Our Garden Birds

Plagiarism is not pretty, nonetheless, I'm using Matt Sewell's title for today's post. I can't help it that it is such a descriptive title and it fits our situation perfectly. Forgive me Matt.

Because today, the birds were out in great numbers feasting at the Nuttery all at once, I was able to get some good shots through the glass door.

I am unsure if this is one of the cardinal babies, all grown up, or the momma. There may be times when you think I can get pictures of my garden birds every day, but that's not really true. I've yet to see one again on the little bird house I put nearby, and some days, I don't see very many at all. Today was an exception. The little tufted titmouse on the pole decided he didn't want to compete so went searching on the ground instead and look what he came up with!

I mentioned recently that they are very fast, so I can't believe I got these shots. I really wanted you to see the blue feet which I think are super cool. After balancing the acorn part, he turned to face me.

Aren't they something? Take it from me, once you get interested in birds, you can spend an inordinate amount of time watching them. As busy as Bruce is, he finds himself keeping an eye on the feeder outside his office window throughout the day! Here is Papa Cardinal sharing the Nuttery with a finch who has decided to go undercover.

Good grief are they ever cute! I told you I bought Bill a nice bird bath to go out back with his feeder, however, he's decided he wants another feeder out front! Bird fever is catching my friends!

We've been having more rain and I mean a bunch. It's a good thing I spent the day beside the pool on Monday because there has been none of that the last two days. Grey and rainy all day. Not my kind of weather for sure. I'm getting out early to do gardening and bike riding. As far as gardening is concerned, all my years volunteering at the Polasek were not for naught. I learned, mostly by osmosis I'm convinced, that cutting plants back is a good thing. Not that I like cutting off blooms mind you, but it really seems to bring a plant back. My bougainvillea has never looked as good after a serious, and I mean serious, pruning.

The leaves are nice and fresh and there are more blooms daily. Now what is to be done about my basil is another question. I was thinking I might make a pasta dish for myself but one look at my basil quickly changed my mind.

A disaster I tell you! Although I see no bugs, clearly something is feasting away. Same for my tomato plant. It's as high as our house. and ragged as all get out below. A few flowers remain, but I'm not counting on much in the way of a harvest. It is certainly one thing or another when you are growing plants. Thank God for our real farmers!!

Bugs, a way of life in Florida. Mosquitoes and cockroaches can always be counted on. Sad, but true. Looking at the photographs, you would be forgiven for thinking our home is perfect. It is not. Truth be told, we've been finding dead roaches (a good thing) and live roaches (a bad thing), specifically in the kitchen. We're doing all we can to mitigate this situation because who in their right mind likes finding roaches, dead or alive, in their home? NO ONE! I'm giving our electric dishwasher a rest for now, washing all dishes by hand. By hand? A travesty! Not really. I was running the dishwasher maybe two times a week which means the dirty dishes were bait for those ugly, nasty bugs. Or so we think. Furthermore, we are making sure Baxter's bowl is clean and empty overnight which is when they come out. Gross, gross, gross. Aren't you glad I'm including no photographs of cockroaches? You should be.

The bike riding is going well. Just after 7 in the morning, I hop on my bike, check the odometer, and off I go. We are lucky because there are street after street of residential neighborhoods surrounding our home. Moreover, no two look alike. I'm really enjoying looking at all the yards, particularly in Southern Oaks which is just across the street from our neighborhood. Beautiful homes, beautiful yards. Today I took a different route, heading East on Pershing, crossing Bumby and into a neighborhood where we once looked at a home on a canal leading into Lake Conway. It was long ago, so most of the details escape me, but I do remember Bruce thinking it would be oh so nice to live at least on a canal. I said no two homes looked alike and I meant what I said. I do remember that this house on Overlake has looked like this forever.

How crazy is this? And just across the street, the folks are channeling Key West.

So, you see, it is interesting. Surprisingly, five miles does not seem like much, probably because I am heading out so early before the heat and humidity have a chance to wear me down. Insofar as my hair is concerned, that is another story.

I had a nice long chat with Matthew this afternoon, hearing all about Dubai. Apparently, the mall has 1,200 stores although he was too busy to go inside. As well, the Diamond Jubilee experience. For his part, he's happy he won't have to travel again until he comes to America in July for a wedding. Originally he was to be home for his birthday, but not so anymore. Instead, he and Tom will go to the wedding in Lancaster, PA, and then on to New York City for a visit. The things they will see! Maybe he will see his Dad's Lancaster Olive Garden!

When some of my flowers don't do well, it is easy to forget that this area housed a 60' oak tree only a year ago and the soil is still adjusting.

They ground the stump all right but left much of the grindings which have yet to fully compost I'm thinking. Mostly this photograph is meant to point out one plant in particular--the big ball in the clay pot on the ground. The last Christmas that my mother-in-law was alive, she planted some of her Swedish ivy in hanging baskets for the twins. Sadly, neither took much notice of her gift. Somehow I ended up with them and look what has become of her gift. I just lopped off a bunch of it, however, it won't stay like this for long because it grows like mad! I gave Angela some cuttings which she rooted in water, and they, too, are going gangbusters. What a wonderful thought knowing that Judy Peck's love is spreading in ways she never dreamed of. :)

Beginner's Luck

While on holiday I used my iPhone every now and again to check my email. I used it for lots more than that for maps and fact checking like who sung what--that sort of thing--so glad I finally succumbed to a smart phone. But that's another story....

