The gods were angry...

Oh.my.word!! I don't know who tinkled in Mother Nature's Cheerios, but what a storm she threw at us last night!!

There was lightning. There was roaring wind. There was bazillion gallons of rain. I fully expected to wake up this morning and find us and our house floating down the road!

It was truly awful. Kept me awake off and on all night. I had visions of our shed ending up in pieces in the farmer's field. I expected to find half our roof gone. I just knew the family room floor would be wet by the patio door, but I was afraid to go down and look! How dumb was that?? Even the cats were restless. But Lew? Oh, not a problem... he slept right through it all!!

This morning there was a variety of dead branches in peoples yards and Lew found a shingle (presumably from our roof) in the road, but other than a full creek/river and some flood warnings, that looks like the extent of the damage. Our bird feeder didn't even fly away! Amazing!

For the birds

Several years ago we used to feed the birds on a regular basis. I had several feeders in the front and back yards and really enjoyed watching the variety of feathered critters who would come to visit ... cardinals, gold and housefinches, sparrows, wrens, titmice, mourning doves, woodpeckers, bluejays ... the list goes on and on. We even managed to somehow keep the squirrels out of the feeders with a simple baffle. I'm convinced we must have had the dumbest squirrels in MD because most squirrels get around most baffles with no problem.

Anyway, over a period of time, the big birds took over, the feeders deteriorated, and I just got weary of supplementing the crows and starlings as they scared away the smaller, prettier birds. An infestation of moths in the birdfood stored in the basement didn't help either (needless to say, birdfood does not even make its way into my house anymore!) and eventually I gave up feeding them and just continued to fill the two birdbaths for them to drink and frolic in.

With the arrival of the hummingbirds to the patio flowers last year,


I had already decided to try a hummingbird feeder again, which is now hanging by the backyard bench, patiently waiting for their return.


Because I enjoyed watching the birdies feed in my brother and sister's yards while we were there, I also decided to give more feeding another try. So, we picked up a finch feeder and some thistle (which is stored in the outside shed!) and it too is waiting for the little ones to discover it.

I figure I'll start small and see what happens.

Great gobs of gaggling geese!

For reasons known only to the flapping ones themselves, the corn field behind our house has become a bit of a wild bird reserve/roosting spot this season for a huge colony of Canadian geese. I understand them being attracted by the nearby water sources of Israel Creek and Monocacy River, but don't see what's so inviting abut a bare corn field. Must be it's full of errant kernels after the crop was harvested, I dunno. Got to be something good though, because there are hundreds of them out there, seriously hundreds. And jeez, are they noisy!

Every morning they take off, somewhat in the direction of the water, then return in the evening, raising a raucous ruckus each and every time. They gabble, gabble, gabble before lift off -- I guess to let the others know "yo, it's time to go!" -- and then when they return to settle in for the night, they gabble, gabble, gabble some more. Interminably! One can't help but wonder what the heck they go on and on about for so long. I mean, it's not like they haven't seen each other for years, you know?

They're worse than kidlets having a sleep-over, but I don't suppose my hoofing it out there to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep would change anything. Then I'd have goose poo to deal with. I guess I'll just be patient... Spring is coming and I'm sure they'll find greener pastures.

This is just some of them, they stretch further on both sides...

Deer danger?

The weirdest thing happened today. While talking to Lew, I gazed out the patio door and all of a sudden saw two deer racing across the field. They ran from the creek/woods side of the farm and kept going towards the highway side. So, while I'm watching those two disappear from my line of sight, another whole slew of them came running across and stopped dead in the middle of the field! Oh, and a whole flock of birds flew out with them too!


The new bunch (I counted seven) all gathered together and just stood there, looking back towards the creek/woods from where they ran. They must have stood there for about 10-15 minutes or so and then somewhat warily trotted back. It was just the oddest thing. We figured there must have been some kind of major predator or something in the woods, but I still thought it strange that they would run out and just stop, making themselves so vulnerable like that.

Anyway, It was really cool - I've never seen anything like it in all the years I've lived here. One or two maybe, but nine? I didn't know there were that many deer living back there... but now I'm wondering what kind of predators are hanging out back there too!

Bird house???

What is it with me and critters? How come they want to set up housekeeping where they don't belong? We got the cats in the woodpile (which we're still in the process of catching) and a bird who never quite succeeded in nesting in the porch light, leaving a major mess of nesting material all over the porch. Now we have another bird trying to disrupt my natural order of things. Sheesh!

I have this gorgeous hanging plant that is performing beautifully on the deck. See?

So this AM as I go about my morning routine, I look out the window and, hello! a big ol' robin pops up out of my hanging plant!! Lovely... now I'm going to end up with some gnarly ol' mass of bird poop, feathers, and broken stems! Aaarrggghh!

Hello?? That's what allll the trees in the yard are for, you simple creature! Pick one!

Spring prettiness...

A couple of pictures for Debi, who always leaves such nice comments and left the nicest one about our yard yesterday - thanks! :)

(click on photos for a better look-see)

Lew took these late yesterday afternoon and I just love how they capture the beauty of Spring in our little corner of Maryland.

I'm enjoying the healthy growth and green as much as I can now, 'cause come July, we'll be fighting the heat to keep things from turning brown.

Quirks of nature...

Check out the neat surprise we discovered this evening...

... we have a white dogwood growing in among our lilacs. The surprise part is that we never planted a white dogwood! Isn't nature cool?? I talked about it a bit on my Project 365 photo blog too.