Spring

There are signs of Spring everywhere these days. My absolute favorite time of year...though the projects that pile up over the winter months sometimes seem overwhelming, it's still a great time of year. Here are some signs that warmer days are ahead - colors are out everywhere. And mother nature has her hand in virtually everything around us.

First, these are J.'s pride and joy:

His bulbs are blooming in the backyard - a handful of freesia bulbs planted long ago that remind us every year how much we love bulbs.

And all day yesterday, while we worked on the fence re-construction, she was lingering nearby:




She is building a nest in one of our trees. All day, she would go over the fence to our neighbors' yards and get twigs and leaves and various other materials for her nest. She'd hop back up on the fence and fly into our tree - a beautifully lush, green, full podacarpus - and build. I looked in the tree for her several times but it's so dense, I could never see where she's building. She chose well....she can't be seen when she's in the nest and neither will her babies. She is amazingly calm...she let me walk pretty close to take this picture. And Chloe was out with us most of the day and the dove never seemed concerned about the dog. She was patient and persistent and built right along with us all day.

She is a dove...and I've been hearing her morning call for weeks now. Takes me back to my grandmother's house - a huge screened in room with a giant backyard...and there were always, ALWAYS doves cooing in the morning. I remember fresh squeezed orange juice and then cookies of all kinds. An endless variety of baked goods - my Grammy was an awesome baker. Her house was so fun - we would play and play outside and the doves were always there.

And now there's a dove living and nesting in my very own back yard and she's having babies!

AND we also have Blue Jays making another nest in the tree near the dining room. They are less obvious about their building but they are definitely nesting. They hop in and out of the tree fairly often.

I like that they figure they're safe here. That the yard is peaceful and quiet and lovely. Costco had a pretty bird bath and I'm tempted to add that to our garden for them to have plenty of fresh water.