Color My World

Nov 13, 2025

Fall is my favorite season. Fall is when the weather finally starts to change reminding us that the miserable heat and humidity of summer will actually come to an end. I also love the color provided by the changing of the leaves. Sadly, we live far enough south that we don’t get much color; we have a lot of evergreens and the leaves on the non-evergreens tend to just turn brown and fall off. Northern Georgia gets beautiful color, but joining the crowds of “leaf peepers” means making reservations at least a year in advance. Mostly, I just live vicariously through the photos of my fellow bloggers from the more northern climes.

However, as I look around our yard, I see that we are slowly changing things in our neck of the woods. Our crape myrtles are young, but they are doing their part to bring some color to our yard as do the forsythia.

I have had a life-long fascination with ginkgo trees due to my love of dinosaurs; fossil records indicate that ginkgos have been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth. (I recently learned that ginkgos were around before dinosaurs.) Four years ago, Kenn gifted me a ginkgo of my own which is just starting to turn the beautiful yellow they are known for.

Last fall, we planted two young Japanese maples of different varieties. When I say small, I mean small. Both trees were twigs barely a foot tall when we planted them and we weren’t sure if they would make it. However, both are doing well and while still small, they are starting to look like actual trees. I think the tree that has the red leaves of the traditional Japanese maple is going to require another year or two to come into its own. The second tree, a Japanese Sunrise, is already showing us some pretty color even though the leaves are brown-edged due to the lack of rain over the past few months.

This year, I gifted Kenn a Flame Thrower Redbud for his birthday. However, since we didn’t want to plant it until after our road trip, I had it delivered last week and Kenn planted it the same day. While it is currently tall and skinny with big leaves, we can’t wait to see how it does over the next year. We’re hoping for spectacular color!

Do you get much fall color in your area?

There’s bad news and good news.

Jun 16, 2025

In my last post, I wrote about how I planned to replace the bird house the bluebirds were nesting in as soon as the babies left home. I didn’t have a chance. I went outside Tuesday and glanced at the bird house like I always do and… it was gone. The only thing attached to the hook it hung from was the roof. The rest of the house was on the seat of the swing. I checked inside; the nest was intact, and I didn’t see any baby bluebird corpses. However, when I checked the ground, there was a shattered egg.😢 I was heartbroken. Nature can be harsh, so I’m well aware that things happen to nests in the wild, but this one should have been safe.

The bird house was wooden and I was keeping an eye on it because the bottom was warped, causing a gap between the base and the rest of the house. There was no indication that there was a problem with the roof, so I was shocked at the complete failure of the structure. I immediately ordered the two houses I mentioned in my last post. The replacements arrived Thursday and Kenn put them up on Friday. (According to nestwatch.org, bluebird houses should be 300 feet apart.) Since the broken birdhouse was in a popular location, we placed one of the new ones there. However, the new one is firmly attached to a post, not hanging.

Saturday, the day after the new houses were put up, I got a couple of texts from Kenn.

A couple of hours later, I looked out the window and saw this.

Based on the activity we’ve seen, this couple is busily creating a new nest. I look forward to watching the development of the new family. Their new home is well built and made of recycled plastic, so it should hold up for several years. It’s also easy to clean out, unlike the one that failed.

Kenn also built a house for the Carolina wrens and mounted it on the carport post near the location of one of the earlier nests. Once again, according to nestwatch.org, we are in the height of Carolina wren nesting season, so it will be interesting to see if it will get used.

Here’s hoping for happier bird watching in the days and weeks ahead!

Back to the Birds

Jun 2, 2025

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the birds nesting in our yard. All of the babies left the nests shortly after my post, and I thought baby season was over. I was wrong! Before I could even clean out/replace the birdhouse used by the bluebirds, a new pair (or maybe the same pair) started setting up house. The wren nest in the carport didn’t get reused, but wrens set up another nest in the corner of the fence around our side yard.

The pile of leaves behind the corner post is the wren’s nest.

As soon as the new batch of babies fly the nest, I am going to replace the current house favored by the bluebirds because not only is it literally falling apart, it is also difficult to clean out. Kenn said that we can build new houses and, while we can, I plan to buy new houses. This one and this one are my choices; they will be easy to clean and the opening is reinforced to protect from squirrel damage.

