Yesterday morning as I woke up, I stood in front of the only window in our
bedroom that looks out into the front fairy beds. This window like the
gardens faces south and it's packed to the top of the gutters with the Swamp
Sunflower right now. I slightly raised the window to see how humid it was,
and was resting on the cool marble window sill when I saw the little Red
Baron's of the garden world straffing each other thru the tangle of bright
yellow oversized Coreopsis like flowers. This was neat, so I stood there
quietly as the hummers seemed to be playing more than running each other off
(I would think they were brothers, since their ma and pa had returned this
year to my gardens). Both appeared to be males but there was no animosity
between them as they flitted in and out of the flowers, stopping only long
enough to perch on a thin stem. I was enjoying the private air show when
something caught my eye to the west near the sidewalk, and I turned and
looked and sure enough, I spotted a wren perching on the hanging chains I've
threaded thru the old fashioned porcelain coated spagatti strainer I've
filled with soil and planted up with hens and chickens.

I watched her, and started to wonder if she was headed towards the pot of
succulent that Zhan had given me awhile back that I've nursed thru these
past several years since my only visit to her (this succulent grows children
on the ends of it's fleshy, ghostly white mottled pointy leaves and gets to
be a good size over time) and a few weeks ago I realized that where I'd hung
it under the eves of the house wasn't allowing it to get any sunlight.
Ordinarily it would have, but my flowers are up past the gutters, so it was
getting bare, filtered sunlight, and I had unhooked it from it's nail, and
carefully hung it next to the pot of Commander Hay sempervivum and hoped
that the bend rebar would support both of them. It had.

But when I had unhooked the pot, I noticed that yet another pot of
succulents had a woven nest in it, and I had checked inside it and there was
no one home, no eggs nothing. Well apparently when I hung it out in the
sunlight to toughen up the leaves of the plant, a mother wren thought it was
the perfect place to nest.

I watched as she flitted away, and moments later as I stood there, trying
not to be distracted by the antics of the hummers, she returned with a
mouthful of struggling insect. She quickly looked around, decided it was
safe, despite that the hummers flew around and thru her air space in wild
abandon, and she ducked into the rounded brown nest that was woven thru the
fleshy stems of the succulent. I watched with great pride as little mouths
opened up as I looked as hard as I could to see from my distance, and
decided I would get my digital camera, and capture another picture of the
"Marijuana daisies" or Tickseed Sunflower as I've discovered recently
(Bidens Aristosa)in my Audubon Field guide to North American wildflowers.
Then I would possibly catch a picture of the babies residing in the nest.

So I skirted past the dawgs, leaving them inside to wail and moan and run
thru the house expressing their unhappiness at me giving them the slip, and
went outside to take a couple of pictures. I got a great one of my hundreds
of yellow flowers, then another shot of the ever changing huge concrete
planter. (It now has a mum in it in the place where a Cherokee rudbeckia
finally demised and left a spot open for someone else against the burgandy
velvet of the coleus I'd planted with the Dusty Miller and small pom pom
dahlia's.

Quietly I worked my way west towards the sidewalk, and listening for sounds
of scolding, I carefully turned the pot around towards me and took a picture
holding the camera as close as I dared. I looked inside once I snapped the
picture and I saw one large fledgling sitting very still looking at me
horrified, and two more heads behind him, so I positioned the camera a bit
closer, turned the pot carefully around and holding on to the garden stake
holding the asters back from the pathway of the sidewalk, I carefully got to
within three inches of the nest and snapped another picture. then I
carefully let the pot turn back around where it originally was, facing
northwards (the opening of the nest) and slipped into the front door.

I stopped back in my bedroom, and stood in front of the window and finally I
saw mother wren coming back from where she had watched me unnoticed and
quiet and she checked the nest several times before she flew off, returning
quicker this time with another mouthful of insects, and I breathed a sign of
relief to know I hadn't made her mad or scared her away. Mother's instincts
takes over and she had stuck by her brood.

Glancing at the clock, I realized I had to get ready for work, and set the
camera on the computer desk, deciding I'd transfer the images when I got
home at 6.

At work, an Arrowwood de Brillo de Chicago Viburnum dentatum followed me
home and a Golden flame spirea that both were reduced down to $3.00 the
larger being the Viburnum and it had several really nice blue black clusters
of berries on it from all the residents of the nursery having pollinated
them this spring when they were in full flossy flower. I could hear Squire
gnashing his teeth as he discovered not one but TWO more bushes sitting near
the constipated side yards.

