The birdfeeder J made has been updated (to add perches, since our cardinal pair were swooping around it but never landing) and moved (once we noticed a cat sitting on the same branch the feeder was hanging from). It's now on a post a little removed from the line of trees, hopefully close enough that the birds feel they can escape easily but open enough that they can see the fifteen neighborhood cats as they sneak up. We also made a toad house (which means a flat rock set on a few other rocks) for the toad that's been hanging around the tomato patch.

We reseeded the lawn about two weeks ago, and we've asked the landlord not to mow for a while to let the new seeds get set and to let everything else go to seed. Our lawn is a little meadow now - it's not been "maintained" as a lawn for some time, I'd guess, so there's a ton of little wildflowers and herbaceous things in amongst several kinds of grass and a few big patches of clover. The toad seems to appreciate it, as do the bees. We put in a pair of cranberrybush plants (Viburnum trilobum) and a pair of blueberry bushes (Vaccinium corymbosum), both of which are native and should attract some birds and bees, as it were.

For now I'm sitting by the window like a cat myself, watching the feeder with hungry eyes. How long will it take them to find it? Is it too open? We should get a birdbath, too, shouldn't we? C'mon, birds!