A messy morning

Remember the million bells I had last year? And the incident I had with them right after I'd planted them? Well, guess what. It's happened again! Only this time it was worse. This is what I saw on our deck first thing this morning.

Yeah... ON THE DECK! Would a skunk come up the steps and onto the deck? Or would a raccoon do that? Or a woodchuck? Anyway, I'm mad! The poor little plants were just beginning to look pretty nice. I'm sure they'll survive... they're like a petunia, and they're pretty tough. But there was a LOT of root damage, so they won't look nice and full for a while.

I often take the planter off the deck railing and set it on the floor overnight, in case the wind comes up or something. I guess from now on I'll be putting it in the garage overnight. Always something to contend with when growing anything outside, but this is ridiculous. I hope whatever it was gets sick and dies from all the plant food, etc., in the potting soil.

While I was out on the deck, I checked the birdbath. This is how it looked.

YUCK! And it had looked like that last night, too, so I'd rinsed it and refilled it then. Sure didn't stay clean very long... had lots of mud and blades of dried grass. I rinsed and refilled it again, and after I went back in the house, I kept an eye out to see who the culprit was. Didn't take long. It was a very dirty ROBIN. Apparently they're doing some nest building, and I think I know where. I'd seen a pair building in an ash tree nearby a few weeks ago, but the nest was abandoned. Today I looked up there after seeing the robin fly to that tree, and sure enough, it looks like they've been doing some renovating. The nest has gotten much bigger. I think they've added a complete story. ;-)

So that explained that mess. Then as I finished up taking some other interesting photos (fodder for future blog posts... stay tuned), I happened to look at the long grass in the ditch across our driveway. Here's what I saw.

Everywhere were these little white globs! Have a little closer look.

Okay... have a REALLY CLOSE look!

They were little globs of bubbles! It looked like someone had tossed some dishwater suds into the air and the wind scattered it all over. No, it wasn't me! It's gotta be some kind of bug or something, doesn't it? Like inside those bubbles are eggs or something? So someday soon are there going to be some nasty bugs all over the place??? ACK! I have no clue. Does anybody know what makes this? Dale, do you know???

It rained lightly for quite awhile today. I'll have to take a look soon and see if anything's left.

But now I must sew again. Our Etsy shop got restocked today with the 5 new bags I sent Jess. We'll see how long they last (I just checked and saw that one has sold already!). And now people are asking for more of the smaller book covers, so those are next on my agenda. At least I already have a few cut out, and they're pretty quick to make. Last week the postcard packs were selling strangely fast. We don't know if somebody's blogging about our stuff and causing the extra sales or what, but it's nice. Does keep me busy, though, so I guess I'm glad for the rainy weather. Grandpa's not so happy, though, since the hay was almost dry. :-(