Once home, I decided I needed to figure out a spot for both bushes and
forgot about the camera and nest until I came back inside from the humidity
and heat and told Squire I had something to show him that was really kinda
neat. He was going to make me wait because he was watching something on
Discovery about Archeology and I decided to go outside and take a quick look
at the babies and discovered the nest was empty. Mama and fledglings had
flown away during the six hours I had been gone.

I wondered if my presence had shaken her up, but then remembered the little
one on top had all his feathers and I told myself that she just moved them
up into high branches and was showing them how to catch their own insects in
the flowers not far, and looked around the house for tell tale disturbing
signs of feathers from my felines.

Not finding any feathers, I breathed a sign of relief until I discovered yet
another living frog someone had brought in from the fountain, and returning
him to the three foot water trough area that feeds the fountain, I went back
inside to tell Squire to forget it, the really neat thing was gone, and he
picked up on it and just said "baby birds?" and I confirmed it and decided
to see if I'd even captured a picture of them.

Downloaded the pics, opened up Paint Shop Pro and saw 14 photos updating and
as I closed the camera window, erased the photo's on the camera and making
more room for more pictures (I erase them after I make sure they've
transferred) I started opening up each picture, rotating them, sharpening
them, and resizing them for smaller and easier transmitting to friends.

A much better picture of the Tickseed sunflowers, you could see there were
hundreds of them even clearer, a great photo of the replanted pot, and an
obvious picture of the nest but nothing visible. Only nest. Rats.....my
heart sank as I deleted it after enlarging it and peering closely at the
image I'd captured. Good close up of her nest, and a good close up of the
succulent stem, but no baby birds. I deleted it and went to the next image.

Rotated it when I figured out which way the stem was going (it went south)
and using the magnifier setting, I enlarged it, sharpened it and started to
look to see if I'd possibly captured one picture of the babies.

Wait, there was faint yellow streaks in the brown leaves and brown nest. I
looked closer at the yellow streaks and saw that they were tiny beaks. And
above each yellow streak, was one bright little eye looking quietly at the
camera that was aimed at them. I counted....."one, two, three, four!!!
There are FOUR fledgling wrens!! woo hoo!!" Then I stopped and looked
again, and this time I really concentrated at what I was looking at and
wait, there were FIVE babies!!!! I could see the fifth one was sitting
behind the four facing outwards. Wow........So mama had hatched five
babies. Well.

This was good news, and I figured she'd had more than enough time to slip
them out of the nest and into higher places to teach them the fine art of
catching flying bugs away from cats, and prying lenses of digital cameras.

The grin on my face was ear to ear as I called oldest son, and Squire to
come look at a pic, and as they both came down the hallway, son asks me what
I want. "Look!!" He has the mentality of most males decades younger, and
he looks at the picture and says "frog??" sigh....................."nooooo,
look CLOSER, son!!" And Squire comes from behind him and says "Oh NEAT!!!!!
BABY BIRDS!!!!!!" and Mike looks again and confirms he sees them, and tells
me "well, KEWELL" and I tell him, how many?? He stands there, I can tell
he's wanting to get back to what he was doing on his computer in the
kitchen, but he peers at the photo, I enlarged it one time and he starts
counting after I hint and tell him to look at the yellow marks. He sees all
five. "wow, FIVE????" and I tell him that they've flown away sometime today
but no signs of interference from the felines and we're all pleased that
possibly they all got away from harm for now.

So, anyone wanting to see a neat photo of the pre-fledged Wren babies,
alt.bianaries.gardens will be where they are along with the "Marijuana
daisies" of mine.

I got the Viburnum planted behind the bog sage, the spirea is tucked into
the end of the tomato box and watered in, and the viburnum got a good
topdressing of rich, black compost to fill in the hole that I dug. It always
seems no matter how much soil you dig up, there's never enough to fill
around a plant despite the size of the rootball.

I also planted the two Ruby Slippers pots I got a few days ago for 50c each
that I'd cut back, and hopefully Sugar won't dig up the bed, again. I guess
it's time I laid down wire to keep her from disturbing these two plants adn
hopefully next spring I will find the pulmonaria has returned or I have
located another one to place there.......damn dawg.......g
sigh.............
thanks for the share time. I hope the day goes well with you all. I have
today and tomorrow off and there's things to right outside while it's
overcast.

