Spring Comes on the Wings of Bluebirds
And chickadees!
We welcomed Spring this week by cleaning out and tightening up our three bluebird houses.
The vegetable garden is a prime spot for a birdhouse, with its trellis poles for bluebirds to perch on. Nearby, the native blueberry bushes will offer shelter when the leaves come out; and the branches of the double maple are fine for the watching of fledglings and for looking over the meadow.
We’ve already seen several bluebirds investigate the houses. We think the pair that raised a family in the garden house last year might be here again.
Chickadees have already flown in and out of the little nesting place in the Rabbit Gate. Sam made and carefully attached small black wire cages to the entry of each birdhouse, protecting eggs and new babies from squirrels.
While I was out today I came across spring plants that survived our 16-degree frost a week or so ago. It’s the time of year when I don’t know the names of many flowering weeds!
The frost nipped the first lupines in the meadow, but new leaves appeared after a few days of sunshine.
And the bright snow drops are open to the sun, with each blossom like a small cup holding white “snow”. Or it could be that their name comes from their bloom time which is well before the last-frost date, or the last snow.
This year, while people around the world blindly indulge their unspeakable fits of inhumanity, nature quietly goes about its renewal of life, offering beauty and peace to those of us who are present to it.
Build a birdhouse, keep it clean, and look for new green leaves after frost. This, it seems to me, is where humanity resides and springs from, in the simple heart of nature. Share it with a child if you can.
A simple expression of hope touches my heart. Thank you.
How nice to see peony shoots. We were able to grow them in Iowa. After moving to the Deep South in 1973 I have never had them in the garden. And of course, here in Tucson it is impossible. Thanks for sharing.