June is the month when nature is cookin'!  This morning while enjoying a cup of tea on the back step, I also enjoyed watching the young robins wait around for the mother bird to come back with some breakfast.  Mother bird steadily brought back mouthfuls for the young birds to eat, but it seemed never too be enough.   But after about ten minutes, the young robins quieted down and fluttered around by the bushes near the building where I sat.  Mother bird had a fierce moment as she flew off one young bird right around the bush next to me, then down around through my crossed, propped up legs.  My tea was waking me up nicely, but once those two birds flew beneath my legs, I no longer needed more tea, since those birds gave me the a good morning start I was searching for while drinking the tea.

We are in desperate need of rain.  The grass here in the area is brown and uncomfortable to step on with bare feet.  All the green and growing things seem thirsty.  The Milwaukee River from Saukville to Cedarburg is at least twelve inches less than is was just a couple of weeks ago.  The area farmer's young crops are hanging in there through this dry spell. The rain is on it's way, though.

Crickets have begun their summer song.  Earlier this past week temperatures hit the low 90s, which helped the locust start their song as well.  By July, my personal insect favorite, the cicada, will begin to emerge from their earthen beds among the tree roots.  The woods and prairies are still fairly quiet for now until those loud cicada start singing their siren song.

Bullfrog tadpoles left the pond water on legs this week and lily pad flowers are blooming.  Cattails are also up.  While visiting an area pond, I could see perfectly just why this water plant is called cattail.  The edible green cob forms directly below the "cattail", a fuzzy, flower at the very top of the cattail stalk.  As I took in this beautiful, swaying-in-the-wind view of the cattails at the edge of the pond, the curled, cattail-like flower, looked to me like all these happy cats with their tails standing straight up with just a little curled tip of tails coming toward me through the stalks. It was a delightful moment.

Wild angelica is up and already flowering.  Milkweed, too, with pods coming soon.  Trout have moved to cooler currents in Lake Michigan.