The Hummingbirds just started showing up in numbers last week and today I saw the first Monarch Butterfly.

I planted a butterfly garden of sorts behind the courtyard and all around my new house and now they're here to entertain me and the blond for the rest of the summer. I enjoy that. I have bird feeders and suet baskets and hummingbird feeders and bird baths for everybody.

Now I just have to do battle with some of the wasps and the squirrels and the rabbits.

Since I now have neighbors I can no longer shoot the squirrels from my window and eat them. And they had become the bane of my existence up until recently. When you have bird feeders (which I couldn't have before cuz of bears), the squirrels will NOT stop at anything to get that seed. I tried everything with no luck. Until a couple weeks ago. That's when I found bird seed with hot sauce in it. The squirrels just sniff it and don't want any part of it. It's a little more expensive but it's worth it to me. They don't even hang around here anymore like they used to.

The rabbits are another thing. I can't shoot them here either. They not only eat vegetables, they eat my frigging flowers too! I guess I'm gonna have to rig up some kinda fence for them. PITA!

Today when the sun gets low I'm gonna put in 3 more tomato plants (Called "maters" here) and a couple pepper plants. Maybe I'll stay up late and catch them rabbits in the act and scare the hell out of 'em with my Nancy Pelosi mask.