The heat wave finally broke, and working at the site is pleasant once again. Whew! I'm continuing to snip away at the biggest patch of garlic mustard, but there are grapevines twining around the stalks so there's a bit of collateral damage as I cut through vines to free the GM. (Grapevine can be invasive, but because it's a native plant it's not on our hit list.)

Lately a downy woodpecker has been coming by to work on a dead sumac branch about ten feet from me. She doesn't seem concerned about my presence. Every so often we exchange comments like "Nice day!" and "Finding anything?"

I stopped by the pond this evening and hung out with my old buddy the muskrat ...

... and my new lil' buddy, this much smaller muskrat:

(I know it's hard to tell the difference from the photos, but trust me, the second one is just a wee thing.) You get a good view of the tail in that shot. It's the Loch Ness muskrat! For more info and great pictures of these interesting animals, check out this page.

It's been a good summer for growing things, with lots of sun and frequent rain. This means that a lot of the plants are over my head now. Here's the Marnie's-eye-view in some places: