A Friday in Early Spring

I went out about 3 yesterday afternoon. It was the warmest part of the day. I worked along the front sidewalk...pulling away the winter protection from the mums. Our mums are late blooming...sometimes blooming still when the snow comes. Last fall, Joe cut them down and just left the cuttings on top of the mums for winter. It worked very well. I can see tiny little green sprigs that will become nice full mums later on. I cut the stems to the ground and pulled out the dead leaves that were trapped behind the plants. I moved my lawn cart over to my Mary's Garden and did the same with the mums there.I trimmed up the perennials around the statue and sat back in the chair to relax and listen to birds. They were going back and forth from feeder to trees.

 We have so many purple finches this year. They all seem to be looking for a place to build a nest. They kept flying to the porch and then looking at the hanging basket full of succulents...that I just planted. I'm going to have to discourage them from building their home in that basket, somehow. They are persistent little creatures and can build a nest over night, it seems. I'll be  hanging a twig wreath on the porch soon....they might find that more to their liking. We don't like them on the porch...because then we have a hard time sitting there...when they are just above our heads.They act like it's their porch...not ours.

 My neighbor up the road emailed to say that she saw a Pileated Woodpecker in her yard. I've seen these in Wisconsin, but never around here. I heard one last year and looked and looked for the bird, but didn't see him.They feast on carpenter ants and termites...so they love dead wood. I'll have to keep my eye out for him. Her home sits on a more wooded lot...a very natural setting...with water features in the back yard and a woods beyond. A very pretty and restful place to garden.

My daughter emailed that she had seen, yesterday, at her home in Wisconsin. :

hooded merganser
wood duck
mallard
canvasback
northern shoveler
bald eagle
Canada goose
common goldeneye
American coot

 What a great list of sightings.I hope she's keeping a journal from year to year on what birds she sees. 

Well, today promises to be sunny and still chilly. I'm going to continue on my trek around the house...doing a little at a time. The clematis vines are next. I usually prune them in Feb. but this year it was so cold and I just couldn't get at it. I'll trim them just to the point of new leaves budding out. The vines are dried and blowing in the wind...I have to anchor them and get them ready for a new season.

I saw the chipmunk eating sunflower seeds this morning...right outside my window. He looked up at me as if he recognized me. Soon he'll be scampering across my foot, while I sit on the porch feeding him Joe's peanuts. We are going out for a belated birthday lunch this afternoon, so I had better get going.

Have a great day...

Balisha