Remember how in my last post I said that my spiffy new anti-chicken flowerbed protecting fence was working like a charm? Well, scratch that (no pun intended). I've yet to catch them red handed, but I have returned home twice now to find evidence of excavation in the flowerbed. Luckily, the emerging perennials seem able to take the mild abuse and there's been no major damage. Soon the flowers will have filled out the available space and it won't be an issue. It is still a cool looking fence, even if it doesn't necessarily work as I intended.

The lesson of the week must be dealing with disappointment because my 12 happy little broccoli plants that I transferred from the greenhouse to the garden a few days ago have been reduced to 8 broccoli plants and 4 broccoli stumps. Portions of the kale patch has suffered a similar fate. The faint slime trails in the area make me suspect slugs are the culprit.

Fortunately, there's too much going on to spend time in mourning for things I can't control. Every day the number of different bird songs I hear is increasing. I'm expecting the return of the hummingbirds any day now. This spurt of summer weather we've been enjoying has prompted us to do away with the down blankets and put the screens back in the windows so we can enjoy the breeze at night. Last night was our first night with the window open, and it was wonderful to drift off to sleep to the sound of spring peepers and a whip-poor-will. Thankfully my hearing is not acute enough to pick up the sounds of slugs munching away on my poor innocent cole crops or else I'd never get a good night's sleep. :)