A Little Wildlife

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day outside planting flowers and cleaning up some of my other flower beds that I hadn't gotten to yet since winter. I like to take small breaks during my yard work. I get myself a glass of ice water and sit in my lawn chair and watch the wildlife in my backyard. Sometimes I get my camera and see what I can capture. I discovered not only do the deer like my hosta's but so do the rabbits!

This bunny took about 3 nibbles and then was on it's way.

 Then I saw a wren checking out the new house listed on the block. I think it was only looking and not ready to buy yet.

Then saw this robin searching for insects and worms. It was finding quite a few from what I could see.

So the other day my hubby emailed some pictures from where he was working. He is a technician for a heating and air conditioning company. He was on a roof top of a huge building repair one of the air conditioner units and what did he find inside of that unit? A nest with baby birds in it!!! He said that he was there the day before and all he saw was a nest with light blue eggs. They had hatched overnight.

I'm pretty sure they are robins. I'm always hearing about robins building their nests in the most craziest places.

And here is a shot of one of the units like the one that had the nest in it.

And on that same roof not to far away he discovers another nest!!! Out in the open in the rocks. He saw the bird that the nest belonged too, but couldn't get a picture of it. He said it was freaking out. Doing a little dance like it was injured to scare him away. We looked up in my bird books to try to figure out what it was and it called a Willet. It's like a sandpiper. This building he was at was next to the Mississippi river.

click on the picture and you can see the 4 eggs better.

This picture is from the website All About Birds

Willet

I think hubby still has to go back there to do more work. I hope he can get some more pics of the baby birds.

And here are some flower pics that I took this week!!!

This is a Purple Columbine that I've had in my garden for many years. I used to have many, but I only have one left now.

And I just LOVE Coleus! Here is one of the more interesting ones that I planted this year.

And my petunia's. I was able to get some really cool new ones this year!!

This is Phantom

Black Velvet

Raspberry Blast

And this one I am so excitied to get it this year. It was a new plant last year.

It's called Pretty Much Picasso! Isn't it amazing!!!!







Apple Gourd Bird House

I spent a few days this week planting flowers in my yard. And I still have much more to do. Also we had a record breaking temp this last week with a high of 93º!! Crazy I say!! Now today it's cloudy, rainy and only 52º!! The norm for right now is the lower 70's!!! I wish the weather would make up it's mind!!!

Today I got my hubby to cut a hole in my apple gourd to turn it into a bird house for me!! Here it is hanging in my burning bush! I think it looks like a pretty cozy house to live in! hehe 

I thought about painting it, but decided I liked just the way it looks, al naturale. I couldn't believe how many seeds were inside when I cleaned it out! Call me crazy, but I counted them! LOL There were 320!! So I planted a few today and will see what happens!! Excited!! You can get them to climb on a trellis or they can grow on the ground. They just need lots of room to spread out.

So, since I have so many seeds I thought I would give them away. Just contact me via email tambo331@mchsi.com and I'll give you my mailing address. All you have to do is send me a SASE (self address stamped envelope) and I send your 10 free seeds!!!!

Here is what my apple gourd looked like last fall in my fall gathering!

And in other news..... Starting tomorrow I will be selling a few of my items at Early Work Mercantile! I start selling tomorrow May 15th! I'm very honored to be asked to sell among some of the finest primitive artist around!!!

Click this link "Early Work Mercantile" to visit some of the most amazing talent around!

Back Up and Running!

I was without a computer for a few days. Mine took a dump on Monday morning with the death blue screen. Got it into the shop Monday night and got it back late this morning. Thank goodness it wasn't anything serious like a virus or anything else. Just had to replace the WiFi thingy on it.
While I didn't have my computer to waste time on I did manage to work on orders and take more pictures of wildlife in my yard.

White-Crowned Sparrow. Love these little guys with their black and white Mohawk

Another pic of him.

I've been getting loads of American Goldfinches!!! I had hubby attach another shepards hook onto the one I already had. So now I have 3 feeders and more goldfinches!

Just can't resist taking pictures of Mr. Cardinal in our big oak tree.

I hung up all my hummingbird feeders on Saturday and noticed them at my feeder on Monday. This is a male ruby throated hummer. The males always arrive 1 to 2 weeks before the females do.

 Plump I think Mrs. Robin

All my feeders!

Mr. American Goldfinch

This was so funny. I was taking pics of the birds when this squirrel found a patch of sun on the deck and stretched out and laid like that for a few minutes. He almost closed his eyes and took a nap.

White-Crowned Sparrow

And last but not least, my half tail squirrel, Lucy!!!

And tonight my primitive chippy paint bird make do that I listed a week ago ends tonight on ebay. I will be listing these 2 new birds tonight on ebay.

Have a wonderful evening!!!!

Chippy Paint Bird!

Was a little afraid to try this but I did it and it turned out awesome!!! How do you all like my chippy paint bird?? I think I'll be listing this guy on ebay tonight!

And last night I listed my Cardinal and Chickadee in my etsy shop

This is a short post for tonight, have to get busy with supper. Have a great evening!!!

Happy Easter!

At last we have a day without rain!!! It's a bright beautiful sunny day, a little windy, but that is ok with me!

Just wanted to wish all my blogging friends a Happy Easter! Will be very busy all day tomorrow with family.

Here is a picture of my grandson Max with his bunny ears that my daughter posted on facebook. When I first saw it I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He doesn't look very happy about the situation. He tends to make that scowl look in other pictures too. But he is a very happy baby though.

Took a little walk around my yard on this nice sunny day and found these wild violets growing in my flower bed. They tend to pop up just anywhere.

