"Everyone knows the more you wear pearls, little by little they become real....And isn't it the same with memories?" - The Madwoman of Chaillot

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Be careful what you ask for day

So it was too hot a day or two last week and that elicited a lot of complaining - beginning of May is much too early for 90's and muggy! But then we got the opposite, rain and then cold. High today is more like 45 - almost 50 degrees colder than the beginning of the week.

Not a good day to sit in the garden so I took off for Target and Starbucks this morning...


Friday, May 13, 2011

Rainy Day

This is it for today (actually yesterday but blogger was down yesterday)

Here's how the day looked....





Good for the garden I guess but a gloomy day. Today is still cloudy and now its cold... a few days ago we had low 90's and now low 50's (as a high)....


Wednesday, May 11, 2011

my morning ritual

I love my life... as soon as I'm done with shipping - or sometimes earlier for a coffee break, I've been going and sitting outside. So glad Bill put the chairs out there - for years we've never used it since it was such a mosquito haven. Now with a few less trees (huge cottonwoods gone), there is more sun and a few less mosquitos - none yet this time of year! So my camera goes along.... sit here reading news on my iPad, drinking coffee and taking pictures. Doesn't get much better than that.

We get lots of blue jays - which creates mixed feelings in me - I like how pretty they are and that they are willing to come around - but they are noisy and fight amongst themselves a lot, chase away other birds. But still when I sat outside today they were the first to come around so I was happy with the pictures I got.




After snapping various pictures of my flowers - partly because I can (love digital cameras!) and partly to document how things are progressing, some goldfinches arrived just as I was going in. I can never resist them either with their bright bright yellow. This is a pair - the brighter one being a male and the other a female.




State of the garden.... so excited to see the Lilies of the Valley coming up - with flowers getting ready to open soon - these always make me think of my mom - I'll have lilacs this year too, the other one that reminds me of her - she used to cut both flowers and have them in the house - smells so good!



the main area I've planted 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Another new bird!

I'm sure this can't keep up but I only photographed 2-3 birds today - a blue jay and another one that I couldn't see well enough to identify. Skipped doing a few chickadees but I saw one that seemed different with the yellow on its head and reddish brown streak on its sides. It took awhile to identify too - still learning the terms for various parts of the head and body.... but

its a Chestnut-sided Warbler

and here's the Blue Jay - 



in the top pictures he was picking up twigs and grass for a nest - saw robins doing that too so I'm going to put out some dog  and cat hair.

And a tiny maple tree trying to survive - sorry though, its on the edge of my flower bed so its going to go.....


 and last you can see the Big Dog watching from the door


Monday, May 9, 2011

may never top the Indigo Bunting but here goes today

Thought at first I saw a female cardinal in the trees (which are common here) but when it landed and I got some pictures too - it was definitely a male House Finch



Got another picture of American Goldfinch too - also pretty common

Black-capped Chickadee


and an American Tree Sparrow

All fun to see - but, come back, Indigo Bunting! That bird was gorgeous and felt like it belonged in the tropics with colorful birds rather than here...

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Birds in my garden

Going to keep track this year - iPad makes it so easy with iBird app.... I remember when the kids were young and Katie and I kept a list one summer.

American Goldfinch

Blue Jay


White-Crowned Sparrow

Mourning Dove

American Robin


Indigo Bunting 
 wow was he beautiful, took me a long time to get a picture - luckily he came back after leaving the first time I tried

Also saw a Baltimore Oriole but he was gone by the time I got the camera.... maybe later in the summer

Could not identify this one so far

And a garden progress report...
planted a few more perennials



Saturday, May 7, 2011

waiting for birds

It was just beautiful today - about 65 degrees and sunny by the time I got out to have my coffee on the patio.  The birds are a little shy of coming near I think when I'm there but hopefully they'll get used to it.

Just for Colleen - bleeding hearts - I put them over near where the cross is.
one of my new squirrel feeders

out with the old - old flower remains from last year on a hosta plant

and in with the new - two I planted today


and another plant - aren't they gorgeous leaves!


So finally a couple of birds came close enough to photograph.... 



It was just beautiful sitting out there - with the usual neighborhood sounds - cars driving by, blower moving leaves, someone cleaning a pool - or I might have been able to totally feel like I was out in a nature setting.... my little nature spot is pretty nice though! Here are the results so far of the two areas Colleen and I started last year and I am working on more this year.

Friday, May 6, 2011

from the Garden May 6th

We moved two chairs out to the patio - much to the squirrels' consternation...

This little red squirrel was not happy with me for sitting out there - he leapt off the feeder and sat watching me.


Moved a little closer a couple of minutes later
and waited

I pretended not to notice and took some other pictures from my chair

buds on the Clematis vine

Jacob's Ladder

Colleen's wind chime


Four minutes passed and he still hadn't moved and was watching me intently

Ok, a spirea picture - its so pretty!

Still there at 5 minutes

One of the objects of his desire

Finally a bird showed up - the squirrel activity sometimes keeps them away

The squirrel did NOT like this! He ran up a tree chattering away

Then moved to a new spot to watch



After 8-9 minutes of making him wait, I had finished my coffee and went off to the store to buy some corn cobs squirrel feeders - maybe it will keep them away from the bird feeders for a few hours...