Macro & Thrifty Finds...

The other day I zoomed around the yard with a couple of Macro lenses attached to my regular lens. I found this beautiful bee on an Echinacea flower (= Cone Flower)...

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For our wedding anniversary last Sunday  we went shopping at Value Village (romantic isn't it?) <wink> and Mr. G. found this fab mixer that actually works! He was very excited...

And I found, among other things, thee very cute 60's looking boots! (they come about half way up your calf)

I found this metal shelf stand a few weeks ago and the enamel pot on it last weekend.

And I'll leave you with  a photo of our dining area early this morning.  I found these old paper lanterns a while ago and finally hung them up. 

Half an hour later two of them have already crashed to the ground, scaring the birdies like crazy! I guess I will have to find another way to secure the lanterns. Let me ponder on that one...

Red Necks And Bird Talk...

Last Saturday we were invited to that Red neck Party that I mentioned in my last post: it was hilarious! Our friends did a most amazing job decorating and I was glad I had brought my camera with me! 

We were greeted by that man (the host's brother) with the shotgun at the front door. He had empty beer cans strewn around him and there even was a beer can wind chime!

Our hostess wore some funky looking teeth and other paraphernalia as did a lot of the other guests. (we felt rather under dressed...)  

In the yard we saw a true toilet with lovely flowers in it, lots of laundry on several lines with 'tidy whities' (men's underwear), big bra's, panty hose etc.  In the bathroom (indoors luckily!) I found the Bass fish. It was singing "Don't worry, be happy!" which I thought was rather funny.

After we ate all the delicious barbecue meat (pulled pork),  beans, potato salads, Twinkies etc. we all headed to the back yard where they held the annual duck race in the stream behind their yard. I won second price and won an awfully loud and obnoxious NASCAR (Dale Earnhardt) clock. (of which I have removed the batteries already) <wink>

The judges for the duck race, ready with their nets...

All in all it was a great evening out and that for a party where we really only knew the hosts and two other people... {smile}

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Yesterday I felt it was time to separate the males from the females in our bird cage. The babies are now 5 weeks old and the markings were becoming clearer to see. Also Penny & Howard were trying to start a new nest again so it was time for the big move. Easier said then done and this was the point I had been most nervous about since the eggs first arrived in the nest 7 weeks ago! 

New table from Ikea where we went yesterday...

We are now using a second birdcage that one of our neighbors so generously donated to us. We opened up the doors on either cage and pushed the cages together. After quite a bit of patience we managed to catch Penny, but the one other female baby bird did not go in. I tried hand catching and cup-catching etc. but the birdies were getting very stressed out which of course is not worth it. 

Penny spent a sad and lonely night in her new cage but this afternoon we used a third cage (the vintage looking one from my previous post) and managed to catch Baby Belle (as we call her) and transferred her in with her Momma. Boy, am I relieved or what?!!! Now the busy bird time will hopefully be over and we can just enjoy them without all the extra worries...

So, enough chatting for now. Master C. will have his stitches removed tomorrow. He has been relatively pain free, but one area is still a bit funky so we will have that checked out tomorrow as well. The day after tomorrow is the Fourth of July (Party again!) and after that the weather forecast is saying that significant changes (for the better!) are on their way so 'Yahoo!' to that!  {smile}

Summer Time...

Summer Time officially starts here in 2 hours and will you just look at that: Nature's promise has come true!

Enjoy!

What A Day!

Yay, Master C. passed his driving test today!  {biggest smile ever!} My sister over at Pike Street made this fun photo for him in Photoshop. (see above)

At the moment that I'm writing this Master C. and Miss M. are in my car on their way to Ultimate Frisbee camp at school: I can barely breathe!  <wink>

When I came home from my last Little Bit day for this session, I found a lovely package in the mail, all the way from The Netherlands. I had won several beautiful postcards from Jane with her blog All The Luck In The World!!!  I was so happy since I never win anything and I really, really liked these cards. Thanks again Jane! {smile again}

Well, the little birdies are driving us crazy with their noise making, but they are all looking very happy and healthy and that is all that counts.

The sun has finally come out this afternoon so I'm going to try and relax some outside after all this excitement. What a day indeed!

Rrrrrrrramblings...

Wow, last Wednesday was the last time I posted. How did that happen? I guess I'm starting to get into that vacation mode , finally.

Let's see, the birdies will be up first. All of the babies have left the nest, but #4 still prefers hanging out in the nest by itself most of the time. Very understandable since it gets very crowded in there with his bigger siblings (and sometimes a parent or two) in there. Now he (or she) can spread its wings when and forever how long he wants to...

