Hiding in Plain Sight

This morning as I was mowing the back yard, a lovely sight caught my eye. There is a bird (I think a finch, though I can't be sure) who has built her nest in the lowest branch of our walnut tree. She's presently sitting on her eggs, which just tickles me to no end.

I only saw the nest because of the strands of nesting material that are hanging down from the branch. It's actually quite a smart little spot...low enough so that the baby birds (hopefully) won't fall, but still protected from predators bu the thick grown of leaves all around. If you didn't specifically look, you wouldn't even know the nest was there.

I'm mildly concerned because of our Jack Russell's hunting tendencies, but I'm keeping a close eye on the pet I so love. I feel fiercely protective of these baby birds and their mamma, and I honestly don't know what I would do if Ditto caused them any harm. In short, this simply can't happen, so I'm going to make sure it doesn't!

Isn't springtime sweet!

Container Gardening

This year has really gotten away from me in terms of gardening. It seems like spring was upon us in one instant, and now it's almost flown right by. Still, I couldn't let the season go without doing my traditional planting of annual flowers in containers for the back deck.

Sunday was a beautiful day, sunny with a cool breeze. I spent a couple of hours at the store, picking through what was left of this year's flower selections, and then I came home and planted until the sun went down. Here are the resulting pictures: