Rocky places

Another cool shot from the rock garden on the mountain. This reminds me of the phrase, "between a rock and a hard place" for that's sort of how I am feeling these days, in several aspects of my life. The nice thing is that there is always an open space beyond the rocks, and we have to take ourselves there, else we'll get stuck for way too long. Which reminds me of another phrase I love (aren't I just waxing poetic today?)... "Whether you think you can or can't, you're probably right." So, I choose to climb towards that tree. After all, it's where the birds are!

Hungry mouths to feed

This pair of Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are regular visitors to the feeders now, and must have a full nest somewhere as they come and get mouthfuls of seed. I usually put some larger fruit and nut mix on the ground for them specifically, but it does not stop them from hanging on the cups for some sunflower hearts. What acrobats they are!

A Happy Memorial Day to all!

Beauty on the mountain

Yesterday, we decided to get out of the house for a bit. We took a trek up to a famous rock garden on the mountain in neighboring City by the River town. The flowers were in their splendor amongst the rocks, moss, and ferns, and the temp was a good 10 degrees cooler than in the valley. The Rhododendron was spectacular along with other moisture, shade loving flowers and plants. It was a lovely respite from the busy week. So, here for your enjoyment, are some of the images we saw...

Double Delight

"Double Delight" blooming in my sister's yard.

I've always been a bit leery of roses. My dad grew quite a few when I was growing up, and I remember all the care, spraying, and pruning that went into keeping them healthy, happy, and blooming. My mother-in-law had a 100 bush garden in her yard, and painstakingly cared for them in the heat of south Georgia. You have to really love roses to plant them, and invest the time it takes to properly care for them. I just don't seem to have the desire or patience to put into caring for these beautiful, but needy, plants.

I know they now make a variety of "knock out roses" which are supposed to be really low maintenance, disease resistant, and yet bloom like crazy. I've seen some, and the blooms just seem... I don't know... not as pretty? Has anyone had any experience with them? Then again, is there anything more wonderful than to stick your nose deep down into a Tropicana rose? Maybe some day....

Evening regular

He still comes almost every evening.
I can hear his loud "pit-i-tuck" as he lights in the trees
watching and waiting for the perfect time to come to the
feeder cup for some sunflower hearts.
If he's lucky, he'll have some time to sit and eat,
but only if the male bluebird is otherwise occupied.
For some reason, he still sees the Summer Tanager
as a threat and if he's around, will run him away.

The bluebirds have hatched a second nest... three little ones.
A busy time on Chickadee.

Extreme bed makeover

Several months back, after a very hard rain, we noticed we were having some minor leaking into our basement over the poured foundation wall which is below grade. There was an area of erosion at the upper corner of the driveway by the downspout, which looked to be where the water was traveling down along the foundation wall. Yes, I know, not a good thing. Because of the way our lot is situated, there is a slope from the neighbor's house and all the rain sheet water was settling into this corner bed. Because I am so not the gardener, I called my trusted landscape professional Janet, and she came out to assess our situation.

The decision was made that the best solution was to either put in a field drain at the base of the slope out in the yard (oh, my.... husband's pretty grass, and husband, was moaning at the prospect), or re-design the bed so that the water would not be able to get to the house, and the plants would soak it up if it did get towards the house.

Tim and Dave came on Tuesday, and dug out along the foundation wall and the buried downspout to find that, not only was there a hole in it, but it was buried on a 3-4" rise. Why, oh why, can't contractors be more diligent? Sigh...

They back filled all the eroded areas, replaced the portion of the downspout which was broken, and placed a drain within the bed connected to the downspout hose, just in case any water did back up during a hard downpour.

The results are stunning, and we are thrilled!

Here is the bed before they came:


And, here it is after: WOW!

Within this beautiful raingarden, they planted Acorus, Rosea Coreopsis, Zebra Grass, Compact Inkberry, Variegated Iris, Summersweet, Virginia Sweetspire, and Winter Red Winterberry. I know birds, but not plants much at all. I needed, and appreciated all Janet's Master Gardener experience over these past 30 years!

Here is the drain they placed in the bed at the lowest point:

And, while they were here, we also had them pull up what had become some very ugly and out of control diseased juniper in front of this beautiful gardenia in the front bed. Instead, it now has some beautiful Strawberry Begonia for ground cover. A great makeover which will be enjoyed for years to come!

