Around My Backyard

Dear Mom,

( The End )

Love,

Bonnie Jo

The Birds and The Bees

Dear Mom,
As you know, upon Bonnie Jo's request I reported bright and early Saturday morning to your backyard, camera at the ready. Bonnie Jo would be inspecting the beehive she recently set up there and wanted me to document the event for the blog. It is hard to take pictures when you are dressed like this:

Things seemed rather serious when I arrived because there was crouching down and leaning in involved.

As I understand it (and Bonnie Jo may have to jump in and correct any errors), the main purpose of the Hive Inspection was to search for Queen Amelia. When a Princess Bee comes to live in her new castle, it seems the first thing she does is fly away to go visit some bachelor bees before she can come home and be Queen. Sometimes the Princess Bees never come home. Maybe because they can't find their way back, or maybe they just really like the bachelor bees. Considering that this Princess Bee was named after the famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart, there was some concern that she may have lost her way somewhere over the reservoir never to return.

Thankfully, unlike the other Amelia, this Amelia's flight had a happy ending.

Bonnie Jo was pleased and proud to find Queen Amelia in the hive and laying little bee eggs like all Good Queen Bees are supposed to do.

In her official capacity as family beekeeper, Bonnie Jo declared that Amelia "IS A BEAUT!"



Where's Amelia?



All those jigsaw puzzles we did with Daddy when we were little must have been practice for finding bees later on. And if I remember correctly, Bonnie Jo was a gifted jigsaw puzzle piece finder.

Anyway, now that I know where Amelia is in that photo, I can find her, too. Let me give you a close up.



Queen Amelia

Before leaving, we took a peak at your nest of Barn Swallows.

It looks like these guys are running out of room and will be making flights of their own soon.

Especially this guy.

And let me just add here that the way "the Birds and the Bees" was explained to me all those years ago included NOTHING about spending time alone with a bunch of bachelor bees.....

Love,

Kim

New Babies in the Family

Dear Mom,
We have anticipated their arrival for weeks. Treading lighting.  Coming and going carefully.  Always mindful.
They are finally here! Oh! Soooooo worth the wait!

Love,
Wendy

Snow Day

Dear Mom,

Gloria and Golda were curious...

but they would NOT get their feet in the snow!

The cardinals are abundant,

and the woods are a winter wonderland.

(It looks like I'm not the only creature that has been on this trail!)

But ohhh...if we only had some blue sky...

Love, Bonnie Jo

Country Livin' in the Summer

Dear Mom,

Summer is just flying by! So much to do and see. The county fair is always a highlight of my summer...to see the proud 4-Hers displaying their projects and the community coming together to appreciate and support them is heartwarming. The "Small Animal Barn" is my favorite place to visit at the fair. It houses the poultry, pygmy goats and rabbits.

These are Sarah's pygmy goats--Jolly, Yeager and Bud. They just wouldn't hold still! Here are two adorable Jersey Wooly rabbits.
This is a beautiful Belgian Bearded D'Uccle rooster--Meg's male counterpart. Looks like he needed a special warning sign against poking fingers...poor little guy.

The weather has been superb and my little garden is producing some wonderful veggies. I really thought my beans were finished once the rabbits discovered them. I covered them with bird netting to keep the rabbits out and quickly learned that bean plants do not actually need their leaves to blossom and produce fruit. There are so many beans now that I don't mind sharing them with the rabbits.

This is my first big harvest...green beans, green peppers, Early Girl tomato and zucchini.

I'm eager to try out this sweet corn, but I'm not quite sure how to know when it's ready to be harvested...The 16-foot tall Sunzilla sunflowers....didn't quite make it much past 5 feet!! Oh well, they are still pretty along the fence line. These sunflowers turned out to be HIGH MAINTENANCE! The rabbits, bugs and shade are their enemies.

The hummingbirds are plentiful this year. Summer just wouldn't be summer without them, don't you agree?! Benny is certainly enjoying his warm summer days...on my clean tablecloth! Love, Bonnie Jo

As the Bird House Turns

Dear Mom,
There is a drama playing out in my backyard. Chickadee Mama was evicted from the nest by Mr. and Mrs. House Wren. This aggressive little wren is known for driving other birds from their nest boxes. Apparently the male chooses several prospective nesting cavities and places a small twig into each. The female then inspects each nesting cavity and chooses one.

She will then completely fill the nest cavity with uniformly small twigs and line a small depression at the back of the cavity with pine needles and grass. She often has trouble fitting long twigs through the nest cavity hole and will try several different directions and approaches until she is successful.

I wonder if the twig sticking out the front of the gourd was placed there by the male or the female. I see straw and chicken feathers from my coop inside this nest! Mrs. Wren lets out a loud scolding rattle when we get too close to her nest.

It was difficult to get a good picture of her with my little camera. She was quite restless...and not too happy with my being around. Unfortunately, she chose her nest next to a mulberry tree, and it's pickin' time!!

Love, Bonnie Jo

The Oriole

Dear Mom,
We have a new visitor to the hummingbird feeder. At first, I thought it was just luck that I happened to catch a glimpse of it passing through one day...then, I started noticing it regularly.

Baltimore Oriole

Wow! Do I ever feel lucky to have a Baltimore Oriole hanging around! Our yard if full of neat birds this summer, which is a good thing considering how many bugs and mosquitoes we have around for them to eat.

Love, Bonnie Jo

Chickadee Mama

Dear Mom,

I was excited when I noticed a chickadee making a nest in the gourd bird house I made!

Isn't she cute?!

I can't wait to hear the chirping hatchlings. I wonder how much longer it will be...

Love, Bonnie Jo

Birds

Dear Mom,

This winter, I made the difficult choice not to feed the birds with the usual black oil sunflower seed and bulk wild bird seed mix. I have had too many problems with mice in the garage (which is now under control), and an overpopulation of squirrels coming into the yard. Instead, I put out suet cakes, and I have attracted several birds. I took an assortment of pictures from inside, looking out.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Nuthatch
Pipsqueak's favorite (a cardinal)
and...WHAT'S THIS?!!!

This squirrel "hung around" for quite a while. The birds didn't mind, and I didn't either!

Love, Bonnie Jo