Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: yard


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Me and a Weigela

Hey! It’s Penny here!

Mom says she has lots of photos to edit from her trip, but I keep asking her to do stuff with me so she hasn’t had time to mess with those old photos. I did let her edit the images in this post, cause they’re about me and I know how much you all want to see me.

This is mom’s favorite back yard weigela bush. It has three different shades of pink blossoms, that all bloom at once. This was the bush Mom was asking Katie to pose in front of in June of 2022 when she and dad noticed how sad Katie was.

Mom says that’s when she and daddy decided it was time to let Katie’s soul fly free. So when she sees this bush in bloom she always thinks about Katie and that day, and it makes her sad.

But did you see what’s on the bush, just to the left of my right ear? Go ahead and look again. Maybe make the image bigger on your device.

See it?

Yep…a butterfly! Mom had been out taking pictures of it earlier, from a good distance away because she didn’t want to scare it off. And then, when she thought it was gone, she took me out there to get my picture with the blooms, and the butterfly flew right around our heads and settled down eating and drinking.

It wasn’t afraid of us at all!

It stayed out there, flying around near us the entire time Mom was taking my picture. Do you think maybe it was Katie come to visit?

I think maybe it was!


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Orange you glad…

Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!

So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.

I didn’t get a photo.

But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!

He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.

And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.

And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.

I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.

And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.


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It’s early, but we’re ready!

We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.

Everything seems early.

And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!

I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.

Last year’s oriole, announcing that the grape jelly was running low.

Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.

Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.

Last year’s downy woodpecker and female hummingbird sharing a lunch date.

I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.

A 2022 image. I’m waiting for him to show up this spring too. I put his favorite food in the flat feeder this morning. Just in case.

Spring has, indeed, sprung.


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Love my goldfinches

I’m really enjoying the goldfinches this spring. Some years we don’t see many, but this years there’s an abundance of them.

Wait! That’s a hairy woodpecker!

I’ve watched as the males turn from an army green, similar to the color the females stay year round, into their exuberant and brilliant summer gold.

And that’s a blue Jay!

They sit in the beech tree not far from the finch feeder and sing for their supper. If there are a lot of them in the tree I know that the feeder is probably nearing empty.

Where’s our lunch, lady?

They don’t tolerate it getting too low.

Well I guess there’s time for a little kissy face while we’re waiting.

They’re used to me being out there and don’t leave their tree, if the feeder is empty, even if Penny and I are on the deck.

That’s enough! She’s watching us!

They are picky and only really like the finch food I buy from a specialty bird store in the town just north of us. The employees there know me.

This feeder is definitely empty!

The finches are so much fun to watch, though they are eating me out of house and finch food!

This place has the best food around!

Soon they’ll be busy raising their families and we won’t see so much of them. But they’ve sure brightened my spring!

I’ll sing you a song, lady, to say thanks for my supper!