And my hosta are growing fast now with all the rain we have been getting.

And here is Pepper taking a snooze with Mrs. Bunny in the doll crib today. He's my 20 pounder kitty.

Ok, It's time to get back to sewing. Have a wonder Easter!!!!

Bird Watching

This time of the year we get birds traveling through the midwest that aren't our normal neighbors. This little guy, the White Throated Sparrow has such a sweet song. A lot of the time you will hear them before you see them. They like to forge around under bushes. He was on our deck this morning picking up seeds from my bird feeders that the other birds knocked out.

Here is a little youtube clip of them singing.

The other bird I saw was a Rose-Breasted Grosbeck (female) which I didn't get a picture of. She was at my window feeder for a minute.

Here are some other birds that I captured today with my camera.

Caught him with his beak open. He was eating a sunflower seed.

I love these little birds! They are hard to get a picture of. They move around fast. He kind of blends in with his surroundings in this picture. He was in the shady area of our yard where the grass don't grow very well.

And this is a youtube video of what a Wood Thrush sounds like

                                 

Mrs. Cardinal

My Bleeding Hearts are blooming!

And my Rhododendron's too!

I've been busy lately with custom orders. I've been selling lately on ebay and have found some new customers that way. These little make do's I just made for fun. I can't decide if I should sell them on ebay or etsy. I've got till Monday to figure it out, that's when I will have them up for sale.

Then a couple of weeks ago I was invited to sell my things as a guest at The Primitive Gathering this month!! Please stop by and see what I have for sale. Don't forget to check out the other wonderful artist there too! The Primitive Gathering

I have a new Lucy Angel Kitty for sale there.

That's all for now. Everyone have a wonderful Easter!!!!!!!!!!

Got a Little Side-tracked Today

Today I was busy getting ready to paint some cardinal make do's when I needed my special pencil I use to draw patterns with, which was in the living room. Just as I picked up the pencil I looked out our big picture window and thought I saw it snowing!! It was like big flakes. I continued to watch then noticed it was not snow but feathers!! In one of the big branches of our maple tree was a bird I had never seen before!! And it was eating a red-bellied woodpecker!! I was sad for a few minutes because I love these birds.

Click on the picture to see a close up

So instead of painting my cardinals I rushed upstairs to my computer and hooked up my camera to look at the pictures. And I needed to figure out what kind of bird this was. I knew it was some kind of hawk, but not sure what kind. It was totally different from the red-tailed hawk I took a picture of a couple of years ago. This bird had red eyes and a dark colored back!! It turns out it's a Cooper's Hawk. The last couple of days I have been seeing a couple of hawks circling around in the sky above our trees and I guess that is what they were. I still think about that poor woodpecker, but I guess the hawk has to eat too.

So here is my cardinal that I eventually finished today. He is now listed in my etsy shop for all to see.

Love this close up pic of his face! LOL

Lucy And Her Antics

I've been super busy lately with special orders!! I don't have anything made to show you today, but hopefully in the next couple of days.

But I did get a few pics of Lucy yesterday morning out on our deck. She was going to town in my big planters digging for acorns. She is my short tailed squirrel that I have written about before. Click on the pics to see larger views.

She looked just like a dog would look, digging a hole. Her little front paws were speed digging.

 She never did find any acorns. I think someone else beat her to it as that planter looked pretty well cultivated before she got to it. All she got was a dirty black nose. LOL

When she got done digging, she had herself a nice scratch

And jumped up on the squirrel proof suet feeder once again to see if she could get a snack. It was zip for Lucy once again. Then she jumped down off the deck in search of acorns in our back yard. You should see our yard, holes everywhere from all the squirrels looking for acorns they buried before winter.

Our next door neighbors had Mourning Doves nesting in one of their hanging planters they left out over the winter. Looks like the babies flew the coop today. Here's a pic of them on top of their roof. They said that their were 2 babies. Don't know where the other one was when I took the pic. We tried looking for it but did not find it. I'll have to ask Mary next time if she had seen both babies that day before they left the nest. The mom and dad were busy giving each other kisses when I was taking the pics. I predict more babies in the future. :)

Lazy Saturday

Here it is another weekend and before you know it, it will be over again. And now it's April!! That means April showers bring May flowers and I'm all for that!! Tulips are popping up and also comes the battle with the deer snacking on them.

I haven't shown you all my newest item that I made last week!! I do adore her. Didn't know if I should have let my Angel Lucy Cat doll go or not, but I decided to let someone else enjoy her too.

She is in my ebay right now! Click the "ebay" link <--------- The auction ends for her on Monday night. Only a couple days left!

Did a little yard work today of raking leaves. Will get more done tomorrow if the weather holds up. We are to get rain later in the day. And a high around 70º!! But then turning cooler on Monday.

I saved several of my gourds from last fall in my garage over the winter. I guess that wasn't the best place to store them. I think it got wet to many times in the garage during the winter with tracking snow in with the car, and my gourds grew the mold.

So I did a little scrapping and got most of it off and then used some fine sandpaper to get the rest off.

I think it looks pretty good!

I never intended to document this, but I left my camera sitting outside and my daughter came out and picked it up and took pics of me. Ha ha I think it would make a very good bird house!

Then today I got my wonderful hubby who will do anything for me to put up my new bird house that I got for Christmas from my other daughter. She lives in North Carolina and got it at a craft show, I do believe. It's handmade and I just LOVE it!

Already had a chickadee looking inside a couple of times!!

So I may be showing you all kinds of pics of who ever chooses to move into this new home. Can't wait!!! It's at a perfect place to view while I'm sitting on the couch in the living room.