Mid summer check-in: strawberries, tomatoes, and oak titmice in the garden

I’ve been enjoying our warm summer weather, harvesting lots of tomatoes (sweet 100 and early girl) and strawberries, and also working on the floral scent that’s been in development for quite a while. The tomatoes are providing too much harvest to eat, so I’m freezing the extra.

The new scent features a beautiful mimosa oil in the heart, along with jasmine and orange blossom. It’s easy to create various pretty floral accords for the heart, but it has been hard to design a base that provides enough staying power without getting in the way of the floral and without going either too sweet or too woodsy. The mimosa is not long lasting, but I’d like to keep that yellow flower goodness going. I’ve used lots of beeswax and a touch of honey. I’m still playing with this one.

I’ve added some mini sprayers to the garden drip system this year, and the side benefit is that they bring birds to the garden to bathe in the spray each morning. It’s been fun to watch them from the kitchen window while I do my morning cooking. We have goldfinches, robins, oak titmice, and others. The oak titmice seem to love to bathe, sometimes enthusiastically splashing water all over the deck from the small birdbath. Very cute.

We have lots of woodpeckers too, but they don’t seem to be drawn to the garden water. A flock of large crows spent several weeks here feasting on my plum tree (they are loud!). When they left, a group of seven female turkeys (adults and “teens”) moved in.

Summer always goes too fast for me!

(oak titmouse photo credit wiki)