Five days of fun...

Last Thursday's snow predictions were correct. This is what we saw as we woke up on Friday am and it was still coming down as we headed to the Mpls airport.A 3 hr flight later we were in sunny FL ready to have a fun family vacation with Jayme & Scott at the Royal Pacific resort.
Spring was in full bloom...
and the gardener in me just had to stop and admire all the many flowers.
My family was patient with me until I realized they were everywhere and I didn't need to stop and look at every one.
We packed our days full of fun and excitement. We watched whales dance...
and barely escaped the jaws of a great white shark.
We helped the Men in Black save the world from aliens...
and flew to another world with ET.
We saw dinosaurs on the loose in Jurassic Park...
and screamed and hung on for our lives while we plummeted down to a pond and safety.
It was a fantastic time of family fun and we only wish we could have convinced our son to come with us. So on our last day we all ate hot dogs in his honor...
Back to the garden and the birds tomorrow.

Spring...

When springtime slowly wakens
In country woodlands fair,
I hear the rustle of the breeze
And smell spring in the air.
(Jennie Buteyn)
Spring is officially here! This morning I saw my first geese flying overhead and a few grackels have arrived but so far no robins or other migratory birds.

The forecast is for up to 6 inches of snow in the next 2 days so it may be a "white Easter" as well.

It is a busy week for our family so I am sending out wishes to all my readers for a Blessed Easter!


I love all things vintage and we recently aquired a box of family treasures. These postcards were all written by Jeff's great-great grandmother to his great-grandmother. The first one is from 1911, the second one is from 1912 and the third one is from 1914. Happy Easter!

Happy Birthday, Scott

From the garden of life today...Happy Birthday Scott! You'll always be our favorite son-in-law and we hope you have a wonderful day!
Even though we were not creative enough to put your day on a sign and Jeff, Nathan & I couldn't be with you to celebrate your special day today...your father-in-law managed to have a green one in your honor anyways :-)

the eyes have it...

An eye can threaten like a loaded and levelled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy.... One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
We've all seen the emotions in the eyes of our loved ones...the looks of love, compassion & kindness...the sparkle of mischief and the steely gaze meant to put us in our place as in the "evil eye". Just like REW says...it transcends speech.
We've had spring like weather all week so I went outside this morning to take some shots rather than shoot through the windows like I have been all winter. I was looking for signs of spring in the garden when I noticed this little chickadee resting.
He allowed me to get closer and closer until I was 2 ft away so I just kept snapping away. I don't think I have ever taken a chickadee shot where the eyes showed so clearly as they usually blend into the black cap.
He turned around a few times all the while keeping "an eye" on me as if to say..."I'm getting a little uncomfortable with you getting this close, but I trust you" He stayed on the branch while I walked away, what a wonderful patient little guy he was to let this old lady get such joy from taking his photo.

Caw, Caw, Caw...

When I hear the caw, caw, caw of the crows circling the yard, I usually know there is a hawk nearby. I don't know why the crows love to chase the hawks but after hearing the loud raucous, I glanced outside and saw 4 crows chase this hawk and he landed in the middle of the grove. These are not great photos and I hestitated to post them but they tell a great story so I labeled them.




After the first hawk landed, there was still lots of cawing going on so I looked above my viewfinder and lo and behold they were chasing a second hawk in and guess where he landed? If it is what it looks like...isn't it a little early for mating season already?
Next, one hawk took off followed by the crows and they chased him over the house. By the time I went to the front windows, he was flying south off of our property but soon the crows came flying back for the second one. I managed to capture some mid-air sparring between a crow and the second hawk before he took off and flew to the west of the house.

First I spotted the hawk high up in a cottonwood tree but what happened next was pretty neat. The crow landed on the hawk's back and pecked at him until he flew off our property as well. Looks like the crows are watching out for all my little songbirds!

Corn...

I received a comment from scats42 asking about what kind of corn I put out for the wildlife. I use corn screenings a by product of corn harvest. It is a shelled corn & cracked corn mix with some waste product(cob bits & chaff). We get it from my BIL who is a farmer. So I imagine if you purchase dried shelled corn or cracked corn it would be the same thing. The bluejays, juncos, sparrows, pheasants, rabbits and squirrels all love it.

Joseph...

I look handsome, I look smart
I am walking work of art
Such a dazzling coat of colours
How I love my coat of many colours

It was red and yellow and green and brown
And scarlet and black and ochre and peach
And ruby and olive and violet and fawn
And lilac and gold and chocolate and mauve
And cream and crimson and silver and rose
And azure and lemon and russet and grey
And purple and white and pink and orange
And blue
(lyrics from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)Last night, just as the sun was low on the horizon the rooster pheasant came into feed. It was amazing how his feathers brillantly reflected in the sunlight and Joseph's coat of many colors popped into my head. He is now named Joseph and it is about time I named him as we see him 4-5 times daily.
I am anxious for spring but I will miss Joseph as I imagine he will move on once the dogs are outside more. Three hens continue to be around so Jeff thinks Joseph will have a wonderful spring even without a steady stream of corn.

Hairy woodpeckers...

We have lots of downy and hairy woodpeckers in the backyard. The hairy woodpeckers love the peanuts and will scare off most others and stake the feeder as their own. Today, I watched a male & female vie for the feeder (they don't like to share) and the female ended up flying off. Less than a minute later she was back and they went around and around the feeder trying to scare the other off. I had plenty of time to grab the camera and get a few shots.

a change of scenery...

He rode through the woods on a big blue ox,
He had fists as hard as choppin’ blocks,
Five hundred pounds and nine feet tall ... that’s Paul.

