A New Guest at the Feeder

We FINALLY hung one of our bird feeders up on the deck right outside the kitchen window. We still have two more to hang, but I need to get feeder posts suitable for the deck to hang the feeders.

One of my "must haves" when we were house hunting was a kitchen window with a view to the outdoors. Many houses around here have interior kitchens. No, thank you. As much as we love bird-watching, a room with a view was non-negotiable.

I posted quite a bit about birds in the past, and I'll get back into the habit when I get back into blogging like I used to. With the switch in focus (and life), I'm still trying to find my groove. And unpack boxes. Yes, still.

Anyway, I was super excited to have this visitor last week:

Source

Yes, it's the aptly-named red-headed woodpecker. Aren't they gorgeous?

Unfortunately, they have "near threatened" conservation status. Partners in Flight list them as a "Common Bird in Steep Decline." Why? One major reason is that they nest in dead trees or dead parts of live trees. As development spreads, dead trees are removed from the landscape. And even though red-headed woodpeckers will nest in utility poles, studies have shown that eggs do not hatch in newer poles, probably due to creosote.

I only saw this beauty for two days. It visited my feeder several times for the black-oil sunflower seed I serve. They are big insect eaters; perhaps our warmer weather has made for an increase in the insect buffet around here. I hope so.

Wouldn't it be a huge shame to lose such a beautiful species?

Pulling Together the Screened Porch

I love screened porches, so I was a happy girl when I found out our new house came with one. It's a little on the small side, but that's okay. It also features old indoor-outdoor carpet, ho-hum stencils, a boring ceiling fan, and a funky smell. That's not okay.

Here's the stencil that adorns the wall all around the porch.

Be that as it may, the kitchen is our main focus right now. So I had to do what I could with the porch right now. I want to enjoy it on these lovely spring days we're having in the south!

Here it is as of right this minute.

I used the indoor/outdoor rug in the kitchen at our last house. I bought it from Ballard's several years ago. And the trunk is an old flea market find, which I used as an end table in the family room at our last house. It doesn't fit nicely in this family room, so I slid it out onto the porch.

See the lamp? I bought it at an antique and decor store nearby. The base was black, so I painted it real quick with ASCP Old White. I like the natural shade as it is. Maybe one day I'll jazz it up, but it's fine for now.

I bought the lantern and the church birdhouse at the same store where I bought the lamp. I love the lantern in all its chippy rustiness! And when I reveal more of my house as it evolves, you'll note my fondness for all things bird.

For a touch of spring, I took some daisies out of my birthday bouquet and put them in this darling hobnail creamer. The matching sugar bowl is in my dining room china cabinet.

Daisies just sing "spring," don't they?

Here's one last look, complete with my glass of iced tea waiting for me. I'll just grab my latest book, The Killings at Badger's Drift (love a good Brit mystery!), and head on out to enjoy this beautiful spring weather we're having!

Linking up with:
Home and Garden Thursday at A Delightsome Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Be Inspired at Common Ground
Inspiration Gallery at The Golden Sycamore

New Sighting! Eastern Phoebe

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I've heard mention of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) often over the years, but I've never seen one except for photographs. But just today, I caught sight of an unusual bird perched atop the feeder pole. For a second I thought, "Mockingbird?" But it was too small and its head was darker. I thought it might be a Phoebe.

It flew away before I could grab my trusty binoculars, which I keep on the kitchen counter for bird-spying. But I looked it up in my new compendium, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, almost 800 pages of photos and detailed descriptions, along with a CD of bird songs, featuring 150 different species. And I was right!

(I'm getting pretty good at this, actually. Ahem.)

She didn't partake of our feeder offerings, but I hope she comes back.

Weekly Happenings: Volcanoes and A Biting Lizard

A windy week here! The girls and I planted some morning glory seeds in mini peat pots, but the wind has overturned them so many times that only one pot of seedlings survives. My rosebushes have suffered as well; the front walk is littered with rose petals. It looks as if we hosted a wedding.

