Spring At Last!

Spring has finally arrived and everything is blooming and putting out new growth. In the last week or so, the trees have really greened up and the air is so sweet. The mornings are comfortable, but not hot or muggy feeling and I'm so happy that the cold seems to be behind us now.
I've not felt too good over the past couple weeks, but I've slowly but surely started cleaning up the yard and have been planting a few things, and even got most of the bushes in the front trimmed and shaped as best as I can do. It's amazing what a bit of color can do for a yard. It just makes you feel good!

There are a half dozen wrens that hang out in the back yard and this one was sitting in the drizzling rain, waiting to see if it was safe enough for it to mill around under the birch tree for something to eat.

When I took this picture, a few more wrens showed up and were happily foraging under the bird feeder.

If you look at the upper left-hand corner of this picture, there's a speck of red.......that's actually a rose. You can see the cane to the right of the tree. I'm guessing it must be about 12 feet tall!

Here's a closer look at that rose. Isn't it gorgeous?! 

This is a hosta that was here when we moved in last year. I planted another one a few feet away, but it isn't up yet. I'm trying to fill in this area at the corner of the house and I'm off to a good start!

A nice bit of color peeking over our fence from the neighbor's yard.

We're getting some much needed rain today. Nothing hard, but a nice drizzly rain and something to wash the thick coating of yellow pine pollen off of everything. The pollen counts are really, really high right now so the rain is a welcome relief. I don't really suffer with allergies myself, but my nose and throat still get a little irritated when I'm outside. I'm thankful it's not any worse because I know how some folks suffer during spring.

It's good to be back blogging again, and will be posting more pictures as my yard progresses and more of what I've planted comes up.

Hope you're having a wonderful day today and wonderful weather wherever you may be!

Bird Watching

One of my joys, is sitting out in the back yard on the patio watching birds come to the feeder. It's quiet out there and if I'm really lucky and out early enough, I'll see the deer wandering through the woods. Maybe one of these days I might get lucky enough to get some pictures of them because they're so beautiful!
Recently, I've noticed a couple birds I hadn't seen before, so after taking some pictures I came in and got on the computer to see if I could identify them. It took about 30 minutes, but I found them...they were House Finches and Pine Warblers, both male and female and they've all been at the feeder all morning.

A male House Finch

Handsome fella!

Male Pine Warbler

Male and female.......

Before it flew off.......you can see the seed in its beak

Posing for the camera!

Black-Capped Chickadee.......a regular visitor

I took these pictures as I was waiting for the bread to finish baking, and glad we were blessed with such a gorgeous morning to be outside. 

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Busy Day!

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and life has gotten back to normal, this has been a week of catching up and running errands. Today has been a busy day doing laundry and cleaning house, two things I got behind on after the holiday weekend because I was just worn out and honestly didn't feel like dealing with it. But I got busy first thing this morning and by lunch time got a lot done. It was nice to be able to sit down and not feel guilty!
The weather has definitely gotten cooler here. Monday it rained all day and was chilly, Tuesday it was overcast, misty, breezy and chilly. We've been so spoiled with the warm, sunny days and mild morning temperatures, but it sure is a shock when you wake up and it's in the 20's! Today has been a nice day though. In the low 60's and the sun is out. No complaints for such a pretty December day.
I got my bird feeders up last week and the birds have finally started coming to them. I've seen some Black-capped Chickadees and several Tufted Titmice, and it's funny to watch them taking turns grabbing what they can and then flying off.

So far, the squirrels haven't found them, but if I don't get the squirrel guards up they'll empty the feeders in no time. Last spring I had a raccoon that would actually pull the bird feeder out of the tree and in the morning I would find it halfway across the yard, emptied. I haven't seen any raccoons in a while, so maybe they've moved on!
When we rented this house last March, one of the things I loved was the woods behind the house. Most of the trees I recognized, but there was one I didn't. A couple weeks ago my husband and I noticed some squirrels in the top of the tree eating something and as we started looking closer at the tree, it had acorns in it, but didn't have the typical, lobed oak leaves I was used to seeing. So I took a small branch inside with me and got on the internet. It only took a few minutes, but I found it and my 'mystery' tree is a Southern Live Oak, very common in this part of the South and the acorns much loved by our resident squirrels!

