One Legged Cardinal!

My only hobby is to feed the birds/wildlife outside, and I just love it! I really do enjoy all the visitors we get that frequent our birdfeeders.

We have a few different male cardinals that come to the feeders, and I just love their vibrant red color. The most male cardinals we've ever seen at once was in our yard...3 of them...it was just beautiful!

One bird that comes quite regularly is a male cardinal that only has one leg! I don't know what happened to him or when, but it is quite amazing that he does so well for only having one leg! I think things like this one-legged bird are really fascinating to watch. I also think it is impressive that they can still thrive and function as they go out all day long to find food, water, shelter, etc.

A Bluebird!!!

Yes, a bluebird! We had a bluebird in our yard!!! Since bluebirds don't normally come to feeders (they don't eat birdseed) this was a fantastic treat for us!

Since we live in the northeast, naturally it was the Eastern Bluebird that we saw. It was the most beautiful shade of blue I've ever seen!

I was doing dishes and noticed this gorgeous blue bird on the ground so I took another look and thought to myself, "hmmm, that doesn't look like a bluejay, what is that?" I watched this bird as he went from the ground up to the tree, then back down to the ground and up to the tree again. He did this 3 or 4 times. I can only assume he hit the jackpot and found some yummy insects to eat. After watching this behavior, I immediately thought "could that be a bluebird???"

One of my sons ran and got his binoculars and soon confirmed that yes indeed, it was a bluebird--a MALE bluebird. Wooohooo! I was both so excited and grateful to have gotten a glimpse of this gorgeous bird.

Works For Me Wednesday: DIY Bird Bath Dripper

This is my first time participating in Works For Me Wednesday. I also hope I’m doing this right!

My only hobby is feeding the outdoor birds and I learned that birds are attracted to the sound of running or dripping water, so I wanted some sort of a dripper for my bird bath in hopes of attracting more birds to my yard. Well, I was surprised at the cost of the drippers (kind of expensive for us) so I had to find an alternative. I had read about this idea in a few different bird magazines and books. It is has worked pretty well for me...as long as I do not tighten the cap too tight.

It is a quart-size plastic jug/bottle that I have hanging over my bird bath dish. (Actually, you know those little hooks that you can buy to hang a hanging plant or feeder from a wooden deck rail? That is the hook I'm using since we don't have a deck...I just planted it into the ground next to the bird bath so the jug hangs OVER the bird bath.) I just used a thumbtack and poked a hole into a bottom corner of the jug, fill it with water and voila! Instant dripper. The flow of the water will depend on how snug you tighten the cap.

I forgot to add if you use a dripper or something to make the water in your bird bath move instead of remaining still and stagnant, mosquitoes won't lay their larva in it...they prefer still, stagnant, non-moving water on which to lay their eggs on.

Garden Clogs

OK, here is a picture of my Garden Clogs as promised. I've been wearing them outside ever since I bought them yesterday & I just love them. They are so comfortable and if they get dirty after being in the garden dirt, just rinse off with the hose! I got them at the Dollar General for $6!

Butterfly Eggs?

I found these eggs on my fuchsia plant yesterday. Does anyone know what type of eggs they are? I know butterflies like fuchsias. We have many butterflies around here, but the Monarch is the most popular. It'll be interesting to see if they hatch or not. I just love when God gives us gifts like this!!! :)

Last but not Least!

Low and behold, late this afternoon I looked out the window and saw the male Rose Breasted Grosbeak snacking on black oil sunflower seeds at my feeder. So there we have it, the Baltimore Oriole, Ruby Throated Hummingbird, and the Rose Breasted Grosbeak all returned for the summer once again on the SAME day!

They’ve Arrived!

Today is the day! The Baltimore Oriole and Ruby Throated Hummingbird have both returned for the summer. :)

It was the male oriole that was the first to be seen, but my son and I both think the first hummingbird we saw today was a female, which seems unusual. I've always read the males are the first to arrive to "claim" their territory and then the females arrive within a few days. Oh well, it's fine by me LOL! I don't care which one shows up first as long as they come back to my yard year after year!

Working in the flower garden:)

Praise the Lord--He gave us yet ANOTHER sunny day!!! Wooohoooo, it has just been like the best weather around here lately. Oh how I wish every day of the summer could be like the last few days...not too hot or humid, not too cold, but just about perfect!

Well, after 7 1/2 years of living here and looking at the same yellow daylily year after year, I finally took the plunge and cut it in half/divided it! Oh, I just hope it lives LOL. I've always wanted to do divide this daylily and a couple of hostas that I have, but I've been too afraid to try for fear of killing them. I do not have a green thumb whatsoever and I seem to kill almost every plant I try to grow LOL.

