Everything's Coming Up Roses

I walk into my backyard and I smell.....roses! :)

Yesterday I mulched around my roses because apparently that's what they want. What the roses want, they get. I also deadheaded a few.  This morning, one of the small bushes bloomed.  I thought it was supposed to be a yellow rose with red edges but it kinda looks just red. Hmmm..... false advertising?

Still waiting on the pole beans to sprout. I think I'm impatient.  I've heard it can take up to 2 weeks. Sigh.

The summer squash is growing like crazy. Its the only thing (besides the Roma tomatoes) that seems to be growing quickly.  I notice growth in the peas, beets, cabbage and mint.  Either everything else is growing super slow and I'm not noticing or they're not growing at all....

I am really enjoying venturing into the backyard every morning and checking out all the plants.  I go out, bathrobe and all, to make sure nothing is digging in my beds and to pick out the leaves from the tree above that keep falling in.  Something was digging in and around my beds for a while.  At first I thought it was squirrels or cats, but now I think it was birds (maybe a combo?).  I caught a few sparrows last weeks in the bed with the tomatoes and peppers.  They were digging around in the soil.  Perhaps they've lost interest because I haven't seen any new holes in a few days.

Twice now, some predator has killed either a bunny or a squirrel and left its intestines in a pile in my yard.  I'm thinking it is a neighborhood cat.  I'm not sure why it has picked that particular spot to deposit the unwanted remains of its kill, but I hope it stops.  I don't want to step in rotting animal guts anymore.