Outdoor Wednesday - thinking spring

When my views outside the front and back doors today (and for the last three months) look like this...
and this - one can only "think spring" inside.
I've been thinking spring in the warmth of my home for the last couple of weeks by looking online for seeds & plants and working on a few garden projects in the basement. In my visits to other gardens and blogs, I keep an annual "wish list" of plants I want to add to my own gardens. Below is Lamb's Tail Joey, a plant I saw several times last summer at Munsinger gardens and fell in love with.
In the same garden, I spotted these Amaranthus Red Towers and loved the electic look as well as I knew they would be bird magnets as the amaranthus love lies bleeding is.
In this post by my blogging friend, Bonnie, at Flower Bed, I loved these mumsy marigolds. She told me she got them through Park Seeds so last week I went online and ordered them in yellow, gold and orange. While browsing their site, I found they had the lamb's tail joey and the amaranthus towers and many other flowers I fell in love with so before I knew it my order reached 24 packs of seeds! They arrived this week and I was very surprised to learn in reading the origin of the seeds only 2 of the 24 came from the USA. The seeds of Lamb's Tail Joey, a plant native to Australia came from Germany, the seeds of the Amaranthus Towers came from Holland and the Mumsy Marigolds are a product of France.
The tally of the 24 was 2 from Germany, 1 from Japan, 11 from Holland, 4 from France, 4 from England and the 2 from the USA, cleome sparkler bush and Van Gogh sunflowers. By the way, do they really think pasting a sticker saying "packed for 2010" on top of the printed "packed for 2009" will make me believe them?
Did you notice the table the seeds were sitting on? Another friend, Debbie from Mountain Breaths, goes to the annual MacKenzie-Childs barn sale and shows us many of the beautiful pieces she as seen there as well as purchased in this POST. Looking at the MacKenzie-Childs website I spied this cute little table for $3,200.00. It must be popular as it is currently on backorder - here is my almost free little version from an old piano bench and two cans of paint (though I just noticed it looks like I forgot the polka dot corners). It will find a home in the garden next summer.
I have had these 2 little chairs that some garden angels are having a conversation on for many years but decided they needed some freshening up as well...
another little M-C makeover as long as I had the black and white paint out.

The drop cloth is out so I have plans for some birdhouses, feeders and a few new additions and makeovers to Pixie Hollow. By the time I get done with everything...spring should finally be here!

Have a wonderful Outdoor Wednesday and head on over to Susan, A Southern Daydreamer to see all the other's participating.

mosaic Monday...eagles

It is always such a joy to spot eagles close to home which until the last couple of years was a very rare site. Yesterday, we were able to spot the one above taking off at a nearby lake and Jeff took the photos below last week as one sat on the railroad tracks right alongside the highway near our hometown. He has since seen it twice flying over the highway - we assume looking for roadkill.
Not great shots in either mosaic but still wonderful memories!

steeple Sunday...

Since I am late with my Steeple Sunday post I give you not one but two steeples...
St. Margaret's Catholic Church, Lake Henry, MN.


According to the cornerstone it was built in 1922.
I love the double steeples but only one housed a bell.
Hope your Sunday was a good one!

Outdoor Wednesday...6 month flashback

I haven't blogged for a few days because I am sick of winter and the only thing to take a photo of is the birds. Yesterday, I took the camera with me in the car hoping to see some wildlife but all I found to show you was what our road looks like...with the snow banks higher than the road it doesn't take much for the wind to fill it in. We had so much snow on our roof that today the guys scooped it off and my patio view is this (snow piled as high as the frame for our canvas gazebo) but it is still better than ice jams and a leaking roof.
Today's view of the backyard showing the rock fountain...
and flashing back 6 months to July 17th. We ate dinner under the canvas gazebo and our view was the rock fountain and a lush garden.
No ground covered in white - only color...glorious color!
July 17th happened to be one of the days, I staged a photo shoot to catch birds at the "His hands" feeder...
and I got more than birds on the rock!
How I miss the COLOR and watching birds bathe on the flowing water...
I am so easily entertained by their twists and turns but at least this week I have figure skating to watch.
One more flashback...this one 50 something years ago today! The day my husband was born, when a mother had to wear a mask to hold her own baby and stayed in the hospital for a week after a normal delivery.
Happy Birthday Jeff! I love you :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing all my readers a wonderful holiday!
My beautiful little niece sent me this valentine because the puppy pictured especially reminded her of Hershey...I thought it was only fair that Hershey reciprocate the sentiment...
except she sits still about 1/20 of a second if there is no food involved...we tried :)

chickadees...

The curious little chickadees are one of my favorite birds but also one of the hardest to photograph.
With their dark eyes in their black caps, I can't get a clear enough shot to show them clearly unless the sun is shining and reflecting a glint in their eye.


I was thankful for yesterday's sunshine and their willingness to sit still long enough for a few shots as today is snow flurries and clouds once again. These little guys are the busiest birds at the feeders, they fly in, take one seed and fly back off to the grove to eat it over and over again. The energy they expend just to eat is amazing!

Outdoor Wednesday...

Do you see what I see?
The first thing I saw looking outside was sunshine and blue skies! Though it was -17F out this am I am not complaining because after a week of gray clouds...SUNSHINE is a reason to SMILE...but then I noticed something else...
have you spotted them yet?
A cute little pair of white breasted nuthatches...
and the male on top is getting ready to move...
to the feeders!
He is so handsome in the sunshine and poses so I can see his front profile and top profile...
his side profile and...
and is underside profile! The lighting was great so I am sure he was showing off a little but I appreciated seeing the white underside of his beak :)

Head over to our wonderful hostess, Susan, A Southern Daydreamer, to visit the many other bloggers participating in the 57th Outdoor Wednesday HERE.

for Darla...

On yesterday's post
"Darla said...
These are beautiful captures..I'm a little confused..what Woodpecker does not have red on it's head?"

The answer is "the females" - It seems in the bird world the males get all the pretty adornments so red means male and without is his mate.

woodpecker comparisons...

I have two types of woodpeckers visiting the feeders daily - the downy woodpeckers and the hairy woodpeckers. The photo above is a downy and the photo below is a hairy...can you tell the differences?
The downy woodpeckers are much smaller and have a shorter beak...
and the hairy woodpeckers have a longer more pointy beak and are almost as large as a bluejay. They also announce their presence at the feeders with their constant loud squeaking/chirping call.
Another sure way to tell the difference is by the inside of their tail feathers, below you will see the black dotted lines on the little downy...
while the hairy has all white and a little buff showing.
The feeders are very active in the snowfall today so I was lucky enough to capture both of them at once. The larger hairy is on the suet ball while little Mr. Downy waits his turn.

Finally, the downy has his turn - here you can tell his size in comparison to the ball. Another thing is the hairy woodpeckers are much more shy - they are easily spooked and will fly off whereas the little downy woodpeckers will just stay or "hide" behind the feeder branch.