The darling buds. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . aren't waiting until May this year, that's for certain!

Here it is Friday again - gosh this week has flown by.

Heavy rain during the storms of Wednesday evening, followed by

 sunshine and mild temperatures all day Thursday, really started things

 moving around the garden. . . . .even my two fig trees are showing green

 leaves and teeny tiny figs!  All this is quite lovely except for warnings

 from the weather people that tonight and tomorrow there will be below

 freezing temperatures!

Please, please don't damage our lovely plants, shrubs and trees 

fickle Mother Nature.

Here's my potting shed yet again! The akebia quinata (or five leaf akebia) vine is

 already climbing and twisting madly and its little bunches of purple chocolate scented

 flowers are blooming.

It's also known as the chocolate vine and is a shrub native to Japan, China and Korea.

It has naturalized in the eastern United States and grows to 30 feet or more.

I keep mine trimmed somewhat as it's inclined to get a bit out out hand on the 

shed, especially as I have a bluebird house there - not that they've nested in it yet,

 they prefer the larger birdhouse in the front garden.

How beautiful - the start of a new crop of figs in Summer, hopefully!

Happy weekend hours. Whether sunny garden chores call. . . . . . . . or you

 are still tucked up cosily in a warm place out of the winds, and perhaps

 snow. . . . . .make each day count.

Sharing homes in the bird world. . . . . .

The House wren - our latest Home Sweet Home tenant

This was a surprise on our return home! The little painted birdhouse hanging 

on the front porch, a sweet gift from my neighbor last year, has become a very 

popular home for our smallest garden birds.

It first housed the Carolina wrens last Spring, then early this Spring a pair of 

chickadees built a nest and raised a family - those babies must have fledged 

whilst we were in Europe.

Now we have new tenants, the House wrens (above) - a wee bit smaller than

the Carolina wren, all brown, and without the white 'eyebrow'.

This Carolina wren nested here last year, the first tenant

One of the pair of Black-capped chickadees on the porch early this Spring - they nested 

and raised a family in the little birdhouse

I've tried to see inside the house but this little bird squawks at me! 

I did hold my camera up when it was gone, but could only see a blur of twigs and 

such - not certain there are any eggs yet.  

The pressing question for me is - are these three birds using the same nest or has 

each one cleaned it out and started over? 

I did see the chickadees bring twigs back in April but have never seen birds 

taking nesting materials out. There is no way to open the house and

it just has that one small entry hole.

Are you enjoying your garden birds now Spring is here?

Don't you find their habits quite mesmerizing?

Outdoors in winter. . . . . . . . . .

This morning we awoke to our first below freezing daytime temperature this season.  

Now, at 10 o'clock, with brilliant sunshine and no wind, it has warmed to 40F, 

however we are in for a week of very chilly temps.

 Winter has arrived at last in the southeast. 

Still no snow in the forecast though. I do hope we will at least have one snowstorm 

with a few inches on the ground - fun for the children, garden will look glorious for a 

day or so, and plenty of photo ops for those of us who lug our cameras everywhere.

Nothing pretty to cut in the garden at this time of year. 

My flowers are one of the bouquets from our recent family 

wedding. I hope perhaps it will dry and I can continue to 

display it and recall that exciting, wonderful day.

The bride and groom are cruising the Caribbean right now, 

having a wonderful time I'm sure.

Speaking of the garden, yesterday we spent several hours in cool sunny conditions -

quite invigorating I must say - removing most of the outdoor decorations. Have left the 

fairy lights on the side arbor and gate, pleasant to view on a cold dark night when 

arriving home. I removed all the decorative ornaments from the tree in the gazebo, 

leaving the lights, another pleasant winter warmer when peering through 

the kitchen windows into the darkness of the garden beyond. I may just leave

it there until early Spring.

While working outside, I hung this adorable tiny birdseed covered cottage, a 

gift from my neighbor Lori who knows how much I love the wild birds.

The first bird I saw visit, within minutes of hanging, was one of my Carolina wren 

family - it checked the house from top to bottom but didn't snack. Wrens apparently 

don't eat commercial seed as I rarely see them on the feeders either.

My now dead and shriveled Boston ferns still hang on the porch. As always, 

year after year, the wren family come at dusk and sleep the night away in their 

makeshift hotel. I don't have the heart to take the baskets down until replacing 

with fresh ones come Spring.

Yesterday, more raking/blowing also took place. Most of the leaves are down 

now, another mountain at the curb awaiting the final city pickup later this month.

At 5 o'clock, garden tools were wiped clean and stored, gloves and scarves

 were pulled off, jackets unzipped . . . . . . . time for hot chocolate as we'd missed 

teatime, but we felt like we'd accomplished a lot to keep the winter garden looking good.