Our lessons were back to normal after last week's CAT5 testing. Here are some highlights:

This Country of Ours: the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Stonewall Jackson's death
Oliver Twist: Oliver shows some grit but pays the price for it
Plutarch's Lives: Brutus flees Rome in the aftermath of Caesar's murder

In Story Book of Science, we read about volcanoes. Since Himself and I were recently on the Big Island of Hawaii and visited Volcanoes National Park, I especially enjoyed these two chapters. The girls looked at photos we took, and so can you!

The crater at Kiluea, an active volcano on the Big Island

A closer look at the smoking crater. Pay no attention to the wind-blown woman on the left.

The Kiluea Iki crater, which erupted for several weeks in 1959, filled with lava several times during the eruption. There's a fantastic hike along the rainforested rim (at right) then down into and across the crater. If you look closely, you can see the trail through the crater (on left side). The crater is huge and there are multiple steam vents. From the top of the rainforest rim overlooks, people on the crater trail look like ants.

On another part of the island, the aptly-named Road to the Sea, south of Kona and Captain Cook, leads through a surreal landscape, courtesy of a massive lava flow 250 years ago. The road reaches a black sand beach and massive sand dunes.

There are lots of trees and other vegetation at the top of the road. But then the landscape changes. 

Sparse vegetation. Can you see the ribbon of road at the top left? 

Soon all plant life disappears. But not humans. Believe it or not, there were a few houses on this road! 

The wind was blowing briskly, but other than that, there was no sound. 

Large lava rock piles appeared as we got closer to the ocean. 

Black sand beach. The photo does not do this scene justice. The water was the most glorious blue, and it looked amazing next to the black sand. 

The surf was extremely strong, and the wind was, as you can imagine, forceful.

And that's what a lava field looks like, more than two and a half centuries after the eruption. The whole experience was astounding. It was the longest six-mile road we'd ever driven (DON'T try it in a regular car), but it was completely worth the trouble.

A bit of nature study: Georgette found a small lizard yesterday, and Tiny Girl rescued it. She held in while I ran inside to get my camera. I ran back out to yells of: "It bit me! It actually bit me! I'm bleeding!"

The stunned lizard swooned on the driveway. I swiped it into a small bucket for further inspection. In case you're wondering, Tiny Girl's wound was slight. No Band-Aid required.

We took a lot of photos, most of which turned out poorly, amid comments like, "Can we let it go now? Don't get it near me!" (Miss Priss) and "That thing is vicious!" (Tiny Girl) and "It's trying to defend itself. It's scared" (me).

After some research, we concluded that it was a green anole. At first I wasn't sure, because our lizard looked different from the online photos. However, we learned that green anoles can change color when stressed (our was a bit mottled) and also black bands appear around males' eyes when they are feeling aggressive or stressed (ours had dark around its eyes). We determined it was a male due to the black bands and its pink dewlap.

So that's our week! How was yours?

Suburban Nature Encounters: Birds and Rabbits

We've had some fun nature moments in the last couple of weeks. It's spring, after all, and every creature's thoughts turn to. . . the usual: survival.

Since I'm a mediocre photographer at best, please bear with me. You may need to use your imagination a bit to really appreciate the scenes. :-)

At the equestrian park last week, we were delighted to discover this Carolina wren's nest in the rafters of the barn, right above our heads. I was unable to get a photo of Mama Wren, since she was extremely busy searching out food for her young ones. We could hear their demanding little peeps. Miss Priss and I were intrigued by the nest design: she'd built it "up," with the opening at the bottom left. You may be able to detect the front door:

Our neighborhood rabbits have been active. Perhaps spring has gone to their heads; we see them all hours of the day, even in the bright afternoon. I hope they're on the lookout for hawks and cats! I took this (admittedly poor) shot from our breakfast room window. Before I could take any more, the little guy bounded off.

I saved the best for last. In my most recent  Weekly Happenings post, I wrote about watching a titmouse make off with a large tuft of dog hair to line its nest. Corgi undercoat must be a much sought-after building material. In these photos (the best of many I shot), a Carolina chickadee collects dog hair from a rug we'd tossed on the deck.

