SOMETIMES YOU JUST GET LUCKY

You know how much I like to find a bargain at a garage sale. We stopped by only one garage sale last weekend and it turned out to be my lucky day. There is nothing like an out of town move to make you reconsider all those $ per lb. items and hold a garage sale. Tucked in the corner of the driveway I saw some large ceramic pots. "Are the pots for sale?" I asked, hopefully. They were and I chose the one I knew would go well with my garden color scheme. $10. Now that's a bargain.

I had overwintered a Brugmansia in the garage and recently moved it outside by the garden entry. For the last few days it had been looking a little sick with yellowing leaves. I suspected it might be pot bound. The new pot would be just perfect. It took the two of us to wrestle it out of the old pot and get it situated in the new pot. It was seriously pot bound.

It is now back in its corner by the cactus theatre and is a handy perch for the Carolina wrens who are nesting in the lower right-hand corner.

FINGERS CROSSED FOR A SAFE FLEDGING

Cardinals have had little success in raising a family in the close environs of our garden. From making a nest in an umbrella which took off during a storm to the theft of babies from at least 3 nests.  Last year the cardinal made a nest in the little espaliered yaupon by the greenhouse.

It certainly looked like a good place to make a nest but after the eggs hatched less than a week went by and all activity ceased. The nest was empty. A snake? a hawk? or a scrub jay. All would steal from a nest and we have seen it happen before our eyes.
I removed the nest and used it for a little garden decoration.

So what happened this year was a cardinal started to build a nest again, in the same place in the same tree. Could this be the same bird? For a week it was busy building and then one morning I went out to find downy feathers on the ground beneath the yaupon and blowing around in the potting shed(the door had been open overnight). It looked as though there had been an event. This time I thought hawk. I felt sure it was the end of that nest because there was no further activity.  But no, more than a week later I saw the female fly in and when I took a look there were 2 eggs in there and eventually 3. When the female started to sit she would leave the eggs early in the morning. I always knew when she came back because she would sit on the rose and tweet. My signal to leave whatever gardening I was doing. A successful sitting and eventually the eggs hatched and both parent were busy flying back and forward.

 I have worried over their survival for over a week now as there has been a hawk flying over daily. Plus the birds are getting noisy. You can hear them from afar. I spy on them from a crack in the potting shed doors and if mother is gone I can take a peak just to make sure all is well. Plus the cardinals are so obvious. That flash of red as they swoop into the nest. Other birds seem to be far more secretive.

She feeds, they nap and so the day goes on. This time I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a safe fledging. It can't be long now. Then the real dangers of the outside world begin.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH A BIRD HOUSE?

I keep asking myself, "What is wrong with my birdhouses?" This one I carted all the way back from England about 4 years ago. I saw a wren pecking at the entrance one time, but no one has made a nest in there. I thought it was perfect for my English garden.

Then this beautiful dovecote, also in the English garden. Austin gardeners will recognize this as once having been in Pam's former garden. I know birds made nests in there because I had to empty their old nests. No easy job because everything that went in through the small doors had to come out through the small doors. On the wall behind is the only birdhouse which has ever been inhabited. So what am I getting at?

This. It is not a birdhouse but a planter hanging on the front gate. Inside is a plant shared at one of our blogger meets. I thought it a perfect spot, being a plant that required no watering or sun.

They have moved so much furniture in there and reorganized my plants to the point where they are now starting to wilt. Not to mention that we will no longer be able to use the front gate. This all happened in 2 days. The question is, will they actually use the nest? You know those wrens. Make several nests and then bring her along to choose the one she would like to lay her eggs in. Will we be honored? Only time will tell.

When I was in Dallas at the weekend I went with my son and grandson to the new butterfly garden at Fair Park. There I learnt that shortly before the butterfly emerges from the chrysalis it becomes darker. Yesterday morning I saw changes. I left at 11am and when I came home at 4 pm the butterfly was out. I had missed the emergence.

It was hard to get a shot for all the fluttering. I wonder if it sipped from the sugar water I had left in the container. Now free to go and lay more eggs on the few parsley leaves they haven't eaten!