Last week was on the windy side here at Darwin’s View, with 35 mph winds buffeting the house on a fairly consistent basis. Our large garbage can kept flinging itself out from its position against the tool shed. Having broken free, it would skid down the driveway as if it were late for an appointment.

Photos and movies of the month include a microblast wind that flipped our outside couch and table top across the patio—but left the stalwart chickens admiring the activity with no apparent harm; kestrel babies (photo credit Phil Brown of the Harris Center); a turkey in the chicken area; voluptuous peonies; and a hotly contested race of our rubber duckies, with our rubber frog and tadpoles as referee and audience. And an unwelcome spider.