She made several trips to gather the hair.

See the tuft in her beak?

Right after I snapped the above photo, she lit off.

In case you're wondering why the rug is on the deck rail, I'll tell you. The dogs had been having a field day ripping off the non-skid backing, and, in their exultation, ruined the rug. Ah, well. It had already given the best of its life to us.

Our feeders have been busy. The mealworms, so mocked by Himself ("What's going to eat those?"), vanished. We've sighted our regular patrons: titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens, and Northern cardinals. Other visitors include: mourning doves, a yellow-rumped warbler, nuthatches, and house finches. I was late setting out my niger-seed finch feeder, however, and we missed the flocks of migrating goldfinches we usually serve in the spring.

Any interesting nature activity in your backyard or environs? Tell me about it!

Weekly Happenings: Testing, One, Two

It's been an atypical week here! We set aside most of our regular subjects while Miss Priss endured the CAT5 for sixth grade and Tiny Girl suffered from test envy. To stay on schedule, we continued with our readings after testing for that day was complete.

Readings this week:

• Oliver Twist: read through chapter five. Still a favorite.
• George Washington Carver, by Suzanne M. Coil: read through chapter four. Tiny Girl especially is connecting with this book, which pleases her mama.
• Lilias Trotter: A Passion for the Impossible: read through chapter three. Miss Priss loves this!
• Story Book of Science: read the chapters "Rain" and "Volcanoes."
• Abraham Lincoln's World: problems cropping up around the world, e.g., Ireland's potato famine, Canada's dissatisfaction with the mother country, working-class rebellions.
• This Country of Ours: the battles of Shiloh (in Tennessee -- I visited the battleground when I was a child) and New Orleans; the importance of control of the river system.
• Mapping the World: a new geography resource. Read my review here.
• "Brutus," from Plutarch's Lives: Caesar's assasination. Both girls thought there should have been a better way to handle Caesar's thirst for power than murdering him.
• Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar: we finished our readings for the term.

In other activities, Miss Priss had a fabulous time at her first junior docent meeting at a local antebellum house museum. Tiny Girl has been working hard with the new pony, Max. I've implemented a new schedule for writing and life. The girls and I greatly enjoyed Miss Priss's theatre company's high school drama troupe's production of Seussical. The kids did a wonderful job. The girls and I planted morning glory seeds, carrots and corn, lamb's ear, and basil (potted).

Yesterday, Tiny Girl and I had an up-close interaction with a baby squirrel at the barn. The mother died (drowned in the horses' water trough) and left several babies. We are giving them food and water and hoping for their survival, but it's going to be tough for the little guys.

Jasper and Georgette, our delightful and much-loved corgis, are shedding their undercoats. We've witnessed birds carrying in their beaks tufts of dog fur for their nests. I had to smile while watching a tufted titmouse struggle with a particularly large clump; she managed it in the end!

I'm linking up with I'm linking up with the Homeschool Mother's Journal and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. If you're looking for some inspiration and ideas, you're sure to find both on other linked-up blogs!

Happy weekend!

First Sighting! Indigo Bunting

First it was a northern flicker, and now it's an indigo bunting, another bird I've never seen before.

Yesterday, as we were leaving Tiny Girl's horse show (after about eight hours, but that's another story), Himself pointed to a bird on the ground beside the barn and said, "Hey, look at that really blue bird!" So we did.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I said it wasn't a bluebird, and Tiny Girl commented, "It looks more teal than blue." I wondered aloud if it might be an indigo bunting, which I've read about but never seen.

We looked it up in our bird book when we got home. Lo and behold, it was a male indigo bunting. After a bit more research, we learned that males sport bright blue plumage only during breeding season, after which they fade to a brown more like females. Also, their feathers have no blue pigment, but are actually black. According to whatbird.com, "the diffraction of light through their feathers makes them look blue. This explains why males can appear many shades from turquoise to black."

