bird nest — Page 12

Crazy for Color

March 6, 2013 at 9:58 am by Claudia

nest

I’ve got Spring Fever. I could hear birds singing away yesterday and it gave me hope.

The giant sheet of ice that covered a good portion of the parking area outside the door has finally melted.

cone

The ice was so thick and dangerous that I resorted to putting this attractive cone out so that delivery trucks wouldn’t park there. I had to park over there by the shed. Those little bits of ice you can see in the photo? I chopped up the last bit of ice with my boot yesterday.

Don backed into the cone recently and it ended up on its side. I let Scout out and noticed that she was staring at it for the longest time. Then she started barking at it. I have no idea what the heck she thought it was, but I had to go outside and restore the cone to its original position before she would stop barking.

She doesn’t like any changes on her turf.

Do you think it’s time to put the cone back in the shed? Or should I use it as the focal point for a spring garden?

Just kidding.

Unfortunately, we are due for some snow today and tomorrow. I don’t think it will amount to much – just snow, then rain, then snow, then rain. Those to the south of us are going to be hit harder. I’m not too upset because it’s going to hit 50° on the weekend, which is positively balmy for us.

threads

I need color. After months of a grayish brown landscape, I’m longing for some color outside my windows. Inside? I’ve got plenty of it, because you know I love color.

yelloworchidgarland

I’ve been crocheting flowers like crazy and the colors make me happy. (I’ll list the new garlands for the Etsy shop tomorrow.) Yellow, Purple, Red, Blue, Tangerine, Pink….oh my. I think we can all use some color right about now, whether it’s in the garden or in a springtime banner.

What about you? Are you longing for color? Or are you one of those lucky ones who lives in a warmer climate?

Happy Wednesday.

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What I’ve Been Up To

February 6, 2013 at 8:57 am by Claudia

What I’ve been doing, gazing upon and generally up to the last few days:

Wearrings

Sorting, listing, keeping track of, packing, sending: our heart shaped earrings. On Monday, I spent a couple of hours wrapping, writing shipping labels, and packing all the earring orders. On Tuesday, I took them all to the Post Office and they are now winging their way to you. We have a few more in the shop if you’re interested.

I love them.

Wquilt

Quilting in the evenings. I’m more than half way through. Maybe almost 3/4 of the way through!

Wdishgarden

Tending Riley’s Dish Garden. I’m trying not to over water these succulents. I’ve been missing my boy so much lately. I’ve always sung a lot to my dogs and sometimes I find myself singing a lyric that includes “Riley and Scout” and I stop short, with a jolt to my heart of missing my boy and the realization once again that he isn’t here for me to pet and love and take care of.

Wdollhousebath

Putting down the bathroom floor in the dollhouse. Lots more to do in that room. I don’t know why, but every toilet, bathtub or sink that I find looks silly. There are so many miniatures for other rooms that are completely realistic, but bathroom pieces? No. This is a problem.

wnest

Thinking about spring and birds and nests. We had a little dusting of snow overnight. More snow is due on Friday. Spring cannot come soon enough.

wpencils

Thinking of ‘freshly sharpened pencils.’ I will be working on the script for Twelfth Night soon – that means a batch of pencils needs to be ready and waiting. And maybe it’s time to watch You’ve Got Mail again?

Wheartrocks

Hearts. It’s the season. Earrings. Rocks. They’re everywhere.

And painting. The jury is still out on Chalk Paint.

An update on my parents: Dad called 911 yesterday morning because of chest pain. They discovered a blood clot in his lung, so he’s been admitted to the hospital where they are working to dissolve the clot. Mom had some sort of episode over the weekend – we think it might have been another Transient Ischemic Attack. She’s had at least one in the past. She’s better now, but we were rather worried for a while there.

Aging parents = worries.

Happy Wednesday.

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What was I Thinking?

July 30, 2012 at 8:22 am by Claudia

It’s been awfully stormy around here lately. We’ve had quite a bit of rain and, unfortunately, lots of humidity. I noticed yesterday that the large brown patches of grass that I’ve been seeing everywhere have disappeared. It’s good for the garden, the grass and our well. But I know many of you are facing endless days of of hot, dry weather and my heart goes out to you with the wish that rain will come to you soon.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I love birds. I watch them, worry about them, give them water to drink and generally delight in their presence.

Recently, I had just finished mowing the lawn, which means I was pretty tired, and was in the process of putting the mower back into the shed. I often clear out the grass that has collected under the mower before I put it away. This time there was a lot of wet grass underneath that I pulled out in chunks.

The shed has two windows and two window boxes. After I had put the mower away, I noticed a lot of dry grass in the corner of one of the window boxes. Since I had grass on my brain, I grabbed the pile of grass and put it on the ground, wondering where it had come from.

A week or so later: same scenario, same discovery. I again pulled it out of the window box, wondering if the grass had fallen there somehow. (I know. You’re thinking: Uh, Claudia…just how would that happen?) It wasn’t until later that day that I realized it might be a nest. It was so loosely thrown together, with no real defined shape, that I thought it was simply a clump of grass.

I retrieved it from the ground, looked closely at it and saw a little scooped-out area. Oh. Definitely a bird nest. But no eggs. It clearly had been recently constructed.

I put it back. Here’s a photo of it, but believe me, when I first discovered it, I didn’t see anything other than grass.

I felt like an idiot.

For some reason, I googled ‘nests of mourning doves” and read that they are very loosely constructed. Oh no. What if my beloved mourning doves were trying to build a nest and I had messed with it?

The nest has been back in the window box for a week now. No activity. Do you think I should take it out of the box and hope they try again? Or do you think they’ve given up on me and have built another one elsewhere? I also read that they will abandon a nest rather quickly if they feel threatened in any way.

What was I thinking?

Crazy for Color

What I’ve Been Up To

What was I Thinking?

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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