jay display

Original Valentine's Day plan:  hiking at a national wildlife preserve...until the temperatures dropped and the cold rain set in.  Instead it was tex-mex, board games, and a relaxing evening of Everybody Loves Raymond.  Oh, and baking...a lot of baking.  

A friend's daughter was turning 21, so I made a surprise-inside cake.  First, I baked a halved vanilla cupcake recipe in a sheet pan and cut out lots of 2s and 1s...

After freezing them for a few hours, I stood them up inside a half-poured chocolate cake batter...

...and then spooned the rest of the batter on top.  Freezing the letters means that when the cake is baked, the letters/numbers will thaw instead of 'baking twice,' which would make them tough.  I don't have a photo of the inside of the cake, but each slice has a pink '21' inside!

I had a baby shower this weekend, and made a cake for that...

...and at the same time as the shower, Todd had a toy show on the north side.  I wanted to make plenty of treats for him and the friends that were helping out.  I made brownies...

(all photos taken on a rainy day in a dim kitchen, so are pretty terrible)

Blueberry bars....

...and Nutter Butters.

Oh, I also made another batch of peanut butter cookies for the baby shower.  It was a very busy couple of days!  

The cold weather was perfect for cats on laps.

It got colder, and...snow!!

The feeders drew a lot of birds...especially blue jays.

So...many...blue jays.

Even though they're 'bully birds,' I like to see them.  Besides...our other birds seem to stand up to them just fine!

Nice bit of color in a dull month, too!

Todd's made one trek out to check the trail cams in this cold weather, but we caught something interesting.  It's coyote mating season.  Are these two playing?  Fighting?  Courting?  They seem to be having fun, whatever it is!

(maximize screen to see better!)

This is my favorite part.  :)

Maybe there'll be PUPPIES in the spring!

Have a great week!  

I'll Miss the Iris

With all work on the back yard, projects, and, well, work, I almost missed the blooming of our irises this year. 

I always forget about our late-spring flowers.  We've got our 'fireworks' bushes all putting out spiky pink blooms...

...and our 'white cascades' bushes all have beautiful flowers now.

We've even got flowers that I don't remember planting, like coneflowers and amaryllis.

The magnolias are opening up...

...and our gardenia bushes are putting out their waxy green buds. 

Two clematis vines are done blooming, but this big one on our sun room is going to be bursting with flowers very soon!

Most of the ferns and hostas in the side garden have come up.

When I look out my office window, all I see is green, green, green!  It's very restful.

I managed to catch two of my favorite birds in the yard recently, albeit through a screen, which affects photo clarity.  Here is a female towhee.  She has red eyes and an orange/white abdomen like the male, but has a light brown back instead of a black one.

And the bossy blue jay, gathering debris for a nest.  What beautiful color!

Of course, we have our goslings.

I've been very alert to mosquito activity around here because of the dangers of the Zika virus.  Here is a male resting on a leaf (females don't have the fuzzy antennae):

Males eat nectar and are not blood drinkers, but females need the nutrition from blood to produce eggs.  I've got a few bites so far, so it's time to pull out the DEET spray!  I hate using chemicals but it's the only thing that works for me.

Bees are busy in the flowers now.  Check out the pollen packets on this one!

Tabitha and Bosewichte are anxiously awaiting the completion of the fence, so they'll be able to go outside into an enclosed space.  Right now they have to content themselves with getting a little sun wherever they can.

Have a great week!

I guess that's why they call it the blue(jay)s...

There's just nothing like spring in the south.  At night, the frog calls from the pond and the trees are almost deafening.  I keep all the windows open as long as I can so we can listen.  During the day, the songbirds are singing.  The sweet strains of the Carolina Wren compete somewhat unsuccessfully with the bombastic TA-WEET!  TA-WEET! of the Eastern Towhee.  Woodpeckers of all sorts chatter from the tree trunks, and a flock of Blue Jays just moved in shakes the earth with their discordant whistles and whines.  Blue  Jays are the playground bullies of the feeder space, I've heard, and they have a reputation for stealing the eggs and young of other birds.  To me they're the most beautiful birds, though, because their feathers remind me of stained glass.  I like their noisy talk, too.

The male Goldfinches are suddenly filling in bright yellow...

...although the females remain a soft, muted yellow.

Woodpeckers are gathering food from sunup to sundown, like this female Downy Woodpecker...

...and this female Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

This Carolina Wren gathers material for a nest.

Meanwhile, this Bluebird keeps an eye on all the activity...

In honor of the season, I do my best to bring the outside in.  Every table has a spring bouquet, picked from the yard.

I brought in this cherry branch.  It was barely blooming at first...

But after a few days...

The camellias are so beautiful right now.

A few years ago I ordered some hand-painted ceramic eggs.  I make little nests out of leaves for them in the spring and scatter them around the house.

The cats are loving the warmer weather, too.  When not sleeping...

...they're outside on our (lamentably filthy!) back deck, lounging in the sun or trying to figure out how to escape into the surrounding woods.

It's a good time to be in South Carolina. 

Have a great week!