I like to know all the trees around me, so I don't mind doing a bit of sleuthing to identify them and see if they were used for medicinal purposes in any way, or maybe they were used in other ways. I do have one Eastern Redbud tree just over the fence in the back yard and I'm really looking forward to seeing it bloom in the spring. The blossoms are a beautiful pinkish-red, some are even lavender in color, and come out on the bark first, followed by heart-shaped leaves. This tree was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, who had many planted at his home and Native Americans ate the Redbud blossoms both raw and boiled, and ate roasted seeds. I do know one thing, if I had my own yard, there would be quite a few of these trees planted because they're so gorgeous!

Eastern Redbud Tree

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Well, that's about all I have for now. The dryer just went off so I need to go fold some clothes and get started on some bread. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for stopping by!


This post is part of the "On My Mind" feature at Down To Earth.

Backyard Visitors

I love our backyard. It's such a quiet place and you never know what you might see.......
This afternoon as I was sitting out on the patio, I noticed a couple of green Anole lizards hanging out on my wind chime. I watched them for a few minutes before going in to get the camera, hoping to get a few good pictures of these guys.

We have quite a few of these lizards, including a number of juveniles, and I like having them around because they keep the insect population down and here in Alabama we have more than our fair share of bugs!

  The males have the pinkish-red dewlap, or throat fan. 

Not sure what to think of me and my camera.

I think they're gorgeous!

This is the first time I've seen them on the wind chimes. I had to laugh because one of them kept going in and out of one of the pipes before it decided to perch on top for a bit. Usually I see these lizards on the side of the house or around the windows so I'm not sure what drew them to my wind chimes, although they seemed pretty content where they were at, don't you think?   :)

Stormy Weekend

The remnants of Tropical Storm Lee brought quite a bit of rain and strong winds through here this weekend and apart from a few fallen branches and some standing water in the back yard, we managed to escape the flooding and wind damage other parts of the state suffered. We went from a month of temperatures just shy of 100, to mid 60s and torrential rain.........

  Our temporary pond.......

When I was outside taking these pictures the wind was really blowing the trees back and forth, although looking at this you couldn't really tell. But I have decided that these kinds of storms must be normal for Alabama because since we moved here in March this is usually what we get, and I'm just thankful that the trees are still standing and nothing worse happened! Mother Nature can be a fierce lady and you never know what any storm might bring.
Looks like no more rain until this coming weekend, the sun is actually peeking through the clouds this morning, and I'm really enjoying the cooler weather.  

Too Hot!

This was definitely one of those, too-hot-to-do-anything weekends, and I pretty much did.........nothing.
Like much of the country this summer it's just been so blasted hot, and with the humidity so high here in the south, the heat index has been anywhere from 100 to 115 degrees. I call this "ugly weather", because that's the best way to describe it, and I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to the cooler days of autumn!
I did manage to get a few pictures of one of the many hummingbirds we have buzzing around this summer.

It looks like I took this at night but it was actually around 7am and even with the flash it still came out dark. But, this is one of our little female Ruby-Throated hummingbirds. I couldn't tell you how many we have but I can say it's a bunch! They all race around the back yard, through the trees and around the patio, chattering at one another and it always makes me laugh.

I've tried having more than one feeder out for them because they're always chasing each other away from it, but it didn't make any difference so I've just kept the one out for them. It's definitely busy around the feeder all day and so much fun having them around.
Well, time to get caught up on what I didn't do this weekend and then head off to the grocery store. Hope you're all having a good start to your week and keeping cool in all this heat! 

Bird Watching

Earlier this month we had a pair of wrens build a nest on the ledge under our patio roof. I watched them build the nest, watched the male bring his mate food while she sat on her eggs, then we finally heard the babies calling hungrily to their parents for food. Every day I kept an eye on them, impatiently waiting to catch that first glimpse of a small beak or a downey-feathered head.

The past few days have been heart-stopping as I watched these little babies pushing and shoving each other, knowing that it wouldn't be long before it was time to leave the nest and this morning was it.

I missed the first two babies fly out but this one was behind the grill on the ground while the other has already made its way into some bushes just a few feet away. This one would join its sibling a few seconds later.

This one I called the straggler. It waited a few minutes like it wasn't quite sure what to do, but it didn't take it long to figure it out. I watched all three babies make their way into one of the trees in the yard, going higher and higher, then over the fence and into another tree. Their parents close by, chattering and watching over each one of them. I managed to keep an eye on where they were for a while, then caught one last photo.

I had so much fun watching these little birds and a little sad to see them go. I've watched other birds hatch, but you never get tired of seeing that part of the world that many folks pay little attention to. Definitely brings a smile to my face and I have to say my family enjoyed watching, too.