Wednesday's Wander to the Wayside

Every other Thursday I babysit in the infants room for a church Mom's group fifteen minutes from my home. These photos are taken on one stretch of road between here and there.

I'm taking these photos out the car window, as opposed to stopping and getting out of the car. This can get dangerous, because most of these roads have ditches instead of shoulders! In most cases, I stop in the middle of the road, watch my rear view mirror closely, and try to quickly take the shot. Although this isn't a major thoroughfare, it is quite heavily traveled during the day, so I don't recommend this technique!

I'll try not to do all barns, fences, cows and horses on these wanderings, but there are a lot of them around here, and they're among my favorite things! They have so much character, and are such a nice change from the cookie cutter neighborhoods.

I was especially excited that the photo of the horse revealed the laundry in the background, which I then shot by itself. And I had stopped to take a photo of a barn when I noticed the old house or shed next door-with the coca cola cooler on the porch! I thought the tractor in the barn looked like a giant bug.

Thanks for joining me on this drive today. We'll have to do it again sometime ... how about next Wednesday?

Bluebirds 2 : It's an egg! "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah"

Today's Musical Monday selection is Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, in honor of our first bluebird egg! (You know, "Mr. Bluebird's on my shoulder..."). Mama has probably laid another egg or two by now, as I checked it early Sunday a.m., and she's looked busy since then. This egg is about the size of the end of my thumb, and oh so delicate.

I had worried as I hadn't seen either of them for a day or two, thinking perhaps that a fierce wind we had on Friday had swung the bird house so violently that it had sent them packing. So when she showed up late Saturday afternoon, I sighed deeply and ... well, don't laugh or roll your eyes, but I actually got a lump in my throat and tear in my eye and said "oh, thank you for coming back, Mrs. Bluebird!". (Ok, so I'm getting a little too emotionally involved with this bird thing.) Also saw Mr. Bluebird swoop from some vantage point above and dive bomb a dove that was feeding beneath the bird house. I'm so proud of them both for hanging in there!

I love that I sang this song to Melody when she was little, our "isn't this a beautiful day" song, and now I sing it to and with the grandsons.

Hope you have a zip-a-dee-do-dah day! (Am I the only one who thought it was "zippity doo dah"?)

Spring Flowers

These are just a few of my Spring flowers. The clematis - pink, purple, and white - were absolutely gorgeous this year. I planted them two years ago, and it's taken a while for them to finally take off.

The bottom photo with the snail is a hellebores from an antique garden in Madison, Ga. The man my husband worked for bought a house in the historical district with the most incredible garden you could ever imagine. And they were going to tear out ALL the flowers, bushes, bulbs and trees - turn them under, actually - to put in the usual neat row of landscaper bushes. So we ran over with shovels and plastic bags, in the rain, and dug up as many as we could of everything. A man next door had come over earlier when he heard/saw what was happening and had tears in his eyes at the atrosity being committed! When we moved here three years ago, we brought this and one other with us, and they get bigger and more beautiful every year. We had to leave many other varieties because it was winter and we couldn't find them!

Hope your Spring gardens are up and running. Is there a more wondrous and anticipated time of year? Especially if you're lucky enough to have your own garden! If not, come on by and I'll be glad to share mine with you!

Wednesday's Wander to the Wayside

Welcome to my first "Wednesday's Wander to the Wayside"!

I have always noticed how many awesome things I see on my way from the house to the store, and how lucky I am that it's such an enjoyable and scenic fifteen minute drive. So, I thought to myself, why not take advantage of my blog title, and the letter W in Wednesday, and turn it into a re-occurring theme! It'll be like we're out for a drive together, wandering around the wayside!

Bluebirds

In my post titled "Mockingbird-Part 2", I told the story about a pair of bluebirds who were attempting to nest in a decorator bird house out our front window. They had to do battle with a mockingbird and several sparrows, but emerged triumphant! I had to run to the store to purchase a regulation size bluebird house as the other was too small, plus move it back several feet away from the sidewalk traffic, but, luckily for us, they accepted the house and began the long and laborious task of building their nest.

Their battle is far from over. After laying their eggs, there will be approximately five weeks of fighting off the sparrows and dealing with the fluctuating weather patterns and parasites such as ants and blowfly larvae. But their greatest challenge will surely be accepting the squeals and activity of small children!

I hope you will come back to share this journey of bird watching with us, and cross your fingers that it has a happy ending.

(p.s. It's very rare for bluebirds to include feathers in their nest - it's usually just grasses. But if you look closely at the last photo of the nest, you can just barely make out the presence of three feathers- a quill at 12:00 just under the white dot, a feather at :45 sticking up above the grass, and a white quill about an inch below that. Perhaps symbolically, perhaps the rewards of battle, the feathers belong to ... a mockingbird.)