Gardens and babies

 Before we discuss the gardens, the babies are now nine and ten days old.  The first picture shows them just a few days old, two or three.  They are so pink with little tufts of fur on their large heads.  Their little scrawny necks wouldn't even hold their heads up.  I woke up today to find two blue eggs in the nest.  I couldn't imagine that mom had started another family so soon.  As you can see, the babies now have feathers on and after observing them throughout the day, we think the eggs  are unhatched from the beginning eggs and as the babies are now pretty mobile, they are moving the eggs as they scramble for food. 

 This is my gnome garden.  This picture is for Pat and Barb.  I put impatiens in the stump, but please note the gnomes hiding in the pot as well as the garden bear sneaking up behind!  Thanks gals!
As always, I have a beautiful flower garden out front.  I wish I could take more credit, but really, I just put things in and pray for the best.  I don't fertilize and I mulch sparingly and with May not even over, I have an abundance of blooms and more just about to open.  In addition, I have discovered that the birds give me surprises.  I have a purple geranium that I did not plant which is blooming and a few cone flowers that I did not plant.  Also, in the gnome garden I have chives!  I did not plant them in the shady spot, but they are blooming.

"The difference between truth and a fairytale is what you see in the photograph of a seed catalog and what actually comes up in your garden." ~ Folklore from Deb, South Dakota

Babies

First, we have a baby robin!  It hatched sometime today as this a.m. all 3 eggs were intact.  Now there is one tiny wide beak barely visible when mama leaves the nest.  The Mr. marked the calendar when the first egg arrived and today was the day it should have hatched and thanks to the Internet, we got accurate information.  By tomorrow, we should have a couple more babies.  Mother Nature finally dropped a little moisture on us and believe me it was sorely needed.  I fear that we will be on water restrictions if we don't get lots more.  I got almost all of my seeds in the vegetable garden and the perennial herbs are already producing.  The spinach reseeded and we have been cutting salad from it above for a couple of weeks.  I will put more herbs in this week and get my wonderful new herb markers out as well as the tomatoes.  Potatoes are peeking through the soil and there is much more to do.

I had another birthday and am blessed to have had so many well-wishers.  We got a new shower put in the master bath.  The tub is gone and we can now walk into a large shower which will be more and more a great thing as we age and become less nimble. That was not my birthday present!  I plan to get some Adirondack  chairs for my shady garden, but the shower was a bit pricey so that will have to wait.  My neighbor took me to lunch and of course I had my friends for a few days last week.  We try to spend time together around our birthdays.  I have lots of flowers in the front garden ready to burst with color and will post both that and progress in the veggie garden.  Today with the weather so wet, I was able to get some quilts assembled and ready to quilt so I have "miles to go before I rest".

"There are fairies at the bottom of our garden." ~ Rose Fyleman    (I found worms in mine).

This 'n that

 I didn't quite know how to title this blog...I wanted to tell about our robin lady who does remind me of a "loose lady" as was the term used in days gone by, but decided not to use that in my title.  But first, last month when I went to spend a few days with my friend, Pat, in Colorado, I searched for things for my kitchen that I could give a new life.  I found this salt & pepper set and although the pepper needs some bit of repair, the color was perfect!  I needed more color for accent and voila!  I think they are great!

 Now, this nesting box sits just outside the window here at the computer.  The first year we had a robin who dutifully raised 4 babies and last year it was vacant.  About 3 weeks ago we watched anxiously as nesting materials arrived and then were thrown out.  This happened more than half dozen times. We never witnessed the events and were quite puzzled.  Last Saturday, the nest began to appear bit by bit and we finally saw a robin.  She spent all weekend building this nest. I saw her Monday morning and she did not come back until yesterday (Saturday).  She left in the afternoon and we could clearly see one blue egg.  She was gone and did not return until this afternoon.  She just left again and there are clearly two blue eggs in the nest.  Now as I type this she is back.  Either she spent the week out carousing and last night as well or she is a new mother who doesn't quite have the hang of this "mothering thing".  I was accusing her of abandoning the egg and just using the nest as a place to get rid of the egg.  Shame on me!  Anyway, we will keep watching as we have a bird's eye view!

My neighbor gave me about a dozen beautiful T-shirts in prints and solids.  I recently picked up a pattern to convert 2 T-shirts into this set above!  It turned out pretty good and as soon as I have time, I will make more.  Simply cut one shirt down the middle, turn back 1/2 inch and stitch down.  Embellish as you like, using a fusing fabric and decorate with buttons, trims, etc.