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...