Other interesting facts about indigo buntings (thanks, whatbird.com!):
- A group of buntings are collectively known as a "decoration," "mural," or "sacrifice" of buntings
- These migratory birds migrate at night, using the pattern of stars nearest the North Star to guide them

For a birdwatcher like me, it was exciting to see another new-to-me bird. I hope I see another soon!

Shaken

Nothing makes one feel quite as helpless as witnessing the powers of nature at their worst.

I've lived all my life in the American South. To the uninitiated, this means I've spent a lot of time huddled in basements during spring, the tornado season. You'd think I'd have a healthy respect for those particular storms, and, theoretically, I do. But I've flown for cover at the weatherman's command to "seek shelter" so often that I've grown a bit cavalier.

This is not to say I've never been close to one. They've zipped around my environs, destroying houses, snapping trees like toothpicks, and harming people -- ruining lives -- my entire life. But you know what they say about familiarity breeding contempt.

Until last night.

Himself, the girls, I, and my parents who were visiting huddled around the TV anxiously watching the Weather Channel last night. Footage of the massive tornado that slammed Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and was on its way to Birmingham made me hold my breath and clasp my hands. I wondered, Did the pillar of cloud that the Hebrews followed on their exodus from Egypt look anything like this?


4-27-11 Tornado Tuscaloosa, Al from Crimson Tide Productions on Vimeo.


I hope you noticed some things: the debris swirling around the outside of the vortex; the size of the tornado compared to the buildings on the left side of the screen; the strange, whirling sound of the winds; and the heavy, panicked breathing of whoever shot the footage from his/her car. If you didn't, watch it again. It's that powerful. And there are more out there to watch, too; I've viewed several. They make me feel slightly nauseated.

The thing was on the ground for hours, and, instead of losing strength as typically happens, it gained strength as it moved northeast from Birmingham and out of Alabama, leaving more than 100 people dead -- and the death count continues to rise -- into Georgia, where it nearly demolished the town of Ringgold. More people died there. Then it was on to Tennessee.

Another tornado/storm system farther south in Alabama also crossed the Georgia line. It came across Georgia south of Atlanta. Thus this major metropolitan area was largely spared immense damage.

At our house, we suffered only thunder, lightning, winds, and some rain. The girls and my mom slept in the basement anyway. I myself slept upstairs, but lightly, one ear tuned for the tornado sirens. The Weather Channel may do its best to track the path of tornadoes, but last I checked, they are not under our domain and tend to go where they please.

The death toll for the more than 100 tornadoes that spanned five southern states on Thursday is now more than 200. They are saying this may be an historic tornado season. "Historic" does not always mean something good.

It's impossible for me to be nonchalant any longer. I don't think I'll ever be able to rid my mind of those images.

Weekly Wrap-Up(s): Playing Catch-Up

 I've missed writing Wrap-Ups for two weeks prior to this week, for various reasons, most of which involve life at break-neck speed and upsets. I've blogged about some of those already, and you can read the posts if you'd like.

Last week, the hubbub was about getting ready for Tiny Girl's next horse show. The weather was not good, so we had to practice ride when we could. This meant fitting school in between show preparations.

On Friday, she spent a good deal of time cleaning her tack. We'd discovered the night before that her show shirt no longer fit, necessitating a trip to the store Friday morning to find a blue shirt. Nothing like last minute things to do that you hadn't planned to do!

Saturday morning, we were up super early and at the equestrian park before 7 AM, Chick-fil-a chicken biscuits and coffee in hand. Tiny Girl could only manage a chocolate shake, which I made at home before we left.

It was a big weekend for us. Tiny Girl and Tappy the pony showed both days, and we added divisions as we went along because they did so well.

Cantering along

 Over crossrails

 Jasper had a great time both days. You wouldn't know it by looking at him, though.

He's always SO serious for photos.

One of the divisions we added included a crossrails course, as opposed to just four in a square shape. Tiny was really excited about this.

On Sunday, we added a prehunter over fences division, which featured vertical jumps courses (as opposed to crossrails). I did not get any photos of this, and I don't remember why! Probably because I was anxiously watching my child.

