Wildlife

We feel as if we live in Chicago as far as daily life is concerned. We are in a suburb about 25 miles from downtown Chicago. We have a train station to Chicago just a couple of miles from our house which commuters use daily. At one time these were thought of as the suburbs but as in all large cities they continue to expand and now we are the close-in suburbs. Homes are being built another 20-25 miles further out then us and I am sure the sprawl will continue wih time. Where it will end who knows.

We are lucky to live in a very small wooded area on a 6 house court if you remember the pictures I posted upon returning in May. One of the things we have constantly are both deer occasionaly and racoons frequently as in every night. Well recently there is a mother racoon who comes out in the mornings around 10am and forages for food. They are possibly living under one part of our deck. Our neighbour across the street was mowing his lawn a week ago and if she didn't come right into his garage, open the garbage can and helped herself. Garbage was strewn everywhere and he didn't even know she was there. Now we all keep our garages shut even if outside gardening. After the memorial day holiday our garbage day is normally Fri. but with the holiday it was Sat. Our next door neighbour forgot and put his out Thurs. night. Well Fri. she went across the road and with the garage closed we watched her walk along until she spyed their garbage and she was soon strewing it all over their driveway. Next we see mother with a couple of babies in the mornings. The other morning Harv was reading the paper at the kitchen table and called me. She was on our deck with 2 small ones and 2 more trying to get up onto the deck (about 1 foot maybe). It was very funny watching them. All four finally made it and by the time I thought to grab the camera she was down the steps on the flagstone into the shade garden area. I did catch a pic of her and then one of 2 of them near my flower pot.
I sound like I enjoy them but I really do not. It was just seeing the 5 of them together.
Every night around dusk our outside lights come on and we know they are crossing our deck or around the side of it.

Another nature moment happened when we were not home yet. Our gardeners came to mow the lawn and they saw a huge ball of bees hanging from the small tree/bush that is around the outside coach light. He said it was huge and about 18' long. It pulled the branch right down. He told his men to stay away from it and go way around. Well our neighbour across on the corner was called by his son to come look at our house. He did and grabbed his camera. He said the bees were swarming and he took this picture. Apparently within a short time they were gone and heaven knows where. He gave us a couple of pics for us to see when we got back. I am posting one here.

Also a little happy bit for me. I planted a clematis against the house on a trellis a few years back. Did not ever get a bloom until a couple of years ago and then I got maybe 2. Well this year I am happy to say that I have 5 or 6. I took a picture of my prize like it was in the Botanic Gardens. Who says you can't grow Clematis in shade. Well growing is the easy part - flowering is the hard part.