Winter Beauty

Somehow bright Midwestern sunshine radiating down in January makes even 15 degrees seem OK. Watching some winter-hardy birds dart and hop, around and under, our bird feeder to obtain badly needed nourishment in the mid-day sunshine is most wonderful. The expense of buying wild bird seed, and the effort of filling a feeder in the winter cold, are more than offset by the enjoyment offered by these fragile creatures of the air! The varieties and colors (even in the dead of winter) are amazing. Cardinal red, Jay blue, Sparrow brown, and Nuthatch grey pop in the bright light, and afford the observer a most pleasant feeling.

Spring at its Best

While my husband was pruning the Weeping Mulberry Tree in our yard this weekend, he made a discovery.

I was soon summoned to the backyard to check out a nest right smack in the middle of the Mulberry tree.

This tree is always so much fun to prune. Yeah!! If you don’t get to it before it leafs out, forget it. It becomes so dense with branches that it is impossible to find your way around. So, with a little coaxing and a pair of loppers in hand, my husband went out to tackle this fun job. This tree is really a fun tree if kept in check. We have seen a group of these at the Cleveland Botanical Garden They are in their Children’s garden and form a tent like structure which makes great child play.

Once my husband began to prune the tree, he noticed that there was a lot of squawking from two robins in another tree. He soon put things together. A finely woven nest was spotted with four beautiful blue eggs in it. Well that got our curiosity up.

Now we will sit and monitor the nest. As of today, mom seemed to be sitting very still for extended periods of time.

I don’t know if my movement, while looking out the window, made mom fly away for a time, or if she just needed a break. We are not sure just how long these eggs have been in the nest and are a little worried that we have now removed some of the cover for mom and her eggs.

According to Wild Birds Unlimited, the male robin is the one that sings, but both male and female make alarm sounds. This must have been what my husband heard. Robins eat insects and berries. Check out these amazing facts: Robins can eat up to 14 feet of earthworms in a day!” Their life cycle is usually around one and a half years. Most of the nest is built by the female in about five to six days. The number of eggs in our nest is typical and mom incubates these eggs for approximately 12 to 14 days. It takes about 10 days for the babies to get all of their feathers. They leave the nest in 14 to 16 days. More to come later...

It's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

On this cold, snowy January day, all I can do is dream about what will be blooming in the not so distant future. I happened to notice the buds of our Korean Dwarf Lilacs that will become a beautiful show in May, and also send their sweet fragrance right through the open windows in Spring. I made this observation by taking a picture of a Tufted Titmouse on a feeder in our backyard. Check out the bird, but also check out the flower buds too.


We do not have anything blooming outside, and only a couple of plants in bloom inside. I am all of a sudden feeling the urge to shop for more inside bloomers!

Here are the two plants that are brightening up our home for now.

A Shamrock

and an unidentified Primrose

OH DEER! Here are the last two of a herd of eight at dusk.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day is hosted by May Dream Gardens. Thank you for hosting this! Check out this blog to see what is blooming in other bloggers' gardens, both inside and out, on the 15th of each month.