Birdhouses

I have always loved birdhouses, nests and anything to do with birds.  My favorite season is spring and I get so excited when I have nests and baby birds in my yard.    Over the years I've collected several houses inside and outside my home.  The one above is my favorite and I keep it under the cover of my front porch to preserve it.

My wonderful neighbor gave me this one with the star opening.  She moved recently and didn't have a space for it at her new home.  It has a permanent home on my porch and reminds me of her sweet friendship when I see it.

                                          

I found the whimsical double house with the rusty roof at a "junk shop" about a month ago for $5.

I love the watering can perch on this one.  I think it came from a home party purchase many years ago.

A family of wrens are nesting in this house.  The wren is my favorite bird.  I love their sassy little attitude and their flipped up tail.  I have seen them several times in the last few days pulling Spanish moss out of some of my flower pots.  There is enough corgi hair in my backyard to make several nests but they don't seem to be interested.  Whenever I brush the corgi girls, I leave the hair in the flower borders just in case.  Maybe she doesn't want her home to smell like a corgi.  I'll bet she loves the fragrance coming from the flocks growing under her nest.

Tennessee Vacation

I spent last week vacationing in Nashville, TN.  It was my first visit to this beautiful city and I loved it.  If you ever want to experience true "southern hospitality" this is the place to go.  Every person we encountered was helpful, friendly and welcoming!

The highlight of my week was stopping by to visit Jeri Landers from Hopalong Hollow Gazette blog on the way home.  After having lunch on her porch, she showed us around her country gardens and introduced us to all her farm critters.  Everything about her home and gardens looks like pictures in a magazine.

Peahen and her baby

Jeri is giving everyone an "afternoon snack"

Vacations are always fun, but I must admit that coming home to see my corgi girls and their feline sister was great.  Being away for several days makes you appreciate your home and surroundings when you return!

Train Trip to NYC!

On Memorial Day a friend and I traveled to New York City on the train.  For the next three days we walked for miles and saw  many of the city's beautiful landmarks.  

Our ride through Central Park in the late afternoon was my favorite.  

This part of the park was donated by J. Lennon's wife after he was killed.

Lennon's apartment building is right outside the park and his wife still lives there.

Another highlight was this trading company where they sold buttons, antique trims, cards, banners, and hundreds of vintage and new ribbons.

I love this beautiful city and can't wait to go back!

Happy Memorial Day!

I had a serious scare this week when Heidi ate fertilizer that I put around my hollies.  I won't go into unpleasant details but she was ill and spent a day at the vet's office.  Heidi will eat anything, a natural corgi trait, I'm afraid.  Please be careful if you are working in your yard this weekend and are using chemicals. This pic was taken today and she is fully recovered, I hope.

Now for some pictures I took in my yard this morning.  It is a beautiful day in central Virginia!

There is a party going on in my gnome garden on the front porch...

Miss Lilly, my garden lady

This is a gnome garden I made for my daughter in a mini wagon.

And last, but not least, is this beautiful feather I found in the front yard when I was taking pictures.  I think it is from an owl who lives in the wooded area behind my house.

Have a safe and fun holiday!

Happy 11th Birthday to Miss Hanna

                         

There's no way to put into the words the joy that my beautiful Hanna has brought me in her short life.  She was 11 weeks old when I brought her home and was all ears.  I was working ten-hour days as a school registrar that summer and the school principal let me keep her in my office (in her crate, of course).  Her job was to calm the nerves of new students when they came to register for the next year.  I don't have to tell you that she charmed them all!

That fall I enrolled her in obedience classes so she could join a therapy group. The instructor was very stern and Hanna was mischievous so she got in trouble a few times.  I have some cute memories from those classes.   She loved visiting the children's hospital and retirement homes.  Since she has developed arthritis in her spine, we no longer do therapy work.  Her job now is to take her baby aspirin every morning and spend as much of the day as she wants on the front porch taking naps with her sister, Heidi.   I run out to check on them often and sometimes we all have a nap, weather permitting.

Garden Tips

 

I read these garden tips on Mom4Real blog this morning and thought they were so interesting and easy.  I am definitely going to try putting coffee grounds on my ivy that I want to give a jump start

 

1.  To get seeds to germinate quickly, simply snip the end of each seed with a pair of nail clippers and soak in water over night! Then plant and watch them germinate in a few days!

2.  Add crushed eggshells to your soil…the eggshells add calcium to the soil and keep unwanted critters away.

3.  Clean out your hairbrush and lay human hair around your plants to keep rabbits away.  I know it sounds kind of icky, and rabbits are cute, but they will eat your flower and plants.

4.  When there is a cold snap coming and temps are going to dive down into freezing, cover outdoor plants with painter’s plastic.  It works like a greenhouse does and keeps frost from killing your plants.

5.  Add an aluminum pan filled with beer to your garden to deter slugs from getting to your plants.  Slugs love beer 

6.  To stop mosquitoes and other insect larvae from breeding in birdbaths or rainwater barrels, put a few drops of vegetable oil on top of the water.  It spreads to form a film over the surface of the water so the larvae cannot lay eggs, but won’t bother the birds!

7.  Hang an aluminum pan in your fruit trees to keep birds from eating the fruit!  The birds do not like the reflection of the sun in the pans.

8.  Spray cabbage and other vegetables targeted by caterpillars with onion juice! Simply grate an onion and mix it with water, then spray down your veggies!

9.  Add coffee grounds to plants to flowers that won’t bloom and ivy that is not spreading very quickly.  It will help the flowers bloom and really get your ivy growing!

10.  Use aspirin and water to repel aphids and other sucking insects as well as promote strong plant growth.  Simply mix an aspirin and water in a spray bottle and spray down plants.

Redoing My Fairy Garden

Spring is finally here and I know you are as happy about it as I am! I've had so much fun this week working on my fairy garden. I planted it in an old red wagon several years ago and this year it needed to be completely redone.  After filling it with all new potting soil, I added two new fairy girls.   I wanted the scene to tell a story of one cute fairy running down the path with her corgi and two fairy friends anxiously waiting at the end of the path.

I lost my tiny owl when I was dumping out the old rocks and soil and was so lucky to find him.  He's about an inch tall.  The tree is a cedar seedling that I found in my flower bed.  

My garden will be finished after I find a few new plants.  I'm looking for just the right container to make a second garden for a gift.