Talk about workin’, when he swung his axe
You could hear it ring for a mile and a half.
Then he’d yell “Timber!” and down she’d fall ... for Paul.
(author unknown)
We are back from a few days up in Paul Bunyan territory. It was a nice change of scenery...
woods and frozen lakes but I think I would have rather had warm sandy beaches.

In like a lamb....

March is an in between month,
When wintry winds are high.
But milder days remind us all,
Spring's coming by and by.
(author unknown)

March came in like a lamb...but I needed more than the calendar to remind me that spring is on the way so I pulled out a shot of the lilacs from May 2007.Not too much happening in the garden...

the bluejays are still letting me know when the peanuts run out...

and this little guy thinks

he's hiding from me.

Books...

Who hath a book has friends at hand,
And gold and gear at his command;
And rich estates, if he but look,
Are held by him who hath a book.
Who hath a book has but to read
And he may be a king indeed;
His Kingdom is his inglenook;
All this is his who hath a book.
(Wilbur Nesbit)
I love to read but am too cheap to buy new books. I read many from the public library and the rest from thrift stores (and I donate them back when I am done). Today, I was so easily entertained by some of the titles at Goodwill. Life Lessons Learned While Shopping & Is there Life after Housework? I don't know what these books are about but the titles caught my eye...after all I love to shop and hate housework. Next, was When a Nickel was Worth a Nickel...excuse me...I think it is still worth a nickel otherwise we would call it a penny. I am sure it probably is a great book the title just caught my eye. In the era of reality tv and the popular show "Are you Smarter than A Fifth Grader" you can even find a book What your 5th Grader Needs to Know. But my personal favorite of the day...and the reason I pulled the camera out of my purse was this last one....the juicy tomatoes guide to Ripe Living after 50 complete with several pages still bookmarked with post-its by the previous owner. I just found the title to be outright funny and should have taken the time to browse the content or even purchase it but my life seems exciting enough and the danger of ripe living is things sometimes become overripe :-) So none of these books made it into my cart but I have a few good mysteries, a book of poetry and a Nicholas Sparks one to keep me occupied for awhile.
It snowed yesterday and wind whipped it into small drifts around the yard. It didn't stop the little birds from coming to the feeders but the pheasants really had to scratch to find the corn buffet.

300th post...

Can you believe this is my 300th post...my how time flies when you're having fun. I started this blog of "life in the garden and the garden of life" as a fun little way to show garden/family pictures to family and friends that we do not get to see very often. I really did not fully understand the blogging world and how vast it was and what great people you meet through them. I am grateful to all who read and the wonderful comments I have received.
Here is a sneak peak of another great thing that has happened to me as a result of this blog. A friend of Jayme's reads the blog and loved some of my "nature" shots of birds, butterflies, frogs and bugs. She is a pediatric physical therapist at one of Gillette Children's new clinics. I was asked if I would like to provide some photos for their nature wall that leads to the treatment rooms...of course, I was :-) This is a shot of the hallway (the large prints are from a professional artist) and mine are all the smaller ones at "kid" level. I love how they are inset into the wall and I have been told they are very popular with patients and family. I look forward to going to their open house in April to see the wall for myself. I will share more about it then. Thank you, Melissa for thinking of me and sharing the "sneak peak" photos with us. Mr. Froggy at the top of the page is one of the 10 photos selected.

PS: did you notice I changed the blog banner to the rooster pheasant who visits the backyard on a regular basis? When I first started posting him, I received an email from Rox H. in SD asking if he was a unique pheasant as the roosters in SD do not have the white stripe on the top of their heads. Well, yesterday my husband got his Pheasants Forever magazine and I paged through it and guess what....99.9% of the pheasants shown did not have the white stripe! Jeff says everyone he sees has the white and I don't know if I've ever paid that much attention. We have lots of pheasants we see in rural MN so I am definitely going to be on the lookout for white stripes...what do they look like in your area?

Wishing for blue skies...

This beautiful sky shot was taken early last fall and I don't think I've seen one like it since as it seems like gray skies are the norm these days. I'm anxiously awaiting spring...
While looking back for the cloud photo I came across this shot of a fox sparrow also taken last fall. I can't wait for the migrating birds to come through once again. Did I tell you I'm anxiously awaiting spring...
The goldies have now spent 3 1/2 months just hanging out in a small tank in the garage and have at least 2 more to go. They have not eaten this entire time and most of the tank is covered in ice...I don't think I am the only one anxiously awaiting spring....
Our four resident crows are constantly eyeballing the corn buffet but have not yet had the nerve to come down and feast.

Catching up...

That orbed maiden, with white fire laden,
Whom mortals call the moon.
(Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cloud)

Moonlight is sculpture.
(Nathaniel Hawthorne)Did anyone else watch the lunar eclipse last night? It was a great night for viewing...now if I only could figure out how to photograph it...looks like I have until 2010 to learn for the next time. Today, is the first time since Saturday that I can actually say I'm feeling better. Can you believe I've had these flowers since Valentine's Day and finally got around to taking a couple photos?

Before winter ends I am hoping to master "in flight" shots...I've been practicing with the blue jays but they are always flying away from the camera.










A shot from last week...the swans flying over the steaming river was a beautiful sight.

Redpolls...

We woke up to -25F this morning with windchills I don't even want to think about. Since the female redpolls (haven't seen a male yet) have discovered the feeder by the window I am able to get some nice shots. This morning's light was perfect as this gal posed all puffed up.
The thistle seed is their favorite but they also feast on hulled sunflower seeds.
The following 3 shots are from yesterday afternoon and the lighing wasn't great but I still enjoyed "shooting" these beautiful birds.


Look how those sharp "toes" cling on to the feeder tray and it is amazing to see them in the "no hands" shot. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do...