Two from the evening of the 26th - left, the sun; right, a wheat head in the glow of the evening.

making little spots along the trail.
     Third, I waded through a bit of a marshy area - grass as tall as I am in some places - and had a pair of red-winged blackbirds scolding me, so I must have been close to their nest.  And I happened to turn around and focus the camera just as the male blackbird flew past the sun, so the result was a neat silhouette.

And finally, two from today.  Left is a picture of this morning's distant thunderheads with the plum tree in the foreground, and right is a part of the garden that is now weed-free.

I don't have a lot of pictures this week - at least, not as many as last week.  But here's what I do have!
     From June 16th.  There were some pretty heavy-looking clouds all around us, and then the sun broke through.  It always looks so pretty when the rays are shining through the clouds like this.

June 19th I was sitting at the window watching two or three hummingbirds fight over the feeder.  This little female finally got the feeder to herself for a few minutes, and then off she went.

On the evening of June 20th, the way the sun was shining across the fields made them look almost golden.

And then finally a picture of our very naughty kitten.  My mom has a hanging flower basket right outside the

I meant to do this last week and then ended up not... so this will be another bombardment of random photos.
     First up are two that I took on June 3rd.  Left: my hen (Neve, which is Italian for "snow") and her chicks (whom at this point were still unnamed) at four days old.  Right: Dandelion seed head.

Then there's three from June 5th.  We have a small area that's composed of mainly lilac and wild rose bushes.  These flowers usually bloom about the same time every year, and I just think that the two kinds of blossoms look so pretty together.  And it's always fun to watch the bees and butterflies hanging around the blooms.

On June 6th I was quading along the treeline with Mom, and we went past a fair-sized section of wild rose bushes.  There was a pile of rocks right behind the bushes and it made a neat background for the flowers.

Now five from June 9th.  Likely because it's been so dry this year, the wild roses have been blossoming like crazy.  I don't think I've ever seen so many wild roses all at once before, and I'm so glad I was able to see them all.  To me, there's nothing that smells better than a wild rose.
     While I was taking pictures of them, I found some other things that also looked like they'd make a good shot.  So... top left: Trail between two crops (wheat-left, field peas-right). 
     Top right: One of the amazingly perfect wild roses I found. 
     Center left: There was one wild rose petal on the ground and this tiny little butterfly landed on it.  All the tiny detail on that little thing was amazing.
     Center right: Cluster of wild roses.
     Bottom: Wheat field and potato rows.

Next up are a couple from June 11th.  Left: Two of our asparagus fields.  Right: Sunset.

In the evening of June 12th, I was out dirtbiking with my siblings when I noticed that the sun was shining through the trees and making the grass look golden.  Couldn't resist it - I had to go back to the house and get my camera.

I was going to do a post about my chicks back on Tuesday - that day being two weeks since they hatched - but didn't have time to.  So I just took a picture of each of them yesterday (June 15th).
     The one with the white chin (left) is Tasha, and the one with the white head (right) is Rocky.  I'm not 100% sure yet, but I think that Rocky is a cockerel and Tasha is a pullet - if not, then I guess I'll have to change their names.  But based off of the fact that they're the same age and yet everything about Rocky is bigger than Tasha, I'm pretty sure I'm right.  (Tasha got her name just because I liked that name, and Rocky got his name because, looking at his feathers, I can tell he's a Barred Rock.)

And last but not least, here's Tikka (TEE-kuh), the newest addition to our farm animals.  She just arrived today.

Neither Rex or Dragon are happy with her yet, although Rex (under the porch in that picture) is more annoyed than Dragon is.  (Shortly after I took this picture, Rex left and went somewhere else to pout.)
     But they'll get used to her - just as soon as they realize how sweet she is :)

This is going to be a literal photo post.  I had over 50 pictures I wanted to share, but I managed to narrow them down to just 18, so maybe I'll be able to fit all of them in two posts, after all!
      First photos.  The left one is from May 5th.  I thought the fence looked neat with the straight row of young maple trees right alongside it.
     The top right picture is a sunset from May 12.  The one right beneath it is also from May 12, but a bit earlier in the day.  The sun was shining right through the branches of the fully-blossomed plum tree.

These next photos are all from May 12th as well.  The last few I took of the plum tree; plus a picture of my dad finishing seeding the field for the day (in the foreground you can see some of the asparagus growing).

These next four are all from May 18th.
#1 (top left): Maple leaves growing off of the base of one of the young trees.  I loved the shade of red.
#2 (top right): Looking straight up into the big maple tree.  Somewhere in those branches is one of my favourite places to sit and read.
#3 (bottom left and right): We think this little bumblebee accidentally got locked in the cooler with the asparagus.  If that's correct, then she was in there all night until she was brought out the next morning.  She was very weak even after sitting in the sun for a while, and although I did my best to save her, she died later that afternoon.

These two pictures are both from May 23.  Left: The field, seeded and rolled.  Right: Apple blossoms

And these last three pictures are all from the 25th.  Left: The killdeer.  Every year a pair of killdeer make their nest somewhere on our land, and every year we carefully look for the nest so we can work around it without destroying the eggs.  This year the two of them made their nest in the middle of a row of one of the asparagus plots.  A few days after I found it, I was walking down that row picking the asparagus, and Mama didn't like me that close to her nest.
     Right: After she reluctantly scooted away from me, I snapped a quick picture of the eggs and moved on so she would get back on the nest.

And finally, this is a picture I took of the flowers my mom planted in her hanging basket.  I like the angle of this shot, with the chain coming down along the side of the frame that way.

I think I'm going to have to start doing a weekly photo post, because I had so many pictures from May that I wanted to share, that they wouldn't all fit into just a couple of posts.
     For the monthly highlights, I managed to select a small handful to share, but there will likely be more getting posted on here in the next several days, so keep an eye out!
      First, I should say that back on May 24, our batch of chicks for the year arrived.

Now I have to back up to May the 5th.  The young maple leaves looked really pretty against the sky - especially with the sun in the background like that.

Then on May 11th, during a morning "plum-tree photo session" with my sister, we found this small spiderweb in the grass, still dotted with tiny droplets of dew.

Finally, on May 12th, the plum tree was in full bloom and I probably took a hundred pictures of it, from quite a few  different angles.  I was especially pleased with the outcome of the silhouette.

(If you look closely at this picture, you can see a moth perched on one of the blossoms.)
     There is a never-ending abundance of beauty in God's creation to photograph, and I'm always so thankful to be able to see all these things!