The ribbons she and Tappy earned

We've had a lovely spring break this week: playing with friends, meeting friends for lunch, enjoying a few craft projects, reading, and the like. I feel refreshed and ready to start our homestretch toward summer. I'm also getting excited about planning for next year. We'll need to play catch-up this summer a bit to stay on track, but that's okay. We always enjoy reading good books.

That's a snapshot of our last couple of weeks. I hope things are good at your house!

Springtime Sabbath

Spring is my favorite season. The girls prefer summer, which I enjoy as well; but as for pure loveliness, it's spring for me.

We are taking a break from lessons this week, and, since it is spring break for our county, we have no outside activities scheduled. We've all been needing a break, and my hope is that this week fills us with a sense of renewal, perhaps even revival. The latter may be more for me than the children, frankly.

So we talked about some plans for the week, and here is what we decided: a trip to a pottery painting studio; playing with friends; a trip to the bookstore and lunch out with some friends we haven't seen in a long time; just generally relaxing and enjoying ourselves.

For myself, I envision lounging in the hammock with a book and a glass of homemade lemonade. Perhaps Jasper will curl up beside me and snooze.

Here are the books I'm planning to read:

• Tyler's Row, by Miss Read
• I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
• The Full Cupboard of Life, by Alexander McCall Smith

I also want to get back to blogging more regularly. I hinted in my last post about life interruptions -- which are really just parts of life themselves -- that have been the focus of my thoughts and energy lately, and I've been percolating ideas about those things in particular and how they occupied me. I've been wondering if I learned anything that I could shape into any sort of would-be wisdom to share. Probably not, but that won't stop me from sharing anyway.

Here is what I have planned not to do this break week:

• Lesson planning
• Worry about lessons or lesson planning
• Worry about anything

Here is what I've actually done thus far:

• Taken the girls to the library for a one-hour yoga retreat for Girl Scout Juniors, which was instructed by a Cadette troop as part of the Silver Award (I perused the library's shelves for reading materials and actually checked out some books for school. So I've already broken one of resolutions for the week. Alas.)
• Cleaned my bathroom
• Taken care of some laundry
• Attempted to assuage the feelings of one daughter whose friends are not available to play (while her sister biked away to spend the afternoon with a friend)

Hmmm. Do you sense a pattern, or is it just me? Many's the time when I have some free moments, an afternoon perhaps, that I fill with busy-ness: housekeeping that needs doing, chores I really must tackle, meal planning, sink scrubbing, et cetera. I sense a pattern developing, and I'm determined to stop it in its tracks.

I feel a deep need for quiet calm. I feel the need for sabbath.

The sun in shining, a breeze is blowing, and a hammock is calling my name.

A Glimpse of Spring

When my friend, Blossom, from North Laurel Home & School, commented on my green grass in a photo for a Weekly Wrap-Up, I thought I'd post a few photos of spring in my neck of the woods.

Daffodils are Blossom's favorites, and a favorite of mine as well.

I love this periwinkle-colored phlox at the foot of my driveway. Notice all the buds? They have now burst into bloom.

Just a few weeks ago, I severely pruned my six red Knock-Out rosebushes, and they put out new growth almost immediately. Another rosebush of mine, a yellow one, already has buds on it.

Some trees' new leaves start out red, which looks sensational mixed in with the white flowers of ornamental pear trees, the pink of ornamental cherry trees, and the bright lavender of redbuds.

This is one of two ornamental cherries that grace the parking area of our neighborhood pool and tennis courts. Not only do I love their flowers, which are actually pinker up close, but I also love their shape.

Another spring favorite of mine is forsythia. But I don't have any, nor are any close enough to my house to photograph. So I have to content myself with catching sight of them while I drive around town.

About to enter the spring scene big-time are the dogwoods, which are beginning to bloom, and the azaleas. I have two large white azalea bushes in my back yard, and one has just started blooming. Blossom (and everyone), I'll post photos of that when it's in its full glory.

I hope you are seeing signs of spring where you live!