The dahlias and lilies are very green; at least the lilies have a few buds that the deer have missed. Hopefully there is enough other greenery now for the lily buds to go unnoticed and July will be a riot of color in the front flower beds - yellow and orange and red.

There are tiny bits of color in the sea of green - a wild strawberry and overly sweet smelling flowers on one of our bushes. The bees were finding the white flowers very attractive!

The big surprise of the walk around the yard this month was the turtle shell with a big hole that was in the backyard. There were bones rattling around on the inside but the soft parts were long gone. There was a turtle that put in an appearance in our back garden several times a season for at least the past 10 years or so; the empty shell probably means that the turtle continuity for our garden has ended.