"Tiny" the chickadee-dee-dee

Last weekend, my sister and her neighbor were outside discussing their joint purple martin house venture, when they noticed that the Carolina Chickadee babies in a porch post house on my sister's porch were fledging. They watched as mom and dad got the babies to leave the nest and follow them across the street to the woods. What a privilege to see them leave the nest after hearing them chirp so loudly for the past weeks as mom and dad fed them!

The next day, my sister took the house down to clean it out, and lo and behold, there was still a baby in the nest. This one was small, much smaller than the ones they saw leave the nest. She quickly put the house back up on the post, and watched all during the day, but no mom or dad came back for this baby. He was chirping madly as he was hungry, but still, no parents.


So, she and her neighbor got "Tiny" out of the nest and decided to try and help get his strength back so that he might be able to go out on his own. The alternative was that he would stay in the nest and die. So, they fed him water soaked mealworms, pieces of sunflower chips, and even some boiled egg yolk. Even by the next day, he was quite a bit more alert and active. He stayed in a dog crate on the porch in the evenings, and marched around in her front bed in the daytime.


I went over to meet him Tuesday and snap some photos. He's simply adorable. He's starting to fly to the arbor vitae now and they plan on showing him where the feeder is so that he'll have a source of food until he can either meet back up with his clan, which have to be somewhere nearby, or can fend for himself. I am glad they found him in the nest, and that at least he'll at least stand a chance to grow up and find his own mate.


** Update: I hate that I have to write an update like this, but Tiny was found this morning, barely breathing, and Rachel held him as he took his last breath. Maybe he was ill and this was to be the eventual outcome, but it was still sad. They buried him in her rose garden. At least he had three more days than he would have had in that nest all alone.

Silly Names

Some fun from Liza over at It's just me...


1. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother and Father’s middle name):
Ruth Lee

2. NASCAR NAME: (first name of your mother’s dad, father’s dad):
Clyde James

3. STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name):
Jaytra

4. DETECTIVE NAME: (favourite colour, favourite animal):
Blue Bird

5. SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born):
Lynn Knoxville

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav colour, fav drink, add “THE” to the beginning):
The Coral Zinfandel

7. FLY NAME: (first 2 letters of 1st name, last 3 letters of your last name):
Jaell

8. GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavour, fav cookie)
Chocolate Chip Thin Mint

9. ROCK STAR NAME: (current pets name, current street name)
(no pets) Chickadee

10. STRIPPER NAME: (name of your fav perfume/cologne, fav candy):
Lovely Pecan Turtle

11. PORN NAME: (1st pets name, street you grew up on):
Missy DuPre

Here I am!

This Blue Jay and some of his friends have been visiting regularly.
He comes flying in to the ground below the feeders
all full of confidence and announcing his arrival loudly.
But, he can't seem to stand still for a moment,
hence the odd turn of his head as he takes in his
surroundings. I love the way this showcases his tail
feathers and his over-the-top personality!

Feeder pole makeover!

In the past few weeks, I've tweaked my feeder pole system from WBU to add some other feeders. I grew weary of all the hundreds of goldfinch. I know, I know... many would dearly love to have them, but trust me, when you have hundreds eating you out of house and home, it changes your perspective. I took down the 3.5 pound thistle feeder, along with the (sigh) oriole feeder.

I was at the Tractor Supply and saw they had a great selection of the Stokes feeders, and got the nice black oil sunflower feeder on the right to replace the thistle feeder. Always a great feeder to have as so many birds love the sunflower seed.

I also went by WBU to see if they still had the dinner bell feeder, and found that our local franchise has replaced it with what they now call the "Supper Dome" (bada bing, bada bang) from Birds Choice. This cool feeder is actually made to be a mealworm feeder, but can of course be used for seed, or in my case, as a great place for the Zick dough! It comes with the two side suet bar holders. Of course they sell the bars there, and I got the ones with insects in them. The downy woodpeckers are all over it, as well as the chickadees and the tufted titmouse. I was concerned my bluebirds might be a bit intimidated by it, and it took them a while to try it out to get to the dough they love, but they finally did, and before too long, the babies were coming as well.


Oh, and the white ball hanging above the suet feeder? A great way to offer nesting material for the birds in this condensed ball of cotton, strings, etc. The birds can just pull out what they'd like! The joy in watching them come to eat and then leave with some string or cotton fiber to use has been fully worth the $4.99 price.

All in all, I am pleased with the feeder makeover. And I did it all without Ty Pennington, though if he were ever in the neighborhood, I'd love to show it all to him. ;c)