Better Nests and Gardens

Better Nests and (Beaten) Gardens: May Edition

Last week while I was wandering the yard looking for my reading glasses- you know, the ones I put in a "safe place" so I wouldn't lose them- I spotted this beauty hanging from the shed.

Of course I had to bring it in to take its picture. Fortunately all the babies had flown the coop already.

It's a paper wasp nest and the "leaves" around the edges are truly like a very fine paper. Very delicate yet it held up nicely to being knocked down with a board (it was over my head, what can I say?) and brought inside. 

How can something that has a brain the size of a pinhead make this? Isn't nature amazing?

One nest got me thinking about another so I took some pics of this beauty, too.  Found it on a walk.
I think it is a hummingbird nest. Tiny and perfect.

Again, how does something with such a teeny tiny brain know how to makes something this exquisite?   A perfect little house.

And in the garden arena....well, it's not good.

Monday we woke AGAIN to snow/slush/hail. That fun was followed by a full day of rain. The cilantro and tomatoes on the back deck were swimming when I got home. Really. The back stroke, I think.  (The basil succumbed to the freeze. I have a basil stalk with no leaves. Does not bode well for pesto...)

I do have a few blooming flowers that survived the trauma. The potatoes have sent a couple of sprouts up.


The tulips....

...Which are blown but still lovely.  Hey! Is that a bee peeking out up above?

They are/were double tulips. So luscious. (And isn't "luscious" a perfect word? An ideophone. )

And this is about to do something? What is it?  I don't know. One of the bulbs from my WalMart 200 bulb pack.  Related to agapanthus or garlic?

Maybe someone can identify it and its friends next week when it blooms fully.

And no, I never found my glasses. They are somewhere in the 2 acres surrounding the cabin.
They will turn up. Eventually.


(For the edition of Better Hovels and Cabins, click here.)