My beautiful backyard!

I loooove Spring! The flowers are just amazing and the birds.........the birds are just so much fun to watch. We have blue birds, wrens and 3 baby chipping sparrows. The hummingbirds, robins, cedar waxwings, red winged black birds, gold finches are just a few of the other daily visitors right now. I come home from work and just look forward to seeing what comes to our feeders and yard while I am cooking dinner and washing dishes. I feel like a child on Christmas morning. Even though we have had some of these same birds, year after year, they just never cease to amaze me. The wrens swooping down to catch a bug for their young or a robin pulling a big old earthworm from the grass, running with it from another bird. Oh, and we have a tree toad living in our garden hose holder! Did I mention how much I love Spring?



3 Baby chipping Sparrows



Day Lilly

Clematis -( where the chipping sparrow's nest is)



Mountain Laurel



Tree Toad



A wonderful surprise!!

Actually, I have had two surprises in the matter of days! My first surprise was when I got home from work this past Thursday; while my hubby and I were walking the dog, he pulled out plane tickets from his pocket!! Yes, I am going to Texas this Memorial Day weekend. I had asked for some time off a while ago to make a looong weekend hoping to go visit family (mostly my cousin); but realized I just didn't have the money for it. Soooo, my wonderful husband worked out a plan and surprised me with a ticket - round trip of course ;)
I am looking forward to some R&R and catching up with Bob and just having a break from it all.

 Rye, NH October 2010
 Me with my cousin -Bob

My second surprise was today, when I was weeding a flower bed ......

I was looking at my clematis vine, thinking of taking off some dead branches and too my surprise, I found a nest! That's why this little chipping sparrow has been fussing at me :)

Decided to leave the dead branches.......didn't want to do anything to disturb mama birds nest.

I have discovered how hard it is to take a really good bird picture. Of course, having a really nice camera would help. Every time the bird is in close range, I don't have the camera - sigh....

Every time I have the camera.....the bird doesn't come close enough - double sigh!

Well, you will just have to take my word for it that we have two nesting boxes that are occupied in our back yard. One has a blue bird family and the other a wren family. The beautiful orioles have been visiting our feeders and we have caught a few glimpses of the hummingbirds. Oh, we also saw a painted turtle crossing our yard yesterday.....no pic, sorry

                               

                       Just a few more things from our yard...

A FABULOUS WEEKEND!

We went to Cheshire, CT this weekend for a Letterboxing event held by Teeker, 2 Irish Chicks, The Flip Flopper and Pixie and the Sprites. This was one of the most fantastic events we have gone to. Those who attended the event did some volunteer work for the Riverbound Farm Sanctuary that is managed by the Audubon Society. We met some fabulous people (letterboxers and non letterboxers). As the saying goes "many hands make light work". We love it there so much that Bubbaloo Magoo and I want to go back sometime just to help out and tour the place again. The farm house from the 1800's is very cool.......it is a learning center with exhibits.

Of course there were letterboxes on the propety and we made sure we took time to get those while we were there too!

On Sunday we stopped in Sturbrige Mass to get a series by Thumbelinda and Talldave at a beautiful State Park. We got to look down on what we believe were either Hawks or Osprey's nesting grounds.

We also saw our first Lady Slipper for this Spring!

We were hoping to get to see the fantastic moon Saturday night; but unfortunately the clouds never cleared where we were in CT.



Just top the whole entire weekend off....................today I came home from work to find that the Orioles and humming bird are back. And .......an anonymous person sent me a gift  in the mail today! This is definately a weekend to remember!

These are a few of my favorite things.....

Spring has sprung here in NH!! We had such a mild winter this year and we definately need rain; but depsite that, the plants in our yard are just stunning. And best of all, the deer haven't eaten my tulips for the first time!

This primrose is one of my favorites and has done so well! I selected this a few years ago after reading that it does well in poor, wet soil. It is true. The area that I planted this is a shady, wet, clay area of our yard. I don't have to do any maintenance and every spring it has just been a beauty



Another favorite .......Vinca minor, it makes such a lovely ground cover and no maintenance required.



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Apple Blossom - Maybe this year we will have apples!!



ground phlox - another early spring beauty that makes me smile!

The birds are fun to watch, we have several feeders and each year it is like Christmas to me when the birds return. The robins, cardinals, gold finches, woodpeckers, nuthatches, black-capped chickadees.....are just a few of the birds we see daily. I am waiting for the first sight of the Baltimore Orioles and Ruby-throated hummingbirds.....it's only a matter of time and we should see them return too. Oh, I cannot forget the wrens that return every year to build a nest in our bird house.......

I LOVE SPRING!

O The Adventures!

Been very busy this past year......new hobby ( aka: addiction) called Letterboxing. Last April, my husband was going through the bookmarked websites he had and came across LBNA website and had me check it out. Then he had me read all about letterboxing on Atlasquest.com. We decided to create an account...what the heck, it is free.....and the adventures began. We have hiked who knows how many miles in 5 out of the 6 New England states. Mostly NH, of course, since that is where we live, but we have gone to parts of our own state that we have never been before. Last summer was the first time I had ever been to Pittsburg, NH, and saw my first moose!!!! I was soo excited I almost ran off the road! It is like a great big treasure hunt - letterboxing - that is. Some of the stamps people have carved to go in these tupperware containers are just amazing. But the fact that I am getting out hiking, something my hubby and I can enjoy together and not even realize how much I am hiking because I am so distracted by hunting for letterboxes.....it is just awesome....My children are either out of the house, almost out of the house or old enough he doesn't want to hang with mom and dad anymore....so this is perfect. It is helping take the edge off of the nearing "empty nest syndrome" and allowing my husband and I to spend some quality time together. We have also met some really awesome people that we would have never met if it hadn't been for this crazy letterboxing business! We just spent a fabulous weekend in Vermont with a couple who's trail names are Tiggermama and Mr. Umbrella. My husband is Bubbaloo Magoo and I am Betty Boop3.

Happy Trails!