It really does take a long time and a garden is never finished anyway. I am always fussing with something. Plus I love flowers so besides the shrubs that bloom, the roses and all the perennials, I usually plant lots of annuals each spring also. Top of the list of annuals for me are zinnias. The zinnias really attract tons of butterflies.

The property is not large, I consider it a typical backyard size. But it is very densly planted and there is hardly any grass left here. Plus the property is very multi level. That means there was lots and lots of terracing done to make slopes into usable gardening space. The hills and terracing mean that things work much more densly planted than I ever could have done if I just had a level yard. I really like the way it all turned out and I just love my garden. To me the fact that the birds and butterflies like it here also just adds that extra touch to the garden. I like the garden full of life and I really love to watch the birds here in my garden.

Just put out some fresh suet for the woodpeckers and whoever wants it. Plus the squirrels here really like the cracked corn and get nice and fat, ha-ha! I just throw it on the driveway, no fancy feeder needed for that. In the winter I just see morning doves driving into that cracked corn in droves.

Ann, I moved into this house when my parents bout it when I was under ten. Grew up here and when I got married at 23 only moved in another part of town. My mom stayed here until she passed away at 92 and all that time I was here at the house many times a week. Mom never did learn to drive so I took her grocery shopping and whatever errands. So the house and grounds hold many, many happy memories for me. My hubby and I moved back here after my mom passed and I have been here ever since. Don't ever intend to leave. Honestly, I hate the winters so used to think someday I would move south were it is warmer but as I got older I just got too settled to start anywere new. My garden is here and I put so much into it. My life and friends are here. Were else would I go?

This is a great email newsletter, called "Nestwatch", you can subscribe to from Cornell U.

Click on the Nestcams on the right to see some very interesting nesting.


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I have a small flock of Common Red-poles at the feeders today. They are very pretty little birds.

I took this photo last year through the window.

Oh, I don't ever get those. Quite pretty.

Ohhhhh, they're so pretty. And cute little dickens too! Margaret you take some fine bird photos.

Rita I guess it isn't cold enough there for those little birds.

Thank you Ann. I love watching and photographing the birds.

those are sooooo cute

Awwww...

It was very cold on that particular day and the little cuties were all fluffed up.

Margaret: I've never seen a Redpoll and they are sooo cute! I guess they don't come this far south. The Northern Cardinal is a year round regular at my feeders though. I took these pictures on my back deck this morning:

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The Cardinal is one of my favorite birds and I'm so glad they are year round residents here.

I edited out the last photo which was a duplicate!

Love the cardinals

Lin I love the Cardinals, they are very beautiful, I would like to see them here, but I guess they don't come this far north west.

Margaret: The Northern Cardinal's range extends north to Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia but not all the way to the NW to BC.

I have never seen so many Cardinals together at one time as I have here - they don't normally flock, to my knowledge, but they sure do around these parts.

I guess it depends on the Cardinals food preferences as to the areas they live in. Sheryl do you get the Steller's jay there?

Cardinals are just so beautiful. They are common here. I usually have some around. One year they even nested in the big boxwood shrub in my back yard. Birds love that shrub as it is about 7 feet tall and round with lots of other shrubs around it so it is very secluded. In years that the cardinals didn't nest there the catbirds nested in the boxwood. I really love to watch whatever is nesting there. I can just sit on my patio and watch the doings!

That's really neat Rita, I love watching the birds when their nesting . This past summer we had 2 pairs of Mountain Chickadees and 2 pairs of Tree Swallows in nest boxes. The Tree Swallow numbers were way down I think because of the crappy spring and summer we had.

Well for years and years and years now each spring I have chicadees in one of my nestboxes and House Wrens in the other. I just love the chicadeees they are so cute. Then the House wrens are so much fun. They nest in the slot box in the front yard while the chicadees are in the back. Then the wrens choose another box in the yard for their second clutch. I do have a fair number of nextboxes avaiable but I have never been able to get the small woodpeckers to nest here.