Ah, Spring....

Song - The Four Seasons -Spring - Allegro by Antonio Vivaldi

"The first blooms of Spring always make my heart sing."

--S. Brown

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

Constantly Evolving

Song - Changes by David Bowie

Back in 1996 we purchased our home and this is what the garden looked like at the time.  But Mr. B and I could see the "bones" of the property and fell in love. So the guy working in the yard then is the same gardener working in our yard today.  Every time I ask him to move something that he put in twenty years ago, he just shakes his head and laughs.

Once the yard was cleared of ivy & pyracantha we began to plan.  And gardens are constantly evolving because hey trees grow and a once sunny patch becomes shady so the plants that used to thrive in the sunshine, now need to be changed out.

This week we are tearing out the plants in our "island" (it's not really an island, more of a peninsula). It became a beautiful rose garden but it has seen better days and is a little too busy for my taste now.  As I searched through photos to show you the before and after, I realized that I rarely took photos of the island because it was not a beautiful focal point.  Yes I enjoyed the individual roses, most of which were David Austin fragrant English roses but I failed to enjoy them in a mass.

I kept eight of my favorite ones to replant elsewhere and closed my eyes and tossed the rest.  As we pulled the plants away from the stone wall we realized that the wall has begun to lean over time and needs to be restacked.

This is the corner where the island meets the vegetable patch and was fairly straight three years ago.

Two more Japanese Maples will be planted in the back, the stone wall rebuilt and raised higher at the bottom, a fountain will be placed where that stake is and the rest of the area will be filled in with white Iceberg roses so it will feel cleaner and less chaotic.

I'll keep you posted as long as my gardener isn't laughing too hard at my changes!

"Nothing happens unless something is moved."  

--Albert Einstein

Dueling Ladles

Song - Animal Crackers in My Soup by Shirley Temple

A winter tradition is held by our neighbors and friends, Bob & Chris. They bring together about 10 - 12 couples for an annual soup party where each couple brings a pot of their favorite soup to compete for the "Silver Ladle".  In 2017 Mr. B won with his Award Winning Tomato Soup (click the link to see his win and his recipe).

And on Saturday night......guess who won?

I came home with the Silver Ladle for my Award Winning Broccoli Soup!

If you would like the recipe, just click on the Recipes tab on right side of my site. 

It's a perfect meal on a cold winter night!

"Good manners: 

The noise you don't make when you're eating soup."

-- Bennett Cerf

Ninety Years Loved

Song - Happy Birthday Swing by the Lucky Seven

Two weeks ago I was at home and knee deep in flowers and loving every minute of it!

Even though today is my mom's true birthday, 

we had a little party for her two weeks ago to celebrate.

We celebrated at Il Fornaio in downtown Walnut Creek

 and the space turned out to work perfectly for us.  

It was a cold and rainy day but we had a room full of windows and happy guests.

Fifty-two of them to be exact because as you can see Betty is well loved!

Children were cuddled....

 ......flowers brightened the room......

....and cake was devoured!

A Very Happy 90th to you Mom!

Love is In The Air

Song - When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along by Bing Crosby


California is finally getting some rain and the creek in our backyard roared all night long.  It's a good sound to hear as we have had too many years of drought.  When I woke up on Valentines day and looked out at our empty vegetable garden, I spotted these two love birds trying to decide if they should go out on a date.........

......or not.

And just yesterday I spotted a Robin in our Privet berries.......but look who is beneath him......a Cedar Waxwing.

Before I knew it the trees were full of Waxwings and Robins.

They were very good about taking turns eating as some of them 

would wait in this Oak tree on the other side of our yard and then when it was their turn, 

they would dive right into that clump of berries. It kinda felt like I was in that Hitchcock movie with birds multiplying by the second!

Their break consisted in getting a drink of water to wash down all the berries 

and then wait in a nearby tree.

"No winter lasts forever; 

no spring skips its turn."

--Hal Borland

Chahta Tamaha

Song - Choctaw-Chickasaw Drum Dance with Ardis Mose

About four months ago I contacted a woman, Kathy from Find-A-Grave to see if she knew who could get Mr. B and myself into an old Indian burial ground on private property in Oklahoma.  She replied later that day that she could actually get us in. Wow!

This is Armstrong Academy and is near Bokchito in Oklahoma just across the Red River separating Oklahoma from Texas.  This is also where Mr. B's Great-Great Grandfather Ish Ka Na went to school.  Armstrong Academy was founded as a school for Choctaw boys in 1844.

Originally it was built with logs and in 1850 it was rebuilt with bricks that were made on the property.  The blog title "Chahta Tamaha" means Choctaw Town because a little town grew up around the Academy. They had a blacksmith, a general store, a grist mill and a church.

And this was our vehicle for the day!  Dog and gun thrown in for free!  Seriously we needed this little mighty vehicle as Kathy drove us over hills, threw the mud, across small streams and many gates that needed opening and closing to keep the cattle where they belonged.

It was a bitter cold winter day but we were very excited to get a private tour of this area by a very nice, knowledgeable guide - Kathy. While we were still in California, Kathy warned us that there was little left of the Academy as it burned down in 1921 and that Mr. B's great-great grandparents were in unmarked graves. 

Above was the front entrance to the dormitories.   

The foundation of the four room schoolhouse.

 

The well that had a windmill above it.

 Kathy and Mr. B

All around the school there were bulbs coming up.  I wonder who first planted them?

Then we headed over to the nearby Armstong Academy cemetery - more gates to open an close.

 Through the dense Oak forest and scrub.

Suddenly we were there!  Kathy said that she and her sister cleared the land about fifteen years ago.  They had thought there were about 100 graves but at that time they counted and marked 900!

 You had to be careful where you walked because there were stones like this all over the forest floor.  Besides being a tripping hazard they are the stones they used for the Indian graves and have weathered away over time.

Some of the headstones still remain.

This grave held an entire family.

Some had elaborate fencing that still stands today.

This is John William Connelly - Ish Ka Na and Elizabeth Hunter's son & Mr. B's Great Grandfather.

He was born in 1861 and his father died in 1865 and his mother in 1870 so he was raised by a teacher and missionary at the school who found him to be quite smart.  

Above is the man who raised him, educated him and gave him his own name.

A beautiful stream flows through the land.

I can just picture the boys playing and swimming in this stream.

"Our first teacher is our own heart"  

--Cheyenne