The 366 Project: July

 

It seems like July started only yesterday, and here we are in August already! July just flew by with lots of knitting, time spent in the garden and unfortunately two heatwaves. You might think that we should be used to a lot of heat in California, but while this is certainly true for Southern California it is not the case here in Northern California, especially so close to the coast. Mornings and evenings can be downright chilly thanks to the marine layer aka fog. I love the fog and don't like the heat and I was really happy when the morning fog finally returned. Such a relief. I guess many of you in North America experienced the heat as well. It is a mystery to me how someone can still deny climate change.

This was July in my world:

Just a few days into July I had my old German class over for some German Erdbeerbowle. Over the years this has become a tradition that everyone seems to look forward to. I enjoyed setting the table under the big shade tree (it was one of those very hot days).

Everybody came and we had a wonderful time together despite the heat. I will miss these people so much. This photo is my ticket for Nicole's Friday Face Off.

We enjoyed our "new" bird feeder in July, but had become a bit weary of the squirrels. The Geek was thinking about how to discourage these little rascals from ransacking the feeding tubes almost constantly. The Geek being an engineer through and through, he sat down and did some calculating and figuring out.

He then constructed a baffle out of thin metal and empty beer cans (good German beer!), some metal glue and duct-tape.

So far it has worked very well. We also turned the feeder by 90º so it's further away from the fence. Now the birds feed undisturbed on the tubes, but are kind enough to throw some seed to the ground where the squirrels then eat them. Everyone's happy and I don't have to refill the tubes every day but only every other day or even less. Like everything else, bird seed has become quite expensive as well.

Since we had so many hot days in July, I cooked very basic simple meals. I usually eat whole grain toast for breakfast - here you can see my summer version. There's hummus below the tomatoes and smoked salmon spread below the cucumbers. So delicious!

Here's dinner - clockwise from top left: Ramen noodles with tofu, fennel, red bell pepper and zucchini; marinated sockeye salmon with roasted carrots and zucchini; Teriyaki chicken with broccoli, green onion and rice; Fusilli with market fresh tomatoes and zucchini

One more thing - when the Geek built the clothesline for me in 2015 I also found a beautiful hand sewn clothespin bag. Now after nine years hanging out at the clothesline what remains of this bag is mere rags, so I decided to look for a new one. There isn't that much out there what I had envisioned. But then I found this shop on Etsy in Germany and there were the cutest hand sewn clothespin bags. I ordered one and I received it in less than two weeks. I'm so happy!

I wish all of you a pleasant, not too hot August!

Where Birds Get Together

 

Before I tell you about our "big" project we accomplished in May, I want to briefly get back to my last post about the nesting Mourning Doves. Someone asked what happened to the babies after one of the parents was caught by the hawk. Thankfully, the little doves had already left the nest when this happened. The other parent is still on his or her own (I really can't tell whether it's female or male) and sometimes hanging around our backyard.

Now let's get to our May project. We need to go way back more than 25 years when we were still living in Germany and bought a sun umbrella by Ombrelloni di creco, a German company who manufactured their beautiful sun umbrellas in the village near Tübingen where we were living. These umbrellas are of very high quality and the frame is made of wood.

Fast forward more than 20 years and the fabric of this heavily used sun umbrella started to deteriorate. Because of its rectangular shape we weren't able to find a replacement, so the wooden frame went into the shed. And finally we had a brilliant idea - turn it into a bird feeding station.

The Geek started the process by sanding the whole thing down.

After he had completely disassembled it, we varnished it on a warm Sunday - four coats with two hours each of drying time in between. Of course it took the entire day to do this. Kibeau was our supervisor.

After a couple days of drying out, the Geek re-assembled the frame, again under the supervision of Kibeau.

Finally we were able to put it up - here it is in all its glory. 

The hummingbird likes to hang out on the thin rope that stabilizes the "branches" of the new "tree".

So do the House Finches, before they land at the feeders.

The Hooded Orioles are frequent visitors at the little bowl filled with organic grape jelly.

But look at that! The California Scrub Jay likes that jelly, too! Can you see all the red stuff in his beak?

I love to see the Chestnut-Backed Chickadees at the feeders. They buzz in and out and always seem to be busy.

The Oak Titmouse first seems to check things out before settling down for a snack. They also like to nibble the jelly.

And of course it took the squirrel less than 15 minutes to figure out the new feeder opportunities!

With all these sweet faces I'm joining again Nicole's Friday Face Off.