by I saw the first western king birds of the season a few days ago, May 8. I think. They are right on time. Maybe they will nest on the telephone pole again. I also saw a Mississippi kite last week. That is, I think I saw one. It was about the right size but, unfortunately, it was flying away to the south and was hidden by trees before I could see if it had the gray head those birds have.
In April I took a chance on radically trimming the butterfly bush in the Wildcat Bluff butterfly garden. It had a lot of dead in it even after I had trimmed a lot out, so I decided to just whack it off about knee high and hope that it would come back. They usually do but this was such a major trim, practically down to the nub, so I wasn’t entirely sure it would come back. At the time it had no fresh growth showing but my dear sister assured me that kind of bush waits later in the spring to show new growth. I have a couple of butterfly bushes of my own which I cut back clear to the ground in the winter, and they come back just fine, but they are much smaller than the one at the Bluff. Last week I had seen just a couple of sprouts but this week the stump was nearly obscured by new growth. I do believe the operation will be a success.
There is a little cotton tail rabbit around the WCB nature center. Cute. Females would say, “Awww.” There is also a thumb-sized horny toad in the butterfly garden there. Little devil went skipping among the mallow so that I had a hard time getting a good look at it. I think it is good that it was so risk averse. My big old boot would do it no good.
Kari, Rebecca and I drove to Lubbock Friday morning, to watch Abigail walk across the stage and receive her diploma. Actually, they didn’t walk across the stage, just in front of it, and she had to go somewhere else to get her diploma. They did give her something rolled up in a tube, but I’m not sure what that was. She graduated summa cum laude, in case you are wondering. Afterward, she took us to her workplace to see her office and meet some colleagues. Then we had a late lunch at a nice restaurant. Back at her apartment we gave her the electronic keyboard we got her for a graduation gift. She seemed to like it.
We enjoyed exceptionally nice weather on the day we went to Lubbock. I emptied .85 inches out of the gauge the day before. Then on Saturday it rained all day, not heavily, but persistently into the next morning and I collected another .98 of an inch. That was followed by another .48 of an inch during the night Sunday. For the time being, the drought is broken. I have stowed my sprinklers and rolled up the hoses in anticipation of some serious mowing in the next few weeks, even if it doesn’t rain any more, though there are possibilities forecasted. It may sound strange, but I’m looking forward to mowing. First I have a lot of twig raking to do.
We wound up the wettest month in the last fourteen years at 9.85 inches, topping the 9.70 recorded in May of 2015, the wettest year in the last 14. From trees to weeds to grass, everything is responding, and I’ll be spending a lot of time on the mower this summer. Also, I’ll be spraying weeds and swatting mosquitoes. Our day-time temperatures have been mostly in the 70s and 80s, which means we’ve been saving on electricity. Overall, I believe May 2023 was the nicest I’ve ever experienced, a far cry from last year.