The peace and calm depicted here is deceptive.
Oh, sure, the oxalis is pretty and soothing. But we currently have cedar waxwings doing their “NEENJA BIRD!” thing in the mulberry trees, attack bumblebees of several species making threatening buzzes around the tumbling waterfalls of wisteria blossoms, and the bamboo has already made one attack on the house.
…No, seriously. I went out in the yard with the dog, wandering around in the sunlight after a few days of drizzle-to-lightning, and found a sprout whose base was about 2/3 as thick as my fist in the process of trying to punch through the roof soffit. Fortunately the tip on a sprouting bamboo is a lot more fragile than you’d think, and it was bending before the roof bits were. The branch loppers made fairly short work of it and its nearby partner in crime. I’ve scouted the rest of the affected areas and there are no more would-be housebreakers. For the moment. A lot of greenbriar sprouts I’ll have to get to, though.
(Why yes, I have a bit of a grudge against greenbriar. Those thorns can go through heavy work gloves. The kind you’d use to keep your tender hands safe from concrete. Ow.
(I’ve been told the tubers are considered edible. My response to that is, which species? Even experts can only get to genus unless they can catch the darn things blooming. Not to mention, saponins? I.e., soap-like chemicals. You first.)
The bumblebees, fortunately, are more buzz than bite. I’ve never been stung by one. (Wasps are another story.) The bumblebees just want you to know they are there. Fair enough.
And it’s not just bumblebees, there are leafcutter bees also enjoying the wisteria. I recognize the glossy green abdomens. I’ve actually seen them at work leafcutting. Fast little buggers. Land, snip a circle, take off – all in about five seconds!
As for the avian ninjas? I’ve read that cedar waxwings actually will show off passing fruit back and forth, part of courtship. I’ll believe they do that… north of here, anyway. Down here they’ve just made it across the Gulf of Mexico, usually with help of a passing front, and they flutter in the foliage like old soldiers wary of snipers spotting them. Which, given hawks and falcons also migrate through here, may mean the birds have more sense than people.
On top of all that the mosquitoes are coming back in force the past few days. And the pollen. Gah.
I love pictures of beautiful natural vistas. I do. But when it comes to dealing with Mother Nature, I want hardened gloves, gardening shears, and possibly a flamethrower.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Pollen. *shudders* I’ve got an allergy to grass that makes me itch like a mad woman. There’s a //reason// the closest I want to get to nature is in video games!
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Ouch, thorns! My dogs adore running through prickly patches so that when you g to love them up there are hidden bristles and briars. So much not fun.
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That bamboo sounds like pressure stuff XD.
My skin is pretty sensitive to plants, so I was really glad to find leather gardening gloves with elbow-length gauntlets. By your description, I doubt they’d be of use against greenbriars, but they’re excellent against just about everything else.
Happily it’s still too cold and wet here to do much gardening.
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They’re some use. You just have to watch what you grab. 😉
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I second that “pollen argh”.
The bamboo on one side of the house doesn’t -often- attempt to break the roof – it seems to leave that to other foliage which sometimes takes advantage of debris to sprout very small trees. Especially in the rain gutters. Said gutters get cleaned but there is a lot of trees and sometimes the guys have a very busy schedule of other things to take care of (our ladder is only so tall so the men of house who are close to or above six feet get this task – five foot nothing me does not).
Mostly our bamboo makes attempts to increase it’s coverage of the yard.
The mosquitoes are back over here too. I do my best to avoid them as since they seem to find me delicious and every bite gives me a hive-like welt.
Trying to convince the paper wasps that they don’t want to nest in our shed, really. Mostly because the shed had the washing machine and dryer in there and I don’t want to get stung trying to do laundry.
Plenty of birds here, they are very chatty most mornings. Mostly I see cardinals, bluejays, and some kind of blackbird. Also some tiny birds that I think might be wrens of some kind. There are others but I mostly HEAR birds rather than see them.
Sometimes the birds argue with the squirrels about who that acorn belongs to.
And all of the birds and the squirrels yell at the cats when they get too close for comfort. Not that this noise stops the cats from stalking them.
The cranes haven’t been here lately but they will probably start showing up in the field again soon.
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Hmm. I second the bit on white paint, they do seem to avoid it. Other possibility is that you could once in a while just spray some kitchen-safe bug spray inside the shed. Wasps aren’t dumb, they might take the hint and go elsewhere.
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Trying to convince the paper wasps that they don’t want to nest in our shed, really.
As near as I can tell from the one wall I’ve painted outside, paper wasps don’t prefer to nest on white-painted surfaces. If the interior walls aren’t that color already, it might work to paint them (and the outside eaves) white in satin or semi-gloss finish.
..If they are, then I got nothin’. *shrug*
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I’ve observed that they don’t like pale surfaces either; maybe it makes the spot look more exposed?
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Plenty of birds up here in Ohio, but no flowers yet except crocuses — and a couple of daffodils in sheltered places. We keep riding that up and down temperature roller coaster.
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We’ve got the same up-and-downs going on here, just warmer.
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