Monday, May 22, 2017

Life @ The Garden Spot

Hello Everyone. What a beautiful day we have. I have already enjoyed a walk downtown to have my sad, pathetic fingernails beautified and now I am avoiding doing dishes. The Head Gardener is in town having coffee with his buddies, as he does every Monday, and the roofing crew is on the roof pounding away. They will be here today until it starts to rain about 3 PM or if the wind gets too strong, sending them home early. So roof replacement? Five out of five and the hen house makes six.

Our roof damage occurred last summer with hockey puck sized hail, remember?  The two weeks ago a hail storm ravages parts of Denver some 70 miles south of us. Our son-in-law's SUV was right in the middle of that hail storm with golf ball and larger hail that pulverized Denver. My brother and I own a small four unit office building which is under contract to sell and, yes, roof number five. Most gratefully and thankfully, our insurers have been wonderful.

Hail one week and then snow the next. Last week we had rain and more rain and then rain that turned to snow. Those of you who live in snow zones know exactly how damaging spring snow can be to trees. We lucked out here at the Garden Spot. The HG did a lot limb and tree shaking, but Ft. Collins trees suffered. CSU had 800 trees damaged.

The sun does always return. Now for the fun part of today's post, the photos and Monday's Mosaic, Enjoy.

And What a Week It Was


Not a very good photo of Boone warming by the fire on a cold, snow Mid-May afternoon, dreaming of chasing cottontails, no doubt. I see images of people forging flooded roads on the news all the time, wondering why they aren't smart enough to---any way. Just like those folks, I trusted that my SUV would safely deliver me to the other side of deluge. That's a corn field on the west side of the road, the ground now saturated. A better photo would show the rain turning to snow.

A new washer and drying will be delivered June 1st. Oh joy. So I took a load of underwear--why is it that the washer breaks when you have put your last pair of clean underwear? I took three loads of laundry over to Jen's to do and little Lily made me tuna fish for lunch; here she shows how she can drain off the liquid.

A nice new roof, and YUM YUM YUM home made cheese cake. Now a college graduate and no more homework, Shey has turned to baking to pass her time and brought us this wonderful cheese cake--a running joke with the HG. And thank you, by the way, for all of your kind wishes for her future. 

And lastly, Lily's preschool commencement or continuation or what ever it is called. She is off to kindergarten next fall. Of course the day of her ceremony snow covered the ground and she wondered why her summer vacation had to be ruined with snow.  We were all wondering why we were dealing with snow Mid May, too.  The only explanation?  As I told the young man at the garden center who had just moved here from California, "This is Colorado. Get used it."

Summer Visitors: Some will stay; some are just passing through 


This mail oriole is in the top of the honey locust singing his little heart, trying to attract a mate.


This poor little Lazuli bunting found some comfort food in the middle of the rain and snow.


He is is all dried out and enjoying more free meals. He won't stay long, headed for the Rockies.


He is smaller than I thought we have had before. He fits in the caged feeder that keeps the grackles and starling out of the feed.


He is so pretty. I wish he would stay.



A Hermit Thrush that the HG spotted. He was feeding under the pine tress. Here it pecks around underneath the lilac. He won't stay either.


The HG build several nesting boxes for the robins and this mother found one and made it her home. It is located in one of the ash trees. 


We put out grape jelly for the oriels. They devour it. 


The male's sweet song did bring in a lady.



Caught with her mouth full and the little horned sparrow wondering what is she eating?

So that was the week that was. This week, planting more flowers. I have to take my friend to the eye center where she will have a cataract removed. Piece of cake, I told her. So I will take her tomorrow and take her back on Tuesday to get the patch removed.  The HG will go down to Haxtun to help a friend with her garden work. And another week will pass.

I hope you have great plans for the week, too. 



10 comments:

  1. I love good bird close-ups, Ann, and yours are terrific!! Such colorful birds. I think I know a few people who've seen the Baltimore Orioles passing through here, but I've never been lucky enough to see one. That Lazuli Bunting is gorgeous! We get the Indigo Buntings here in our area; they're a brilliant blue color.

    So sorry to hear about all your hail damage and all the late snow. Wow, that could really get old. At least you're philosophical about it. :) Little Lily is such a darling; I really like to see pics of her. She's growing up, isn't she?

    I enjoyed reading your post, Ann, and hope that you'll have a good week!

    Hugs,

    Denise

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  2. You are busy but I love that you take time out to have your nails done. Mine look like I've been opening up tin cans with them. Garden and yard work this week will not help.

    I love your mosaic. Life---real life. Probably why I love ya so!

    I enjoy your bird pictures. I have several birdhouses and I still get so many nests here and there ON the house. Then of course I find babies that were pitched overboard. Breaks my heart. One yesterday was still warm and limp. I heard babies chirping from another nest, and on the ground was apparently the mother (or father) pretty beat up, no head, as if it had been prey of some sort. Not much you can do.

    Me and the dogs are up here at the lake just doing our own thing for as long as we can. It's very quiet and relaxing here. I was at the hardware store the other day and it was the first time I had talked to anyone besides Milo and Layla in days!!!

    Take care,

    Jane x

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  3. Hello, you seem to be taking all those new roofs in stride. I am glad insurance is taking care of it. I would turn around my car after seeing that big puddle, lol. You have some wonderful birds there, I would love to see the Lazuli Bunting. What kind of Oriole do you have there, It looks different. Congrats to Lily! Wonderful photos. Happy Tuesday, enjoy your day!

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  4. What beautiful birds! You've seen quite a variety this Spring! Hope today is a good day and everything goes well. Lots of hugs, Diane

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  5. great images of your feather friends! You've been busy .. cute kids. Insurance sure comes in handy.

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  6. Sorry to be so late in visiting this week, we just got back from Crete last night.
    Sounds like you had a very full and interesting week, glad the roof got done but sorry you had such bad hail. Your bird feeder visitors are wonderful I'm hopeless at photographing birds, just don't have the patience, so well done!

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  7. My goodness, you have such interesting birds at your place! But then again, my trees are too small for all those fancy feeders.

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  8. Lovely photos, Ann!
    I'm surprised and sorry to hear you (too) can have snow in mid-May. I believe we will not get snow anymore, but the nights may be cold and then we need to carry all the summer flowers inside for the night.
    It's interesting, and somehow poetic, that some little birds just stop there for a moment on their way up to the mountains.
    It's Ascension Thursday today, and it means many people are having a long weekend. :)
    Wishing you sunny days filled with flowers!

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  9. Ann, the birds are so pretty! Isn't it nice to have cool temps? I really should get digging!

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  10. My goodness but you have such a wide variety of birds! But I see you are more devoted to feeding them than we are. Still, I sure enjoy the ones we do get. And I do have a finch sock and hummingbird feeder, plus I occasionally put out dried mealworms. That's good enough for me.

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