Baby chickadees update

The birds are growing fast…

chickadees 7.3.09

It’s a little difficult to get the door open and get a good photo.  I think there are 6 of them.

Thanks for stopping by…

;o)

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Baby birds

Bill made a couple of bluebird boxes earlier this year and we “planted” them next to the grass in the rear of the house.  There wasn’t much interest for awhile but finally the chickadees took note of one of them and started spending lots of time going in and out, in and out.

Bill really thought they were nesting.  I have had experience with bluebirds, swallows and wrens, but never chickadees.  I peeked into the box the other day and found these…

baby chickadees 6.25.09

I’m not sure how many there are but I’m guessing 5 or 6.  I don’t think they were very old; born within the last week I’m pretty sure.  I’ll try to check again next week and post an update.

Thanks for stopping by…

;o)

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A new feathered friend

Tonight the hummingbird came to visit. Although I have had several decorative hummingbird feeders over the past couple of years, I don’t remember seeing any birds. At the suggestion of Bill, I bought a $3.88 feeder at Walmart. Apparently, that is what they were waiting for. I noticed the Ruby Throated Hummingbird at the feeder outside the kitchen window while I was doing the dinner dishes. I’m very happy to have them in the neighborhood.

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It’s been awhile

Wow, I’m surprised it’s been such a long time since I posted anything here. What have I been doing instead? Good question, just living life I guess.

I’ve been working in the garden, pulling weeds and grass, transplanting some stuff from Bill’s garden that was taking over. I put it on the small hill behind the driveway and don’t really care if it takes over there. That probably means that it won’t, of course.

I heard a House Wren the other day. I remember them from the years I lived in Shapleigh. They are such cute, energetic little birds. I think I need to find (or build) a wren house. Also saw a Baltimore Oriole on the tree next to the street.

I’ve been making a conscious effort to walk more outside when I have the time and the weather is good. I would rather be outside than on a treadmill at the gym but I’ll stop there after work. The weather last week was very nice…sunny, in the 70’s, a little breeze. Bill and I made our first trip to the beach one evening after work. We walked from the Moody Beach parking lot to Ogunquit Beach where we were very bad and had a wonderful ice cream cone. It usually takes us about 30 minutes to walk briskly one way and a little longer to return as we just stroll along on the way back.

Bill and I took a trip to Knight’s Quilt Shop last week. I was looking for a pattern for a super cute wallhanging that I want to make for Ella’s room. I didn’t find it there but Bill found more oriental fabric and ordered another pattern. I will never get all of his wish list made but I will plug along, fitting one in every now and then so he doesn’t think I’m ignoring him.

Since my last post I received the 30’s fabric noodles from the swap on MQResource.

I found a pattern for these fabrics while shopping at Knight’s. This makes 4 or 5 patterns for which I have the fabric organized and ready to cut. I don’t know how I think I will possibly ever get it all done considering the small amount of time I actually sew. I’m still working on cutting all the 1 3/4″ strips for the blooming 9-patch; very time consuming and it hurts my back if I cut too long at one time.

I stopped at Kathie’s Quilt Shoppe and picked up the Peek-a-Boo pattern I wanted and a couple of sale fabrics to use as backing for my penny rug projects.

I have finished the small 30’s wallhanging I have been working on,”Circling Pinwheels”. I used the blue pen to mark the circles which were quite easy to quilt. Unfortunately, when I wet the fabric to erase the blue marks, the red fabric ran. Bummer!! I was able to wash it several times with Synthropol and it appears to be fine. It was a fun little piece to make and I’m actually happy with the final outcome.

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Bicycle, bicycle

Today we had an opportunity to go for a bike ride for the first time this year. The sky was partly cloudy and the temp was near 70*. We are usually out a couple of times in April or May. We always try to ride from Ogunquit to York before the traffic gets crazy but this year it never warmed up. So, today was the day. We rode for about three hours stopping for lunch at Richards and then again at Gray Farms to look at all the wonderful flowers and plants. Bill had attached new odometers which read 10.9 miles but he thought that was about a mile too high, so we rounded it off at 10 miles; not a bad first trip.

I told myself earlier this spring that I was not going to spend as much money on plants as I have the past couple of years. I have done pretty good but there are a couple of bare spots in the shade garden that need a little something. I picked up another astilbe and a Jacob’s Ladder.

There is a chickadee nesting in the gourd house that Bill hung in the tree by the front window. Today we saw what we think was a Great Crested Flycatcher.

I used up a lot of calories today, starting with the gym right after work. After the bike ride I did some of the Wii fit program, then went to yoga. I was asleep on the couch by 9:30 and once I got into bed I slept like a rock the entire night.

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