horsin' around

It's nesting season!  This female red-winged blackbird hovered anxiously as I strolled around the front pond.

The males were preening and posturing.  I'm seeing a lot of fanned tails and flashes of red these days!

A pair of wood ducks visited the pond this morning, too.  I love how beautiful they are!

Springtime robins...

...nuthatches...

grackles...

...and my favorite, the eastern towhee...

...are congregating.  Hooray!  Trees are leafing out nicely...

...and we're all feeling good with the warmer weather.

Every time I can get away, I'm in the garden. I just completed an unplanned project.  A friend gave me a handful of sedum last year.  Sedum is amazing.  Sun, shade, dry, wet...sedum doesn't care.  It will grow and spread like crazy, and it's easy to pull it out by the handful if it's crowding another plant.  I planted patches of it all over the garden last year and love the way it looks.

I thinned it out, but hated to throw away the viable plants.  I decided to use them to line the walking path in the new garden.  Sedum is so easy that it doesn't need any special care to root.  Cover the tip in soil and it will quickly generate roots.

It looks pretty rough now, but it will be a lovely thick green carpet next year!  I also dug  up some of these mystery plants that I am nearly certain are obedient plants.  They have a wicked runner system for roots.

I replanted them in the two new side gardens.

I guess we'll see what comes up in 6 - 8 weeks!

It's been chilly, but it's finally getting warmer, and there's a lot of beauty around here to enjoy.  We've had amazing sunrises...

...happy birthdays...

...and daily horse visitors.

Throw in the occasional groundhog, and it's been a pretty good season!

Even the cats are getting into the feel-good days of spring.

Have a nice week! 

and thus, Caius

Chilly temperatures mean a lot more birds coming to our feeders.  There's always a round, clear circle underneath the feeders, as foraging birds clear leaves or snow, looking for castoff seed.

Everyone knows red cardinals, but I am partial to house finches.  Their song is prettier and they just seem more pert and cheerful.

I often see birds, like this chickadee, rubbing their beaks against branches after eating.  It's their equivalent to a dainty napkin wipe!

Nuthatches are here, there, and everywhere, keeping an eye on everything that's happening on the ground below.

Woodpeckers find lots to eat in the dead branches of the tree!

Birds aren't the only creatures that we're seeing more of in these colder temperatures.  One stray has come often enough to warrant a name, so here is Caius, sticking his tongue out at us from a safe distance.

We've increased the amount of food we're putting out to help keep these guys a little bit warmer and better equipped to survive a cold winter!

Speaking of food...Thanksgiving was this past week.  So much food!  We hosted, so I put together a pretty large dessert table.  All pictures taken hurriedly with my cell phone...so the quality is not very good.  I made cherry muffins with almond glaze, an apple slab pie, pumpkin cake, chocolate no-bake cookies, maple brown sugar cookies, and confetti sugar cookies. 

My first attempt (but not last!) at making dough lettering for pies!

With the kids at a separate table, we had just enough room for the grownups at the big table.

Nothing fancy, just a couple of Fresh Thyme bouquets...

...and some leftover pumpkins from October.  I picked some rose hips from the bare multiflora rose bushes outside and interspersed them with the pine cones to add a little color.  

I think I made too much food...besides feeding 17 guests, who even took platefuls of food with them, Todd STILL has a week's worth of leftovers!  I love holidays, but I'm glad that Thanksgiving has passed.  Holiday seasons are tough for people who have food issues, like I do.  This has been a rough year with the upheaval of another move, and I think I've gained about 30 pounds!  I can't really get into a rhythm of losing weight again until the holidays are over.  Just too many pitfalls.  So I will enjoy a few more tasty pitfalls and then look forward to getting back on track in the new year.

Have a great week!