I even got brave enough to prune my LARGE, overgrown Rhododendron. I really hope I did it correctly and that I didn't damage it LOL. I researched it online and read several different articles on how to do it, so I do hope it'll turn out alright.

After church, my daughter and I went to a local floral nursery and bought some flowers! I bought one "flat" each of annuals and periannuals, but oh how I wanted to buy more, more, more! LOL, it really is hard to limit yourself! If it weren't for the money, I would have bought a lot more LOL. I really like to grow flowers that hummingbirds and butterflies are attracted to. We even got them all planted and boy was I surprised at how long it took!

I want to share a tip that my mother taught me about container gardening. If this tip is not new to you, please forgive me. I'm still new to flower gardening and never thought of this and wanted to pass it along, but some of you more "experienced" gardeners may already know about it. You know those Styrofoam Peanuts that are used for packaging? Well, use those as a "filler" mixed with your potting soil when filling a container. I have two of those plastic swan plant holders that sit in your garden and they are so deep and it would take a lot of soil to fill them up. So, she mixed some of the Styrofoam Peanuts with the soil and it really reduced the amount of soil needed. They still allow the water to drain through too!

You know, I am shocked year after year as to how much a pretty hanging basket costs! Yikes, I mean they are gorgeous and I'd love to have a few of them hanging in my yard, but not at $20-25 each! I wouldn't mind trying to make my own, but I don't believe our summers are long enough to achieve the same length and fullness that these baskets have. A few years ago I did "attempt" to make my first hanging basket and it was just pathetic LOL. My friend came over and took one look at it and burst out laughing. Sigh, maybe someday.

I planted my divided yellow daylily and hostas in my small, front flower garden which gets about 80% shade, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.


The Chipping Sparrows and a few other types of sparrows have returned for the summer, but still no hummingbirds, orioles, or rose-breasted grosbeaks yet. They should be appearing any day now. My feeders, oranges, and grape jelly are out and waiting for them. :)

What a week!

I'm sorry for my absence--things have been so crazy around here lately!

Between school, chores, cleaning, organizing, and life in general, where else does the time go? There just never seems to be enough hours in any given day, does there?

My youngest (14 months old) has begun to only take ONE nap a day...poor me LOL. If I'm "lucky", he will take between 1-1 1/2 hour nap. He has never, ever taken more than 2 or 3 naps a day since he was maybe 2 months old or so. He was born with a congenital thyroid disorder (lingual thyroid), so he has needed to take Synthroid since he was a week old (praise the Lord that they found it so early!!!). Anyway, since taking Synthroid, his naps have only been between 15 minutes to maybe 1 hour long...EVER! I really miss the 2-3 hour naps my other kids used to take LOL. So, I try to get as much done as I can during his one and only nap...it is not easy either, as I always run out of time. ;)

Our weather was very beautiful early on in the week, so we all got a little "taste" of spring. The frogs (mainly the "peepers") and the toads have all been enjoying the warm weather as they sing their orchestra of music from about 3:00pm in the afternoon long into the night! We always comment on how LOUD they are. By mid-week, however, it turned gloomy/rainy and cold again. I don't mind the cold (I actually LOVE cold weather) but I get really sick and tired of the gloomy, gray sky and all the wetness/muddiness outside. :( I love the sun and the beautiful blue skies but we don't seem to get many days like that.

One of the nice days we had held a little "treat" for my third son who is 11 years old. My other son heard a thump on our front window and he discovered it was a bird that had flown into the glass and fallen down onto the ground. :( I went outside to observe the little bird and determine if he was just stunned or worse. Thankfully, he was just stunned from the impact. My son joined me and gently picked the bird up. It was a male American Goldfinch sporting his new bright yellow summer feathers. The bird sat ever so quietly in his hands as he recovered. :) He then let me hold the little guy for a minute and then I gave him back to my son. Within another moment, the bird flew out of his hands and landed on the ground just a few feet away. My son walked slowly toward the bird and thankfully enough, the bird flew high up into an evergreen tree!


We have had this same situation happen a few times over the years, so we were familiar with the fact that most birds that fly into a window are temporarily stunned and need to be observed/monitored for a few minutes so as not to fall prey to a wondering cat, snake, hawk, etc. As soon as they "come out of it", their fear of humans usually returns and they'll take off into a nearby tree. If they don't, you could always place them onto a tree branch until they are ready to fly on their own.

It is truly so wonderful to see my young man have a genuine "sensitive" side. He has such a compassion for animals of all kinds. This child takes after me and is an animal lover. I've watched him in many situations of nurturing, protecting, caring for animals and it is such a gift to see! I hope he will never, ever lose this special trait!

Well, that is just a little of how our week has been. It isn't terribly exciting by any means, but it is our life LOL. I will try not to miss so many days all in a row again. :)