Male Cardinal Bird Song & Green Emerging
There is a male cardinal outside that has been singing so vibrantly and sweetly all morning. I wonder if he is calling out to his mate.
I wanted to go outside and get a photo of him, but the pupsters started barking as I neared the door. So I had to take a photo through the window so as not to scare him off.
I am now seeing so much green emerging out on the patio. Such a welcome sight.
I lie awake at night and think about plants I want to add to the patio. What colors I want to focus on. How I might arrange the chairs. l fall asleep with these things in mind. Such pleasant thoughts to lull me to sleep.
I am seeing this sedum (or is it a succulent?) in various pots on the patio. I don’t know if little pieces dropped into various containers, or if I added them. But they sure are hardy little plants because they are scattered here and there and everywhere.
This particular galvanized container has lemon balm that has come back every year I’ve lived here, so I hope it comes back too.
I snipped away at the brown mint that has encircled a container many times. You know how mint grows and grows and is so bountiful.
I have worked on every container on the patio. Although I can’t snip for long because I’m still having carpal tunnel issues.
I’m anxiously watching Jade, my Jade butterfly tree, waiting for green nubs to show up on the branches. You can see a little bit of Jade in the above photo with Mr. Sun.
I’m also seeing creeping jenny in various pots. Last year I had to replace all of it. But maybe I won’t have to this year.
What’s going on in your garden space? Are you seeing signs of life yet?
That cardinal lol …its all about SEX 🙂 In the spring and early summer I loved to sit outside and listen to the “Dawn Chorus” of the birds. I also noted how the cardinal’s song changed from his winter one to spring….in the end, i found that it’s all about mating 🙂
What a beautiful cardinal – I can almost hear his sweet sounds, and I’m loving watching the small signs of Spring – can’t wait!! Happy Monday, my friend~
My strip of daffodils along my driveway are poking their brave little leaves through. They are quite cold hardy but I still worry about them coming up this early as we are still having snow and it’s anything but warm yet. Sometimes in high 40’s but usually quite a bit colder at night. I feel like I should go out and cover them with blankets or something!
I love, love, love to hear the birds and watch them come to my feeders. They drive the two cats that live with me crazy watching them through the glass patio door. The one cat makes these funny little growls in her throat when she sees them and gets excited.
Spring can’t come too soon for me but it’s not quite here yet in Michigan. Although some of the milder days make us think it’s close. Then we get two or three or five inches of snow again! Can’t begin to predict the weather here!
Isn’t it fun to see plants return for another year. It’s like seeing old friends, I especially feel like that when it comes to my herbs, roses, and crepe myrtle when they return each year.
Your patio looks like it is going to be really lush this year with all of the returning sedum/succulents coming up already. I had my first crocus of the year blooming yesterday. Pretty bright yellow ones. No purples yet.
My daffodils, big scented hyacinths,, tulips that have been planted for years are sprouting up, but no where near blooming. I didn’t think the hyacinths would come back because the rabbit ate them all of the way to the ground last year, but they did. I need to get them covered with chicken wire before the rabbit attacks again. I have some new tulips that my son sent to me from The Netherlands via Germany for Christmas, but they haven’t started sprouting yet because the weather turned the ground frozen until we had a little thaw in January when we (my husband) planted them for me. I don’t know how long they will be delayed in blooming. My knees are to the point where I can’t plant things now in the ground. Only in containers with soft soil. I have found an orthopedic surgeon who will do a total knee replacement on me on one knee. I will be having it done this sping, unless something interferes with my plans.
Cardinals are such beautiful birds… I wish I knew about them when I want to the US, I would have kept an eye open to see one!
Oh, they are such sweet birds. Soon I should be seeing the female cardinal. Maybe that’s who the male is calling to.
Brenda, I notice you have Jade staked with a bamboo pole. Be careful of that! The tree trunk will become physically attached to the pole. If you leave it too long, they will actually grow together. The man who aerates our lawn told me that and pointed it out to me on one of our trees..
Thank you for telling me this. That stake came with the tree and so I planted it with it. I guess I need to remove it. I’m so thankful you told me!
I virtual garden with you! I have a little sedum plant coming back and it’s making me happy. I need to choose some container plants that will withstand the heat!
I feel the same way every time I see a little bit of green!
We’ve had so much rain in North Texas that even though the sun finally came through yesterday, I stayed out of the grass. The ground is just too wet. Maybe next weekend. I’m ready to clean out the dead stuff. The daffodils and iris are up and I hope I see some daffodils soon before it gets too hot for them.
We had a lot of rain last week. More sun this week. I just love walking out there and looking closely to see if anything is coming up. I do it more than once a day!
I have been listening to the cardinals sing this morning, too…love. Nothing coming up here yet, there’s still lots of snowcover.
It just keeps singing and singing! Overcast here now but no snow or rain.
Brenda, recently I was having terrible carpal tunnel issues from being on the computer so much and I ordered a Mueller hand brace from Amazon and wore it for about 3 weeks and now my hand is much better. And it was pretty reasonably priced too!
I have braces. But I can’t type with them, and this is my bread and butter. I ordered these rubber-like glove type things from Amazon and pull those on sometimes, but they don’t seem to work very well. I’m not one to be still. If I’m not typing, I’m outside pulling and doing. I guess eventually I’ll have to give in and be still!
My trees have buds on them and my lilly’s are coming up! I love spring!
Tania
i go out each day looking for a bud on Jade. Not yet.
Oh I love the cardinals, I had them at my bird feeder all last summer. The whole family gets excited when we see them. Did you read this week about a yellow cardinal someone photographed somewhere in the US (can’t remember which state)? What a beauty! We’re still having lows in the 30s here so I’m waiting a while to think about my flowers, but the daffodils are up (thanks for some days in the 70s – I told someone the weather graph looks similar to the stock market! Yesterday we had 58 mph winds all day, talk about getting on one’s nerves. However, we were safe and many weren’t, one little 6-year-old boy died when a tree fell on his parents mobile home (he was in the upper bunk asleep – devastating).
No, I had not heard of a yellow cardinal! I shall Google it. My small clump of daffodils are up, but not near the bloom stage yet.
My garden is now under three feet of snow with more on the way this week! Meanwhile the robins and the ted winged blackbirds are back…poor things!
Red winged blackbirds ***
I guess that’s life up on the mountain. But when spring/summer arrives, you always have a phenomenally beautiful outdoor space!
We are enjoying gorgeous weather. A lot of new birds showed up about a week ago–I read that late hangers-on fled the north when the cold wave came through and came down south. I put out food for them, and they have stayed around. They are so cute, sitting in a row on top of the wall, as if they’re waiting for me to bring out dinner. And their chirping in the morning is the best way to wake up.
Watching birds is such a joy. A simple joy that I am always grateful for.
Snowdrops are blooming in Rhode Island! I also quiet my mind for sleep by imagining what plants will go into my garden pots.
Hey, a gardening sister! Nothing blooming here yet. Just green coming up.