It seems like Spring has had to labor especially hard to make its presence felt this year, but I found hard evidence that it’s finally arrived when I checked one of my flowerbeds this week.  The last time I’d looked, these daffodils were timid little sprouts shivering beneath last year’s dried oak leaves.

We had new visitors at our bird feeding station this past week, a bird that we’ve never seen before.  It took a bird-book from a friend to put a name to these lovely creatures:  orange-headed blackbirds.   The regular blackbird is my favorite bird, and when these guys were all together and everyone was busy eating with their heads down, rear-ends in the air, they looked like one big flock of blackbirds.  You can imagine my surprise when their heads popped up.

Since I’ve had two witchlets move out of the house and into apartments of their own, the remaining girls have been able to spread out and claim their own rooms– finally– meaning that they’ve outgrown their bunkbeds.  I was going to give these metal framed beds away, but a friend gave me a better idea…Much to my husband’s delight (*cough*).  I’m using the frame and the top platform to create new wildlife feeding stations in the yard, the bottom platform is going to become a trellis in the flowerbeds.  And since I have two bunkbeds, I’ll have enough for the front and the backyard. 

I’m going to get a couple more hanging flowerpots for this station, along with a second hummingbird feeder; and I’ve planted morning glories in the pots sitting by the ladders at either end.  Also, as the birds knock all that seed around, I’ll have sunflowers and other cool plants sprouting spontaneously beneath it.  I’ll take more pictures as the season moves forward.

We love being able to have Sunday morning coffee on the back porch, and we’ve been able to do that in early April this year, which is not always the case.  This was our first Sunday morning outside earlier this month.  Although it sounds like the weather is going to turn nasty this weekend, and I think I’m going to be dragging all these plants and pots indoors.  That’s what I get for being in a hurry!

“Every spring is the only spring – a perpetual astonishment.”

Ellis Peterson