More Work

Today was holly hedge pruning day.

Once a year, in early July, we have to get this job done. It's not fun, but we like the results, and it feels very good when it's done. 

Tom climbs the ladders and runs the machinery. I do the clean up.  I'm much safer crawling along on the ground. 

It's a long stretch of hedge, running along most of the east side property line. We planted it from seedlings dug up in the yard many years ago. 

 At the entrance to the secret garden, the cedar, fir and hemlock trees get sheared too. 

 Everything is back to being tidy in the secret garden now that all of the trimmings have been cleared. Most of the trimmings get stuffed back under the hedge. 

This is the tall part of the hedge, where I am on stand by to hold the ladder. 

 Shearing this holly pillar by the deck is part of the job. 

It took us most of the day. Fortunately the day was mostly cloudy with a high of 70, OK for getting heavy work done.

Tomorrow we'll do the back side of the hedge - the neighbor's side - and then that job will be done for another year. Hurray!

Update on the Junco family: Saturday when I peeked into the nest, I saw this.

I see two faces looking at me. I don't know it there is another or not. There were originally four eggs. 

Today when I looked, I saw one baby, perched on the edge of the nest. When I came back after getting the work done, and tried to take a photo, the baby fluttered out of the nest and across the lawn, where it landed and was immediately joined and fed by one of the parents. 

 I hope it is ready to survive out of the nest. I hope I did not lead it to its demise. And I have no idea where the other baby is. Maybe it fledged too. 

I won't dwell on their fate. Nature does what nature will. But I have enjoyed all of the Juncos in the garden this summer. There seems to be a good supply. I suspect we have had three or four nests tucked away somewhere here, and with several batches in each.