I also need to thank Suzassippi for introducing me to suet pellets. I didn’t know such a thing existed until she mentioned them in her blog. At our last house, I always put out blocks of suet dough for the birds, but the raccoons put an end to that when we moved to The Cabin. No matter where I located the suet feeder, the raccoons would find it and polish off the whole block of suet overnight. As much as I love caring for the critters, I’m not willing to put out a new block of suet every day. Suet pellets to the rescue! I’m now mixing the pellets into the songbird blend that I use in my regular bird feeder, and I bought a separate feeder for the pellets. It took the birds a while to find the new feeder, but now that they have, I have to refill it regularly. Even better, the squirrels/raccoons have not hauled off the pellet feeder or removed the top and dumped the contents. Of course, I have now probably jinxed things and will find an empty feeder on the ground tomorrow.😂

Lastly, the barn swallows (maybe?) that build a nest on or near our downspout every year do seem to be incubating eggs this year! The nest is in a difficult place to monitor, but I finally managed to a fairly decent picture of one of the parents in the nest. Here’s hoping we’ll see babies soon!

So, do you feed wildlife – birds or otherwise?

This is for the birds

May 12, 2025

It has been a busy spring! We’ve seen more nesting birds than we usually do. One of the things I love about The Cabin is that we have bluebirds here. Bluebirds like open spaces, and this is the first home we’ve had with enough space to attract them. We’ve got several bluebird houses and a pair selected a different house to nest in. We got to listen to the babies when they hatched and see mom and dad flying in and out as they cared for them. We even got a few glimpses at the babies before they flew away.

I’ve always liked wrens; their little flipped up tails give them a sassy vibe, and I’m all about sassy. This year, wrens have built a nest in the rafters of our carport. While we haven’t located the nest, the top of a nearby fence post has become a favorite place for mom and dad to perch. I’m thoroughly enjoying the impromptu serenades throughout the day.

Some birds of unknown species build a nest on one of our downspouts every year. Kenn says they’re barn swallows, but I disagree. Barn swallows don’t build typical nests and this nest is nothing if not typical. Whatever type they are, I’m not sure if they’ve ever successfully raised babies. It’s quite possible that they have; they location of the nest makes it difficult to see so we don’t see the parents flying in and out like we might if it were in a different location.

We’ve also seen brown thrashers hanging around the shrubs near the deck so I suspect there is another nest we haven’t seen. I’m going to be replacing most of our birdhouses over the next few months with varieties that are a little easier to clean out. Hopefully, we be able to see even more families next year!

Several years ago, Kenn surprised me with the gift of having the yard at our previous house certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. He had to jump through several hoops including providing a diagram of our yard including the plants, food, and water sources available for wildlife. I proudly displayed the certification sign in our yard. All of this years bird watching reminded me that I need to get our current yard certified. After all, we have four acres of land, with somewhere between two to three of those acres being wooded. So, I went online and found out that the process has gotten a lot easier; I just answered a few questions, paid my fee, and boom! Done. Now, I just have to wait for my new sign to come in.

Are you a bird watcher?

Feb 12, 2025

Wordless Wednesday

❄️❄️❄️❄️‼️

Jan 27, 2025

Y’all, we got snow! *twirls like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music* There was a chance of snow a few weeks ago, but it didn’t make it this far south. Now, many of you may live in areas where snow is a fact of life, but around here, it’s as rare as hen’s teeth. (The last time we had snow at our house was 2018.) When the forecast hints that we may get snow and/or frozen precipitation, I become a big kid. While I may be calm on the outside, on the inside, I’m all pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease. So, when snow was predicted for January 21st, all of my fingers and toes were crossed. It started snowing shortly after lunch and continued through the next morning. We ended with a respectable four inches, and, for once, we didn’t get a layer of sleet to top it off.

Yes, that four inches shut everything down for a couple of days, which makes northerners snort and roll their eyes. However, we have reasons for our caution. Here in the South, we don’t have snow tires or equipment to clear the roads. Okay, Atlanta has sixty snow plows, but the rest of us just have to wait for everything to melt. However, the biggest reason for us to stay off the roads is because we don’t know how to drive in the snow; it’s best for everyone if we just stay home.

In true southern weather fashion, last Wednesday, we had snow on the ground, and this Wednesday, the temperature is expected to be seventy degrees (Fahrenheit).🙄 I know we’ll have a few more cold snaps before spring, but I doubt we’ll have more snow. So, I’ll leave you with a few photos.