a blog about the garden of life and life in the garden
Today's steeple post is once again a "two steeple" Sunday but not in the usual way of one church built with two steeples. Today I show you St Mary's Catholic Church in Fredericksburg, Texas - one congregation with two churches and two steeples...the old and the new or maybe I should say the old and the oldest!
The 1863 steeple...
and the 1906 one.
The yellow rumped warblers (butterbutts) are moving through in their beautiful breeding plumage.
They are just the cutest things to watch as they flit from branch to branch catching insects - I'm so thankful they need to come down for a drink once in a while so I can see them up close and personal.
The garden fairies have been really busy making changes to their home in Pine Hollow this spring. When they last made an appearance on October 12th, they were out sledding and enjoying an early snowfall before sealing themselves up in their home in the Pine Lady for the long cold winter. I don't think they realized last June when they first moved into my Minnesota garden how long and hard our winters really are (so hard in fact that Winky, the columbine did not survive the winter). This past winter made them realize they needed more light and sunshine so the first project I spied them working on was a new window addition to their home. Now they can enjoy watching and feeding the birds all year and the winter rays of sunshine will warm their home.
Additional changes I see are the stream is now edged with boulders to help contain the "flooding" caused by birds and large dog paws and the gazebo has a new stone veneer and a painted roof.
Lots of gravel has been shoveled into paths...
leading up to a new summer cottage.
I was happy to see that with all this building, shoveling and raking they are like me and easily distracted into sitting and watching the birds (oops, notice my rake & shovel in the background).
When the mulch on sale has "log" sized chunks of wood in it - it is no wonder this little raker needed a rest.
The summer cottage is bright and whimsical with little vining flowers covering the trim and windows. I can see many tea parties being held on that patio once they get a table built.
One last aerial view of Pine Hollow without that distracting dog in the background...
who am I kidding...if I'm outside Hershey is always in the picture :)
Last summer, Pine Hollow became kind of hidden in the overgrowth so this year I am going to keep the larger plants surrounding the perimeter and will be on the lookout for some smaller and shorter plants to grow within their park like setting. Any suggestions?
I don't think I have ever had this many blossoms this early in April before!
I'm not complaining but if they are all blooming now...
what will I have for color in May?
Old North Baptist Church, Nacogdoches, Texas
While the church building and steeple were not as impressive as some I've photographed - we really did enjoy a walk through the historic cemetery.
I've seen gravestones shaped like tree trunks in various cemeteries (which I've been told symbolizes a "life cut short") but this is the first monument I've seen shaped like a stack of logs.
While watching the birds at the rock this morning I noticed how I have a love/hate relationship with some of them. A bluejay in the serviceberry tree above checking things out to see if it was safe to come down to the peanut feeder below. While some consider them a foe because of their loud and aggressive behavior - I consider them friends. Their antics finding peanuts I hide around the garden gives me great joy year round.
European starling - yes, in certain light their plumage is beautiful but there really isn't much I like about this none native species, they are complete feeder hogs scaring away the songbirds and nest in my wood duck boxes - a foe in my eyes.
Downy woodpecker - while she looks mighty cute as a "downy in a dish" I'm a little angry at the woodpeckers this month. I've discovered a lot of damage from their pecking on my expensive little landscape trees over the winter - with acres of large trees in the groves why do they need to pick them to peck on? The cuteness factor still wins out though so I guess I still call them my friends.
Common Grackle, with my yard surrounded by evergreen trees I literally have hundreds of these guys right now. Those beady eyes give me the "evil" look telling me they are here to stay no matter how I try to scare them away.
They are aggressive at the feeders, and with all those nests in the spruce trees I know that soon I will have them dive bombing the backyard with mouths full of POO (nestling fecal sacs)...the sidewalks get covered and the windows get splashed but the bridge & rocks around the pond take the brunt of it as they throw the majority of it in the pond resulting in an algae bloom that takes me most of the summer to get rid of. Yes, these guys are my biggest FOE! I usually don't even care to take a photo of them even with the iridescence of their feathers but broke down for the sake of illustrating a foe :)
An American Robin, the bird most seen on the rock.
What's not to love about these guys...a definite friend in my garden.
But, even the best of friends can sometimes have bad manners...
didn't their mother's teach them it is rude to groom on the dinner table?
The northern flickers (friend) and the brown thrashers (friend) have arrived for the summer but didn't make an appearance for the camera this morning. I just love spring migration!
