If You Fill Them, They Will Come

That is a cheesy title.  Yes, I'm aware of this.  It's all I've got right now.

We have bird feeders in one of the trees in our back yard.  I've mentioned this before.   The tree is pretty close to the house and very visible from the school room window.  We only fill it during the winter.  I kept putting it off this year, but finally got to it this week.  Evan's pretty happy about it.  The birds fluttering around the tree and eating off the feeders in the back yard add just a teensy bit of excitement to our rather drab looking wintertime back yard.

We filled them Friday.

We get tons of birds here, as you can tell by all the nests.

And Alexa and Evan left some treats for the bunnies, too.

We went inside and had some ......um.....hot.....liquid ....drink that is sweet.  And chocolatey.  I'm sure you can't imagine what it is (sarcasm).  Actually I'm pretty sure you could guess as I seem too have an addiction or unhealthy obsession with the stuff this time of year.  I can't help it!  It's good stuff!
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Today we checked the feeders before breakfast and they seemed to be untouched.  Evan was disappointed but I told him it takes a little while for the birds, squirrels and bunnies to realize that the buffet has reopened.

By mid afternoon, one of those critters must have gotten the word out, though.

We had a pair of cardinals stop for lunch, too, but they didn't stick around for a picture.

I'm looking forward to getting the Blue Jays and hopefully a woodpecker now and then this winter.

The ninja squirrels stopped by the tree at one point, too, but we didn't see any rabbits.

It's been a mostly indoors kinda day today, because it's so cold.  I really don't care for the cold at all, but whatcha gonna do.

I'm trying to enjoy the seasons as they come but I really, really, really can't wait till our beach trip this summer.  You think I talk about hot chocolate too much?  Wait till the beach trip gets near.  I will probably never shut up about it.

Hope you're having a sunshiney weekend with your favorite people!

~Tina

Friday with Evan

It was just me and Evan Friday afternoon, so despite the cold(ish) weather, we decided to do what little boys like to do best. Go outside and run around. Well, he did the running around part, but I did participate in the "going outside".

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I decided the poor backyard birdies had gone on long enough without our feeders being filled. So, we took care of that, first. Evan, my assistant "feeder filler", was quite helpful. We had some bread to get rid of too, so the birdies got a bonus that day.

After filling the feeders, Evan decided he wanted to catch a bird.

I asked him how he was going to go about this. He said, "I'll show you", and this is what he did..... Pretty clever boy. He set the "trap" of breadcrumbs that led to the clubhouse, then ran to the swingset to play. He's learning how to pump the swing by himself, and getting pretty good at it. But naturally that's not as easy or as fun as having mommy do it, so he called out, "push me". I did, of course. After some silly fun together with the swings, he decided it was time to catch that bird.

He said we were being too noisy to catch the bird while he was swinging, so we needed to get into position at the clubhouse and wait quietly for the poor helpless birdie to fall into our trap. This is the view from the swingset clubhouse where we waited to watch the birdcatching plan unfold. As you can see, the bread crumbs are lined up in a perfect path to lead the poor unsuspecting birdie right into Evan's little hands. We waited......and waited.....and waited. And Evan was quiet too. So I felt kinda bad that his little trap didn't catch at least one birdie (not that I ever thought it would, but I'm not gonna tell him that).

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But then, today I asked him what he planned on doing with the bird if he did catch one. He said with that cute little smile on his face, "squish it". I said, "squish it?! Why would you squish a bird?" He said, "Because I love them so much, I just want to hug it." *phew*

I breathed a little sigh of relief that my so sweet little boy didn't have it out for the backyard birdies.

But, just the same, I think it's best for everyone involved that the birdies did not fall into Evan's trap.

We are enjoying watching the birds now, safely through the window. :)

TTFN

~Tina

Nature in Our Yard: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

We are so blessed to have a strip of woods lining the yard at the back of our house. These are old woods, with very tall trees that were never torn down when this plan was built. And because of those woods, we don't have to go on a nature walk away from home to do nature study (although we all really enjoy those trips). But more recently we are coming to realize that being so close to nature has it's, shall we say, not-so-positive side (I hate being negative). In all fairness, though, we'll start with the things we enjoy.

THE GOOD:

THE BAD:

The picture above shows an anthill....more like an ant condominium...over near the swingset, of all places...grrrr)
This is a hole of some sort of burrowing creature that is wreaking havoc on our lawn (above), and this is one of those burrowing paths, though it's hard to see in the photo (below). It's path runs from near the bottom left corner up to near the upper right corner.

THE UGLY:

Ok, so maybe not "Ugly". Just not my cup of tea. My girls and Evan sure enjoy them. But when I see them like this...

Blah

Yuck

Ewwwwww

But with all the "bad" and "ugly" that have been showing up lately, I still wouldn't trade this house with it's mini-forest lining the yard. I just have to take a deep breath and deal with these critters. *sigh*

Oh, and our pest control guy is coming on Wednesday to see what we can do about the burrowing critter. And we are looking into a lawn care company to help rid us of those nasty ants. :-) God helps those who help themselves, right?

TTFN

~Tina

Love this Bird Book Bargain

Found this cool book at Border's last weekend for only $9.99 on clearance and we love it! Alexa is especially happy with it. It gives a brief description of many birds, but the best part is that it plays their birdcalls with the touch of a button! Love it when we come across things like this!

TTFN
~Tina

Springtime Snapshots from our Backyard

Beautiful changes are happening all around us. I just couldn't resist taking my camera outside in an attempt to capture some of these fleeting moments, before they are gone for another year.

It's a good thing I photographed this tree when I did, because the blooms are now gone, thanks to 3 straight days of rain.

I love these little purple flowers that make beautiful ground cover beneath a tree in our yard.

Mr. Bunny was out and about. Love it when he visits!

Forsythia blooms so bright and beautiful.

And nests.....squirrels (above) and birds (below) were discovered.

The little man is crying, so gotta run!

TTFN

~Tina

Caught ya!

For a couple of weeks now, I've been trying to catch a picture of the hummingbird that frequents our apple shaped hummingbird feeder. It's tough to catch those beautiful little creatures in my lens. Well, I did it! It's not the best, clearest photo. But I gottem', none the less.

Although you can't really tell, it's a tiny little thing.

TTFN

~Tina

Nature in the Neighborhood

We went for a nature walk to the neighborhood pond that we went to last Fall. It was no walk in the forest, but when you are pressed for time and just want to see some signs of Spring, it'll do. The girls brought along pads and colored pencils to do some drawings. We couldn't actually sit at the pond due to the "pushy" geese (shown above). So we headed further down the path to what Taylor so affectionately refers to as the babbling sewer. It's not a sewer. Trust me. It might be some sort of "runoff" area, but it's not a sewer. Anyhoo, she and the rest of the girls found a shady spot under one of their favorite types of trees, the Weeping Willow.

We saw many signs of spring, even goslings. Those Mama and Papa geese are very protective. They even went so far as to stand near a sign to give us a message! It says DANGER. Needless to say, we didn't get too close. That's why I don't have any close up pictures of the babies.

Some signs of Spring.... goslings,

this plant, we're thinking it's poison ivy,.........and this (still unidentified tree) shedding it's bark.......cool.....and Buttercups......oh, and I believe this is a sign of Spring, too. Children outside playing again!

This was probably the highlight of the day for these two!