May 11, 2018

Spring Bird Migration

May 11, 2018

Male Indigo Bunting

It is so hard to believe it is already almost the middle of May.  I have been enjoying seeing a variety of birds during the spring migration.  Sadly, I did not make it to South Padre Island during the height of the migration.  Somehow the migration time has just flown by (no pun intended) and I did not get out there.  At least a few of the birds stopped by our house for a visit and a meal.

Bewick's Wren

This has been a beautiful spring.  We did have some snow back in December (I think it was) and a freeze in January that damaged some plants, but people trimmed back their plants, leaving huge piles of debris for the trash trucks to carry away, and now things quickly sprouted new growth and are growing rapidly.  I have already had to cut back plants a second time, that were getting too tall.

Oleander 

My mom and I went shopping one evening after supper and each picked up some potting soil.  I got a few little plants and they are doing well in the hanging baskets and new pots.  I picked up a few more plants a couple of weeks later and got half of them into planters, and the others are still waiting for my attention.  We have been getting a nice amount of rain and had a rainstorm one night with thunder and lightening so that now, everything is a beautiful shade of green.

Male - Lesser Goldfinch

We had not seen our youngest grandson in way too long, so this past weekend we went to visit our youngest son, his wife, and their one year old.  We have two grandchildren graduating from high school this year.  We stopped to visit another son, his wife, and their two, one of whom is graduating in a couple of weeks.  We hope to be able to attend the graduation, but sadly it is in the middle of the work week.  A couple of weeks ago we spent time in McAllen caring for the 5 youngest grandchildren in that part of the family.  We were there while the second oldest had a vocal recital where he sang If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof.

Grandson dressed for voice recital

This April was very different from last year's.  I spent April, 2017 in Dallas caring for our youngest grandson and while there I made a couple of weekend trips.  It was all fun and memorable, but spending this year at home was good, too.

Green Jay

My Cochlear Implant and the accessories have been giving me some challenges.  When we went to Houston in November, we had an appointment with the audiologist.  When I raised some problems I was having, she suggested that I go into the advanced settings on the sound processor.  I have done that and can tell that these settings do change things, but I have yet to find a real good setting.  I need to take time to work with them more and just have not done so.

Male - Golden-fronted Woodpecker

The rains that we have gotten have increased the supply of "blood sucking mosquitoes".  They love me.  Last night I woke up and found that a mosquito (or an army of them) had been chewing on me while I slept.  It was hours before I got back to sleep,  Today I had to be at the office early and now the lack of sleep is catching up with me.

One of the hanging baskets I planted recently

On our trip last weekend to Dallas, we all went to the George W. Bush Presidential Library.  We did not have time to tour the library, but walked around the gardens behind the library where thousands of wildflowers have been planted.  We were past the prime time, but there were still many beautiful blooms to enjoy.  Our little grandson would go from one flower type to another, inspecting them all.  We took a bunch of photos and as we finished, I found that I had been standing in an ant bed and it took the help of my husband and our daughter-in-law to help me get rid of them.

My husband, Ron, with me last weekend in

 Dallas at the Bush Presidential Library

Later in the afternoon we went along to see our little grandson get his first haircut.  Our daughter-in-law's mom and step-dad joined us and you would have thought some movie star was getting the royal treatment at a salon for all the photos we all took.  He was very good and patient while he got the haircut.

Barber shop where our grandson got his

 first haircut sitting in this airplane chair

Lately, I have been enjoying spending my evenings reading and though all the books have been good, the story lines begin to run together after a while.  I think I need to put the books aside for a while and work on the sewing.

A quilt I finished about a month ago - binding

 and all!  Pattern is Texas Two Step

One of Ron's brothers and his wife came to be with Ron's mom while we were gone last weekend.  It had been a while since they had been able to come and we were glad to have a chance to make our trip and know that his mom was being well cared for.  She has a lady who lives with her, but there are times that the lady wants to attend services at her church, etc. and someone needs to be there during that time.

One of two identical newly potted plants

I have spent a little time working in the yard recently.  Ron planted zinnias several places in the yard, but the spot we used a couple of years ago, is by far the best spot.  Ever since we moved into our house over 40 years ago, we have sweep leaves that fell on the driveway into that spot.  It has been like a compost pile and now the dirt is great for growing the zinnias.  They started blooming a couple of days ago.  Today I cut 5.  Hoping for a good crop of them this year.

Male - Baltimore Oriole