Nesting Instinct

Song - You've Got a Friend in Me by 4-year old Claire Ryann and Dad

Suddenly Spring is here!  After months of rain my bulbs are flowering, the trees all have baby shoots on them and the birds are so happy right now......as love is in the air!

 These are Band-Tailed Pigeons and while daddy watches out for hawks......

....mama takes a little rest and looks around to see if it's a nice neighborhood to raise a brood in.

 Meanwhile a couple of Oak Titmouse are building a nest in Mr. B's wedding ranch bird house for the third year in a row! They sing to each other in the sweetest way and both are working on building the nest.

 Luckily I wired the house onto the Japanese Maple tree several weeks ago so now it's pretty stable.

 Mama bird didn't like a piece of moss that daddy bird brought in.......

.....so it's outta here!

And just beneath their house are a bunch of twigs that were too big to fit through the hole!

A work in progress......

I'll let you know when I hear the pitter-patter of little birdie feet!

"Sometimes, simply by sitting, 

the soul collects wisdom."

~Zen proverb

Laundry in the Woods

Last week, while I was still in Tahoe, I had some laundry that needed washing. Now normally I would of jumped in my car & gone to the closest laundry mat but on this day I was painting at the cabin and wanted to stay put. So I remembered how my mom & aunts would pull out the old wringer washing machine once a week & hang the clothes on a line in a sunny spot in the forest to dry. They talked & laughed while doing this chore together while us 12 cousins would run through the hanging clothes and chase each other. On this day last week, nostalgia hit and I decided to do the same. Although the old wringer machine is long gone, I had a Zen like moment washing my clothes in the deep kitchen sink, then hanging them on the line to dry.


     
“After enlightenment, the laundry.”
 Zen Proverb