I think it might have been on Wednesday that an email came through from Etsy saying someone included one of my photos in a "treasury" which to my mind kind of predates Pinterest. Same idea really except instead of choosing from the whole web people choose things they like from Etsy. So that was kind of cool. It was the heart cloud.

I'm pretty sure it was the next day that an email came through with even more exciting news--a sale. The heart cloud. Coincidence? I don't know. What I do know is I was completely shocked and didn't know what came next. What came next was a call to David, giving him the opportunity to say "I told you so", something he is wont to do on any number of topics. Actually, his first words were "Congratulations Mom."

After struggling with the mailing process, off it went. And now nothing. No views, no orders. Totally beginner's luck. Now I need to learn the ropes on how to get people to my shop. Saturday the Winter Garden market was fairly slow for me but I did meet some folks who stayed and chatted for a good long while. After looking at some of my images the man asked me if I sold online. "Well, sort of," I replied. He went on quite a while about how he'd been selling jewelry on Etsy for three years and it is possible to get seen, it's just that there are tricks involved which he was only too willing to share. In fact, he claims he'll be back next week with a book to guide me through the process. We shall see now won't we?

In another new development, a week ago Sunday, just about the time we were closing up the booth, a couple came along and shortly after meeting, the woman started talking to me about their business. What kind of business you ask? Art publishing, or something like that. SDGraphics is the name. I spoke with her last week and sent her an album of requested subjects. She called just as I was sitting down to blog and had some complimentary things to say including the fact that she'd shown the album to someone else who said the same. Would I send specific images again? I answered yes. Here again, I have no idea if anything will come of it, but I won't know unless I try. Think the art you see in retail stores which in their case are HomeGoods and Kirklands. Apparently the way I would make any money out of this scheme is volume. Once again, time will tell.

I got a new car on Thursday--a Honda Pilot.

In a nutshell, the Element lease was due, we needed more space, and so we got this. Pretty plush when compared to the Element that's for sure. A bonus is that when the kids come to town we will actually have seats in our vehicle! Bonus round two--the shed has a lot more room in it now that the back seats for the Element have been restored to their rightful place. Did I really type kids??? They are far too old to use that term!

More importantly the cardinals have hatched and in fact have LEFT the nest as far as I can tell. So here is how I first saw them:

All snuggled up they were. You'll have to click on it probably to see the little eye in the front. I can't wait to see that nest up close what with the paper in it and all. The day we went to look at the car I went out front, watching the nest from a distance, when lo and behold, I saw this little one on the edge of the nest:

The original Mohawk! Actually he isn't on the edge in this one but before long he was.

Those wispy little feathers in the front are really something aren't they? I just knew he was fixing to take off and sure enough he did--a little jump onto an adjacent palm frond which is what you are seeing in front.

From what I can tell about timing, perhaps the eggs hatched while we were on holiday, one of the reasons I was so distressed that all the feeders were empty when we returned. The thing is, now I can't find them anywhere. I mowed the lawn today, which looks excellent if you really want to know, and there were no baby cardinal sightings. I'm slightly worried because, although the pictured chick looked good and ready, the remaining chick appeared to have no interest whatsoever in leaving the nest. Where have my little cardinals gone????

The yard is kicking into high gear what with the warm weather we are having. I'm beyond thrilled that the caladiums are popping up like mad. I took this picture on Friday and today there are even more!

Another very exciting happening around the Peck Casa are my blooming orchids. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself but my sister-in-law Ruth's parents gave me an orchid two years ago Christmas. After all the blooms finally gave up the ghost I placed it under what some might consider a tree. A month or so ago I began to notice blooms forming. If you can imagine, there are 29 buds!!!!!!

It's crazy hard to photograph it well because the stems go every which way and on each one there are gobs of buds and blooms. Fantastic!!!

And then there is this one I got from my market neighbors, Jim and Kathy:

The potential blooms on this baby are not nearly as impressive but still nice. There are birds and butterflies everywhere in our yard. So nice to commune with nature...

How cute is this little one:

I took this through the big window in the living room between the open blinds. I'm considering taking down the blinds so they are not in the way?

I began this blog post hours and hours ago. Happily I spoke with Matt and Tom on all matter of digital media--first FaceTime, then iChat, and finally the regular phone. Crazy I know but good. They both gave me input on the Etsy shop tags--a way for people to find my stuff. Agreeing that worn towels was not good, Matt changed it to just towels. Oftentimes you'll find me going on a bit about how technology isn't such a good thing; of course this is said when I'm not in need of the amazing things that can now be done with same.

Speaking of which, while we were gone, and I was eating out all the time, I couldn't help but notice that all sorts of folks would be sitting together at a table looking at the screens on their phone. This bothered me a lot. When we got to the market last week we learned that one of the vendor's husbands (our age I might add) died while driving a car at 80mph. A heart attack obviously. In the blink of an eye,  he was gone. Love the ones you're with my friends. Will you?