Outside my nook window are shades of pink and blue, with a spash of burgandy
and one bright red on the railing. The shades of pink are the perennial
begonia's and anemone's which are like happy little pink faces. I tucked
the tall stems that were loaded with buds up thru the twisted grapevine that
supports the Jackmanii clematis (that has seven blossoms on it at the
moment) and they look very happy supported like that. The blue is the Blue
Egnima salvia that has set the second flush of flower down lower and cascade
downwards towards the walking pink anemone's that will meet up with them
next year at the rate they're "walking". The burgandy is the Lobelia I
planted near where the bronze fennel used to be and the red is the one red
pom pom dahlia in the pot on the wide railing that holds all sorts of cacti,
succulents, Monkey face bulbs in the pot I planted them in that I got from
Maryanne Gilbert in Africa this spring. They haven't bloomed for me yet,
but I have faith!!

Above the railing with all these plants, the angel wing begonia, the
kalanchole that refuses to bloom again, the yellow and peach dahlia, swings
a recycled vinegar bottle with two cups of super sweet sugar water and
flying above it is four strands of bright red pink nylon tied to the top of
the thick bamboo I hung the hummingbird feeder from.

Close to my window, the pink butterfly bush shows me it needs tip cutting
again and the white of the varigated Japanese knotweed has faded to a soft
rusty looking yellow. It just doesn't get much better than this, does it?
And the overcast day has cut the heat in half today so I actually want to go
outside for a change!

madgardener up on the ridge, back in fairy holler, overlooking English
Mountain in Eastern Tennessee, zone 7, Sunset zone 36

I really love reading your posts about your garden I love Humming birds.
Once when I was about 14 I was helping my dad with a cabin he was
remodeling. A Humming bird had flown inside and couldn't get out. It was
exhausted from trying to fly through a big picture window and allowed my mom
to pick it up. She gave it to me to hold and we carried it to the door. It
sat in my hand for about 15 seconds while it rested before taking off into
the forest One of my special memories.

Shell

P.S. I never seem to be able to see your posts in
alt.binaries.pictures.gardens. Can't see my own or many others either come
to think of it. Must be my ISP's news servers.

I'm having HORRIBLE problems with Bellsouth lately which is rare for me, and
I'm serious here...........(I'm not even sure if you'll see this in
rec.gardens) Thanks for the encouraging words when I feel like I'm talking
to the air here.............I haven't been able to post to
alt.bianaries.pictures.garden today. When I tried, my Outlook Express gave
me a wierd, quick message and literally shut down and rebooted. If you
trust me enough, I will send you a JPEG of it myself. I have them reduced in
size to 340X 420 which doesn't take up much band width as I understand it.
The hummers today finally discovered that I put out extra sweet sugar water
for the first time today and were hilarious at the feeder in the rains.
madgardener

"Shell91" wrote in message
...
I really love reading your posts about your garden I love Humming
birds.
Once when I was about 14 I was helping my dad with a cabin he was
remodeling. A Humming bird had flown inside and couldn't get out. It was
exhausted from trying to fly through a big picture window and allowed my
mom
to pick it up. She gave it to me to hold and we carried it to the door.
It
sat in my hand for about 15 seconds while it rested before taking off into
the forest One of my special memories.

Shell

P.S. I never seem to be able to see your posts in
alt.binaries.pictures.gardens. Can't see my own or many others either
come
to think of it. Must be my ISP's news servers.

Hi
Sorry it took me so long to reply. I would love to see your pics. To email
them remove the ".spam" from my email. I've been trying to plant irises
(got 10 to go) in between doctors appointments and trying to remodel my
house.

Thanks
Shell


"madgardener" wrote in message
...
I'm having HORRIBLE problems with Bellsouth lately which is rare for me,
and
I'm serious here...........(I'm not even sure if you'll see this in
rec.gardens) Thanks for the encouraging words when I feel like I'm
talking
to the air here.............I haven't been able to post to
alt.bianaries.pictures.garden today. When I tried, my Outlook Express gave
me a wierd, quick message and literally shut down and rebooted. If you
trust me enough, I will send you a JPEG of it myself. I have them reduced
in
size to 340X 420 which doesn't take up much band width as I understand it.
The hummers today finally discovered that I put out extra sweet sugar
water
for the first time today and were hilarious at the feeder in the rains.
madgardener

"Shell91" wrote in message
...
I really love reading your posts about your garden I love Humming
birds.
Once when I was about 14 I was helping my dad with a cabin he was
remodeling. A Humming bird had flown inside and couldn't get out. It
was
exhausted from trying to fly through a big picture window and allowed my
mom
to pick it up. She gave it to me to hold and we carried it to the door.
It
sat in my hand for about 15 seconds while it rested before taking off
into
the forest One of my special memories.

Shell

P.S. I never seem to be able to see your posts in
alt.binaries.pictures.gardens. Can't see my own or many others either
come
to think of it. Must be my ISP's news servers.