Well, I’m feeling much better, still coughing with chest congestion, but the worst is over. While I was stationed on the sofa in the den, I watched the 3 starling babies get bigger and bigger. I was sure I would see at least one of them fly out of the nest, but they managed to pull off their escape without a witness. My husband and I were left with huge amounts of bird excrement to clean up – on railings, on the furniture, on the porch floor. When we noticed, almost immediately, the parents starting to build a new nest in the same place we had to say no more. We love the miracle of birth, but we are also denied access to the porch for a long period of time while the parents feed the babies and protect the nest. Our dogs cannot go on the porch – and they get really down. So we made the decision to board up all the openings to the eaves – something we wanted to do three years ago. It was all done before any major nest making started and I’m sure our starling friends will find a new nesting place. They do seem shocked though and fly back a couple of times a day to make sure we haven’t opened up the hotel for them.

I managed to finish the painting and refinishing of my cabinet. I used the wonderful tips from Cindy at Romantic Home. Thank you Cindy! I’m very pleased with it. I’m not sure how well the photos show it, but I used an aging technique and it worked well.

Now I have to turn to the less exciting, but necessary painting of our side and front doors. I’m glad to be back blogging!