That bee is so pretty! I never knew a golden bee even existed. Your photos are also great btw, Zoë!

Interesting, eh?
High praise from you, Nancy! Thanks for the

Omg, he's so cute!

NMoasis said:

This pic is outstanding! Truly stellar!! Magical!

Thanks Tiffany. Love your exuberance!

purpleinopp said: This pic is outstanding! Truly stellar!! Magical!

purpleinopp said: This pic is outstanding! Truly stellar!! Magical!

!

The raccoons are starting to visit more often, not nightly yet but still funny.

This guy is for sure from last year, with the one eye that doesn't glow, reaching up to the bird bath on the pedestal just to play in the water.


Another one just playing in the ground bird bath.

Too sweet 🤗

I love these raccoon pics!

Yay my pussytoes patch is being destroyed! A quick count was at least 9 of different sizes.

I take it those are American Painted Lady caterpillars? Do they destroy the plant or will it come back next year?

I found another view of the one-glowy-eyed raccoon when he was reaching up to the bird bath and now I'm worried... his tail has no fur at all. I've read it can happen from fighting, but I wouldn't think it would be that evenly bare. I know he had a full furry tail last year.

I've had the pussytoes for decades - A few different patches, I'm not concerned about them eating too much.

Maybe Rocky is mangey. Mangy? We've seen some horribly mangy foxes.

Rocky Raccoon's tail looks like it's just the fur gone not any skin, so it should be OK. He might have got it caught in something and pulled out the hair when getting loose. If it were mange, you'd expect to see some hair loss elsewhere not just the tail, but it could be.

Today, the evil squirrel wanted to come down from the oak nextdoor. Tornado-dog was not having it. It was a standoff for about 15 minutes before squirrel decided not to chance it...

sallyg said:
Maybe Rocky is mangey. Mangy? We've seen some horribly mangy foxes.

My wonderful neighbors a couple of years ago bought medicine for mange and syringed it into hardboiled eggs to treat our miserable looking mangy foxes. Now we have beautiful healthy looking foxes. I enjoy listening to the eerie fox noises at night.

We heard about putting treatment into hot dogs, for that.
We have a lovely fox this year, but those night screams are wild! Only heard that one night , but now we have some crows that tell us when The fox is about.

I took a ride over to Sandhills Horticultural Gardens today. I love this place. I've been there many times, and it never fails to impress me.

Beautiful, Web!

Beautiful array of blooms, Web 👍!

Today the female Valley Carpenter bee visited and wasn't as frenetic as they sometimes are. Shiny bee butt with a dusting of white pollen and impressive pantaloons!




Was she wifey to the male who visited a few days ago ? She didn't say.

Here's the comparison of male and female

I only get the plain old boring-looking carpenter bees here, not a pretty golden bee like you have. I wouldn't mind seeing those all the time!

I suspect it was my resident foxes who left me a "present" of a bloody rabbit leg on my patio. I know rabbits feet are supposed to be lucky (yuk) but I could have forgone this gift