Time to Catch Up!

Oh, my. No posts since February? That's unconscionable. Truth be told, I opened one too many Google accounts and the site wasn't accepting what I thought was my password.

What's new from the past three months?

A pair of bluebirds successfully fledged in one of of the nestboxest at Owl Hollow. This evening I had the pleasure of sitting on the front stoop with a bottle of Beck's, surveying my wild kingdom, while flashes of blue whizzed past me, left to right, then right to left. There were three or four of them, the babies, I'm convinced, practicing their insect-hunting skills.

I'm still seeing bluebirds spending a lot of time at the now cleaned out nest box. If they nested a second time, that would be the first time they would have done so in a single season. But I also saw a house wren there, and, a few weeks ago, the dreaded English sparrows.

In fact, I first saw English sparrows at the box a day after I cleaned out the old bluebird nest. I noted the date, and watched wtih grim determination as the sparrows set about nest-building. I had already decided I was going to addle their eggs and puncture them with a small needle, to be doubly sure the eggs didn't hatch. I wanted to make sure that all the eggs that were going to be laid were laid, and yet I didn't want to wait too long because I know I couldn't harm live baby birds, English sparrows or not.

I marked my calendar for the day and when I went to open the box, I was much surprised that the nest had been only half built inside, and no eggs. The sparrows seemed to have abandoned the project, for reasons unknown.

Fine by me.I hope they've moved on.

The vegetable garden is off to a good start. Well, mostly. The broccoli, cauliflower and collards are taking a beating from insects. I had gone to the trouble of draping a fine mesh fabric over the broccoli to see if I could save them from insects, but in truth it seems to have had little beneficial effect. Are the bugs coming from the ground? otherwise, I don't know how they got in there. I did pick off about 5 small worms on one plant, but that's all I could find.

The pea pods are doing really great and already are flowering, so the pods won't be far behind. I've begun picking lettuce. The yellow wax beans, green string beans and soybeans are coming along. I have 8 tomato plants this year, some cherry, some regular sized. There was also room for a single zucchini plant and a single yellow squash. Oh, yes, and of course, 3 cucumber plants, several bell peppers, an eggplant in a pot and lots of basil for my pesto sauce. (Can't live without it.)

The hummingbirds returned in early May and have me well-trained for refreshing their sugar water every 3 or 4 days. Any longer and it gets moldy. I was also still feeding black sunflower oil on the back patio, from a triple tube feeder hanging from the dying dogwood tree, but I let it go when the English sparrows became a regular sight. I'd like to start it up again. Rose-breasted grosbeaks were regulars there.

Luscious lichens and shredded bark

I saw these most amazing lichens on a tree trunk at a local garden nursery last fall. Aren't they gorgeous? They are the colors of the sea.

I was also fascinated by the bronze-colored shredded bark on this conifer. I wish I'd made note of what it was, although now that I think about it, it wasn't marked. 

A pair of bluebirds continues to show every intention of setting up housekeeping in the nest box just outside my office window. Last fall, I put a good-sized wad of soft cat hair I'd collected inside that box, for the comfort of the woodpeckers or other songbirds that occasionally shelter there in bad weather. I haven't noticed the bluebirds removing those gifts from Waldo and Luther, so I trust they don't find them objectionable. Me wonders if they will use it to line their nest or just build on top of it. We shall see.

Hints of Spring

I've noticed a pair of bluebirds showing interest in a nest box here that's usually dominated by house wrens.

And the snowdrops are in bloom!

Tonight's dinner was black bean pumpkin soup. Oh so easy and mighty good.

Black Bean-Pumpkin Soup

1/2 cup chopped onion
3 or 4 garlic cloves
4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
2 cups cooked black beans
1 can of pureed pumpkin
1 can of diced tomatoes (I used frozen, from last summer's garden)
1 T. cumin
1 t. cinnamon
freshly ground pepper
allspice

In a big pot, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil til soft.
Puree the black beans and tomatoes in the blender with half of the broth.
Transfer this and the rest of the broth to the big pot.
Add the pumpkin and spices and cook for about 40 minutes.

Very good with a salad and crusty bread, like Trader Joe's Rustico Bread.

Playing in the Dirt

It's a lovely early spring day and the temperature is already 55 in the shade. The daffodils are in bloom.

I'm headed out to till one-quarter of my vegetable garden and plant my cool weather crops: the radishes, spinach, lettuce and peas. Well, if I have any pea seed left, that is. I'd planted a bunch a few weeks ago and it was so cold, they never germinated.

This weekend, I'd like to get the potato sets in the ground, too. And I'll see if I can locate my old, black soaker hose to snake around the garden for seepage watering, which reduces the chance of disease taking hold. That's why a soaker hose is a better idea than watering from overhead with a hand-held garden hose. Mother Nature, of course, I can't control.

I'm looking forward to tracking my expenses and produce yield as the season progresses. I spent quite a bit of money already, mainly on a sturdier vinyl-covered metal fence, plus the 7-foot-high posts.

I'd been planning on relocating my two bluebird boxes. They have both been home to successive pairs of wrens, and last year, a pair of bluebirds. But one is a little too close to the vegetable garden and I figure the birds might enjoy a little more privacy; the second box is in a rather overgrown spot. Before I had a chance to move either one, I spotted bird activity around the entrance to the one box, and with binoculars I could see it was a pair of English sparrows. I thought maybe I'd seen them chasing another bird away, but I couldn't be sure.

I took the box down and won't put it back up until the weekend, when hopefully that pair of sparrows has moved on elsewhere. My property's been blissfully English sparrow and starling-free for most of my 14 years here, and I'd like to keep it that way.