A Maryland Country Garden

Bluebirds and More Bluebirds

I was quite excited a few weeks ago when I checked my bluebird house at night with a flashlight and saw through the entrance some blue feathers.  So the next day I opened it and there were 5 tiny, perfect light blue eggs.  I'd put up this house last year but the house sparrows got to it first.  I attached clear fishing lines to it (said to deter house sparrows) but I think it was too late as they'd already gotten interested in the house.  But so far, this season, everything is going fine.  I only hope all doesn't end in tragedy with baby bluebirds pecked to death by sparrows.  That happened many years ago and so I had stopped trying to make a home for bluebirds.  But maybe this year I (and the bluebirds) will finally get lucky.  I sure hope so.  No sign of house sparrows around the box at all.  Keep your fingers crossed.  

Today I opened the house and saw the newly-hatched chicks.

 

Daffodil Season

It's daffodil season and the hundred or so daffodil bulbs I planted several years ago are all coming up.  I planted two orders of the naturalizing mixture from White Flower Farm over two seasons and was quite pleased with the varieties I got:  all different types, from split cups to pink cups to poet's narcissi. 

There is no easier flower to plant and maintain--the deer don't eat them and all I have to do is make sure I let the leaves yellow before I cut them down.  I have them planted further away from the house, so I don't mind that the grass around them has to get long for a while.  By the middle of June, I can mow the whole area. 

This one here is Ice Follies.  The yellow cup fades over time and turns white.

 

And here is my "new" dog, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Puck, posing for a picture among the flowers:

More daffodils:

First Snow and Mr. Fox

I have been mostly MIA for the past year.  I have a good excuse though: I got cancer and had to have surgery for it last spring.  The timing was particularly unfortunate, as gardening goes, for it meant I was out of commission from early spring until late in the summer.  And by that time, everything had gone to wrack and ruin.  Oh, well, I hope to start with a clean slate this spring.  I will be starting with a clean slate as far as my health goes--I'm as cured as anyone who had cancer can ever be and I feel lucky it was caught very early. 

Anyway, we had our first snow last week--it was at least 4 inches.  I took some photos of the crabapples and snow.

 

And this morning my husband called me out to the kitchen and told me to look out the window.  There was a fox out by our hammock.  It seemed to be trying to catch a mouse or something too small to see from our distance.  And I noticed that when it walked, it had a limp. I apologize that the picture isn't clearer. 

This is one of the best things about living in the quasi-country, as we do:  lots of chances to see wildlife.