Category: Homebody

Fill it & They Will Come

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Baltimore_oriole

Last week I went to Tractor Supply to buy a couple new hummingbird feeders, when I spied a feeder that looked just like one, but bright orange. It was an oriole feeder, hmmm, I want an oriole to come to my yard too. So I brought it home and filled the little pockets with jelly, the reservoir with sugar water ( apparently orioles are sugar freaks),  and skewered a couple orange halves through the hanger. I waited.

Sunday morning I was sitting out back drinking coffee and looked at the gaudy orange plastic thing just hanging there… I shook my head and thought… "what a rip off". Then my eyes moved up a branch or two and there was a FREAKING Baltimore Oriole in my damn tree. Woohoo. I hollered for DH to come look, and we just marveled at how the damn feeder had really worked, and how beautiful the bird was.

I've heard that the same is true for birdhouses… build it and they will come.
DH and I have a cool new birdhouse book and we are planning to have a
birdhouse making party in the next few weeks. We desperately want an
owl house, and a bluebird house.

Yes, I am aware of what an old lady I sound like…. just deal with it. Birds are cool, or there wouldn't be a birding app for my iphone, right?

Trees & Neighbors

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Plus
We were so sad to know that our neighbor was planning to remove two big trees from his backyard. Sure, these trees were well into the winter of their lives, but they offered a much appreciated deep cool shade in the late afternoon that is quite a treat in the Texas heat.

Minus
Now they are gone, and while the shade is not as deep, it's not as sunny as I imagined it was going to be. We most definitely need to plant something in front of my kitchen widow cuz it gets hit hard when the sun is setting. All in all, it's not so bad, but it's always sad to lose a tree.

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Thankfully, the fence is covered in roses and honeysuckle so we don't have to see the tree size holes they must have left… we think our pines will be happier too.

Keylime That said, it did drive me straight to the kitchen to make a key lime pie.

Flora & Fauna

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DSC00453
Oregon Grape Mahonia aquifolium
There is no good reason why this plant is loving life in my Central Texas courtyard, being that it is the state flower of freaking Oregon, but it is.

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Blackfoot Daisy Melampodium leucanthum
Drought & heat tolerant… attracts butterflies

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Bloodgood Japanese Maple Acer palmatum
Loved this so much we went back to the nursery the following day to buy another one of these

DSC00444 Maisy Blue Canis lupis familiaris
Needs lots of water & kisses