"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song." Maya Angelou

Last week when Jo Ann and I went to visit some gardens during Virginia Historic Garden week, we noticed the absence of birds.  It was quite strange.  

In the past month we have had two families of birds appear, and they have taken residence in our bird houses.  Additionally, a hummingbird is visiting our feeder. We are delighted!

A family of Carolina Chickadees lived here since March 19.  They started building a nest right after the cold, snowy weather left the area.  

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch the babies fledge. 

And we have a bluebird couple whose babies hatched just the other day.  They live in this house:

Both houses have raccoon baffles which will keep all predators out.  And I’ve cut back the camellia near it so that a predator cannot get any leverage up and over the baffle.

We are feeding the bluebirds lots and lots of meal worms.

Meal worms are fillet mignon for a bluebird.  I feed the meal worms potato and oatmeal (that’s what is visible in the “serving” dish).  We replenished the bluebirds' dish four or five times today.  As an aside, the picture shows how well our moss lawn is doing - more about that later!

And in the mean time, I’ve been working on another mariner’s compass quilt.  

I had some problems with one particular block.  There were two fabrics that I wanted to use, and tried three different times to make it work.  The fabrics were simply poor choices for this particular quilt.  

I know that there are dogs who can detect drugs, bombs and even cancer.  Our companions search out and identify bad quilt blocks.  When Maizy finds a bad block, she lays down and ponders over it.

Maizy is right - that block with the red is a little off.

When Cassidy detects a bad block, she stands on it.

They both were right, so I changed it.  I tried three times to make that red work, but it was just too intense.  So it was eliminated.  I substituted a dark rust, which is reading a little dark on my monitor. But it is a change for the better.

   

As a thoroughly trained bad block detection dog, when I get it right, Maizy nods her head in approval.   

Through all this bad block detection and correction, Luci does what she does best, napping on stack of fabric.  But that’s okay, as I had all the help I needed.

 

Comments

[Kym]

I love the bird tales! Do you continue feeding the bluebirds throughout the summer? Do other birds try to "share" the meals?

I'm really anxious to hear about your moss "garden"! It's looking quite lush. I need to learn more about moss gardens -- I really do have some spots in my yard that would be perfect for growing moss.

Your dogs are mighty talented! It's handy to have a bad-block-detecting pup around! I wonder if I could get Jenny to help me with some bad-knitting-detection?