It's June!

Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles June 2015 Blog Header

For the last several years I've been stitching bees and bee skeps in the month of June.  I think I'll continue on this year.  The header contains the finishes from June 2014 - I was pretty darned productive!

Here are the details by vertical rows. If the chart has more than one design I've listed both the chart name and design name.

Row #1: The Prairie Schooler, "Letters Part One" - "Busy Bees and Bee Hive"; The Prairie Schooler, "Bee on Black" (freebie); The Primitive Hare, "Litha - Summer Solstice"; Stitches from the Hearthland, "The Bee Book" - "Bee Mine".

Row #2: Crown and Thistle, "Spring and Summer"; Brown House Studios, "Seasonal Standups" - "Spring".

Row #3: Sisters and Best Friends, "Bumble Bee"; Homespun Elegance, "Happy Summer".

Row #4: The Prairie Schooler, "Garden Beasties" - "Bee Skep"; Homespun Elegance, "Adornments for Christmas and All Year" - "Bee Skep"; Lizzie Kate, "June Stamp". 

Rows #5 & #6: Birds of a Feather, "Busy as a Bee"; Homespun Elegance, "Meowy Tyme" - "May Day".

Lots of Prairie Schooler and Homespun Elegance designs in this collage!

June finds some changes in my birding world.

For most of the month of May I had a couple dozen Evening Grosbeaks at the feeders. 

Enough of these pretty birds that I was filling the feeders in the morning and again in the early afternoon.

I just found out that the Black-headed Grosbeaks are not finches after all, but are members of the Cardinal family.

As June begins I still have a nice sized American Goldfinch population. 

Even the backside of the male Goldfinch is pretty.

The females sport a quieter wardrobe.  They aren't out to impress anyone.

And there are about 4 Pine Siskins that still show up at the feeders.

As you can see there are a lot more food choices available for these birds, including dandelion seeds.

I've seen as many as 10 House Finches at one time.

Here's a male House Finch in clashing colors with my Salvia 'Wendy's Wish'.

Again the woman have no need for fancy colored feathers.

While most of the male House Finches are accessorized with red or orange feathers, this one is sporting a yellow head and breast.

Over the Memorial weekend, most of the Evening Grosbeaks headed out to the higher elevations in the Cascade foothills to spend the summer and raise the families.  I have seen two females and one male linger one.  I am hopeful that they will decide to stay here and we will be rewarded with darling Grosbeak fledglings come August.