It is mulberry season!
The ripe fruit is edible and is widely used in pies, tarts, wines, cordials and tea. The fruit of the black mulberry, native to southwest Asia, and the red mulberry, native to eastern North America, have the strongest flavor. *
Oh so many lush berries.
I wonder why we thought it a brilliant idea to place the picnic tables under the mulberry tree?
All that icky stuff constantly has to be cleaned off, and the fact that the garden hose doesn’t reach that far means it doesn’t get cleaned often enough.
For a week or two each year this tree is a hub of unbelievable activity. I swear to you, birds travel for miles around to come pluck this ripe fruit. Forget trying to make pies, or jams or Squeezin’s. The wildlife gets it all before I have a chance.
The Darlins made mulberry squeezins, and Barney got gassed on it once.
The Cedar waxwing thinks the berry to be devine.
I think he looks like he is wearing cool rock-n-roll sunglasses
The Thrasher gets some action too.
The Woodpecker – I love that plumage.
Oh and here comes Willie the squirrel and his cousins Earl and Minnie Pearl.
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Perhaps the best entertainment comes from watching Mr. Bonez (aka Buddyru) watching all the activity.
He thinks he invisible while hiding in the tall weeds ornamental grass.
He happily lays there looking up in the tree and chatters away licking his lips and dreaming of squirrel pie and mulberry squeezins on the side.
See you later, Bye!
Kim
* source Wiki
Red Dirt Farm and Studio 
Hahaha! It was always so funny watching Barney get gassed.
LOVED your shots of birds and squirrels! Are those red squirrels? We used to have them, but years ago the grey tree squirrels pushed them out.
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Ah yes, part of being 50 and Fabulous is you get the humor of the simple old shows. About the squirrels, I dunno I don’t think they are red. Regular brown or grey or I don’t know. I have to admit for a long time – ok until just recently I thought a squirrel was a squirrel – however after going out west, I realized how very wrong I was. There are some crazy looking squirrels out there.
We have lived her for over 20 years now and until about two years ago, we never had the first squirrel in our yard.
Our property is surrounded by pine tree forests. The forests have been clear cut – harvested in the past few years so their habitat has been taken from them, and they have now moved to our woods and yard to live. Cute, but a pain in the, well you know.
xok
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ASsif we didn’t know.
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I’d reply if I knew what it meant.
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Beautiful white cat. I love seeing people’s cats in the garden. We have several 50+ years pecan trees and one younger one. The squirrels get all the pecans these days. If my balsam produce seed that don’t pop before I see them, I’ll send you some.
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Mr. Bonez is my velcro kitty, wherever I am he is there. We have 3 pecan trees, but the nuts never develop properly. 😦
I think that is why I liked the Balsam – I liked the popping. Have not been out to check on the Dollar General seeds yet, but hopefully we can make an exchange.
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Fabulous photographs Kim, I especially love the squirrel shots and I was quite relieved to get to the end of your post without seeing a squirrel pie recipe!
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