Bathing Birds, Blooms and Butterflies

There hasn't been a lot of leisure time for me outside this spring, but this morning, even though there was plenty I could have been doing, I decided to sit on the swing and read.

I have had quite a lot of bird activity here today. This young robin was near the patio this morning.

A robin and sparrow enjoying the birdbath.

I made this simple birdbath last year out of things I had in the garage taking up space. I have two other birdbaths but this one seems to be the favorite. It definitely gets the most use.

I was delighted to see the bluebird back today.

I was standing outside and she seemed a little skittish about getting into the water at first.


Not a very flattering picture of Ms. Bluebird.

I have a few purple coneflowers blooming right now. This one has the prettiest shape and color and is in the mailbox garden. It probably gets a little more sun than the others do.

More of the lily blooms have opened...

and the spirea, that I moved last fall, is blooming. I wasn't sure it would survive the move, but it did. It's not my favorite shrub and was one of several that the builder installed in the front flower bed. I had already moved the others and they all promptly died. I've had to trim this one back to the ground for the last few years because it was getting too large for the small front flowerbed. I moved it to the side of the house beside the gutter downspout. It seems to be very happy with all of the rain we've been getting.


The parsley in the butterfly garden that survived the winter is blooming. (I didn't know that parsley was a biennial.) The blooms have obviously attracted the butterflies because I notice some little caterpillars on them today. It surprised me to find them this early because I have only caught brief glimpses of a couple of butterflies.

We had a terrible thunderstorm earlier this evening with a heavy downpour and high winds. I was concerned about the tiny caterpillars on the parsley and checked on them after the storm passed. Thankfully they were still there.

Surprise on the Front Porch

We had a surprise on our front porch this morning. When my son opened the door he saw the turtle and called for me to come with my camera. This turtle was moving around pretty fast and my son called him "Zippy".

Another surprise for me this past week was a visit from a cedar waxwing. I had spotted a bird with a tuft of feathers on its head and couldn't identify it because I couldn't see it well enough. I thought it was too large for a tufted titmouse. A couple of days later, I looked out the kitchen window and saw it again in a backyard tree. It was very cloudy and I still couldn't see it well. It wasn't until I edited the picture with Adobe Photoshop that I was able to see that it was a cedar waxwing. I had a large group of these birds in Alabama and thought they always traveled in groups. I didn't see any others with this one.

I'd seen the hummingbirds zip by several times but had not seen them at the feeder. On Friday I was at the hummingbird and butterfly garden and one flew to the feeder but I didn't have my camera with me. This morning I saw one at the feeder but it was on the opposite side. This is my first hummingbird picture of the season, but I'm sure hoping it won't be my last.

The lilies are blooming right now and are so beautiful. I bought this one on clearance last year and it is quite large with several blooms and quite a few buds. I love the colors on it!

More Peonies

It never seems to fail, the peonies bloom, are at their prime and then we have rain. They were absolutely breathtaking then we had a couple of days of thunderstorms and now they are all laying down. Even though they are leaning and unable to take the weight of the water on their petals, they are still gorgeous.



After taking these pictures I clipped off the best looking flowers and brought them inside to enjoy.


This one is right here beside my computer, it is so beautiful and smells wonderful.

It is in a small vase and rather top heavy and kitty just knocked it over. Thankfully the water didn't hit the keyboard. I guess this may not be the best place for it after all.

Just Peonies

Roly-Poly Problem

The blue-eyed grass started blooming this week. I took pictures a few days ago and all three of the plants appeared to be healthy. I was very concerned today when I noticed that one of the plants was nearly dead in the center. On closer inspection I noticed that the plant was full of pillbugs or roly-pollies . The grass was falling over and none of the pieces were firmly in the ground.


I gathered them up and planted them in other containers, hoping to salvage them. I checked other things in the gardens and noticed the spiderwort was looking distressed as well. I pulled back the mulch and noticed the pillbugs were all at the base of that plant too.

We have had a very wet spring, so that may be a contributing factor to the plague of pillbugs. I've always had them but have never had this many and I've never noticed them eating my plants before.

I've been having difficulty keeping any of my new plants alive because as soon as I plant them they are eaten. I don't know if the pillbugs are eating all of the young plants, but I know for certain they are responsible for the damage to the blue-eyed grass.

I researched on line trying to find a natural way to kill them. One suggestion was to wet newspaper, roll it up and lay it beside the plant they're eating. They will crawl inside because they like damp places and in the morning the papers can be collected and thrown away. I did this tonight and placed about 10-12 rolls of paper around the flowerbeds. I hope it works, but I can't imagine that it will eliminate them as quickly or as effectively as might be necessary. Has anyone else had this problem? What is a good, natural method for reducing the number of pillbugs?