Here is a lovely family picture I took yesterday afternoon:

Aren't they cute? The three babies are sitting next to each other and Howard & Penny are on their favorite perch looking out over the yard.

At around that same time I took this picture I discovered a new egg in the nest!!!! (heart palpitations ensued) Once #4 had left the nest for a little flying around I went in to scoop out the egg (we really don't want any more baby birds!) and guess what: I found two more!!! (and a fourth one this morning)

Tiny little eggs with some dirt from the nest... (i.e. poop)

Chees, that was quick! I felt bad having to remove the eggs but this is the only way. The babies are too young to be left by their own devices and Penny still really needs to feed them once in a while, which is something she won't do once she is sitting on the eggs again. Man, who'd have thought looking after some small birds would be keeping me this busy?

Miss M. trying to get Howard & Penny get used to her hand in the cage.
This will hopefully be helpful once we have to catch and separate the sexes...

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In other news: we had another meeting with the college counselor last week to make sure we know what we can expect on deadlines for college applications, writing essays, narrowing down college lists, more tests etc. Pfieuw, not easy this college application process! 

Master C., thank goodness, stays very calm about it all, outwardly at least. He will also have his wisdom teeth removed next week (all four at once!) and that doesn't seem to bother him either. Oh, to have a calm disposition like that! He certainly did not get that from me!  <wink>

We had our end of year admin dinner on Friday which was wonderful and then I had a lovely breakfast with some of my Little Bit volunteer ladies on Saturday and then another dinner at home with my Dutch aunt and uncle last night. Plenty of food (and drink) went down and I'm feeling a little stuffed... 

It is raining outside and there is just not much going on which is just fine on a Monday morning. The kids will be joining the Ultimate Frisbee camp this week in the late afternoon and that is about it.

I will leave you with some pretty pics I took over the last few days. Cheerio!

Little Bird...

Hooray, the first baby bird has left the nest today!

Little baby birdie all fluffed up...

Half of the family out and about in the cage, 
the other half still safe and sound in the nest...

Howard is checking him or her out...

It is still a bit wobbly on the branches but it is gaining confidence by the minute. So, so cute! {smile}

One down, three more to go...

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EXTRA, EXTRA!

Another one has flown the coop! What excitement... <wink>

Momma Penny is in the nest keeping an eye out for the little ones.
The bigger birdie on the left is the latest one to fly the coop...

Monday Morning Ramblings...

Monday the 4th of June and the beginning of a wet and cool Finals Week. This is always a weird week since I have to pick up the kids from school at the strangest times. Today at 12:40, tomorrow I have Little Bit so I either pick up Miss M.  (Master C. does not have a final tomorrow) at 10:10 am before Little Bit or at 1:15 pm after Little Bit and so on.

This Friday Master C. is supposed to have an end-of-year-party at a classmate's house on a lake but they are only expecting 60 F which is rather chilly for a swim don't you think? Oh well, I'm sure they will have fun just hanging out anyway...

Not too much going on otherwise. Saturday afternoon turned out to be gorgeous with quite a bit of sunshine. I planted all the perennials and annuals I had bought that morning and then I took a few pictures of them of course...

There are no buttons on this bench, I added them with 'PicMonkey'...

Yesterday I was in quite a funky ( read 'very dark') mood and was super grumpy. Mr. G. and I decided to go see a movie: 'Dark Shadows' with Johnny Depp. Now we love both Tim Burton (the producer) and Johnny Depp, but this movie was definitely not worth seeing. I even fell asleep several times! The only good thing was that I was in a much better mood leaving the theater...

In the mean time I am once again considering changing the color in our kitchen, eating area. I don't think it will happen but it is nice just to ponder about some colors. This would be the fourth of fifth time painting this area since we moved in less then four years ago... And yes, I'm even considering some white!  <wink>

And I leave you with a pretty pic of Howard. Since they both have to feed the four babies, mom and dad are now eating like crazy. They love the special 'egg food' I'm making them as a compliment to their regular seed. It consists of two hard boiled eggs including their shells (for extra calcium), some bread crumbs and a tiny bit of oil and some seed. You mash it all up together with a fork and then I put it in a little bowl in the bottom of the cage. They love it!  {smile}

"Bird, Bird, Bird... "

"... the Bird is the word!" (lyrics by The Cramps)

Yes, we have a little baby bird in the nest: how exciting!!!!

These little guys are not our own Howard & Penny but they sure look like them!  <wink>
(photo borrowed from the net)