I'm home from PT and am back out on the front porch with the turtle. It's 97 degrees but there is a nice breeze and the humidity isn't oppressive. She's enjoying watching the world go by and was fascinated by the UPS delivery truck making a delivery across the street. She's taking a bath again. When it cools down she can sit out in her box with no water as long as it's above 70 degrees but we're due for a very cool weekend with highs only in the low to mid 60s with rain showers so no outings this weekend for her.

It only made it up to 87 degrees yesterday with the breeze off the ocean, so it's not an official heat wave even though it will go above 90 degrees again tomorrow before the cold front comes through tomorrow at dinnertime.

One of the peonies finally popped open yesterday afternoon. A second opened up today and two are ready to burst open. The roses are finally opening. They're a nice peach color. My poor hibiscus is in very bad shape from on having been stuck indoors for too long. I'm not sure if it's going to recover. It's really hard keeping tropical varieties going successfully this far north. This is why you mostly see people with hardy hibiscus in their yards.

The yard is filled with starlings in addition to all the other neighborhood birds. The catbirds are back. I haven't seen grackles yet. The ravens were in the neighborhood for several days but left again. We always have crows but the ravens never spent time here until last year. They are mainly up on the mountain on the western edge of town and on nearby mountains in the neighboring towns west of us. We have several mountain chains in NJ including one in the northwestern corner of the state that's part of the Appalachian trail.