writing cottage

Blossoming BoBo. Plus a Welcome Surprise.

Blossoming BoBo. Plus a Welcome Surprise.

The joy continues to blossom around my writing cottage and home with all the landscaping we had put in mid-May. Before this, I’d never heard of a Limelight BoBo Hydrangea tree. That is it in the center of the photo, blooming so beautifully.

As I watered some plants yesterday I heard a familiar tweet, tweet, tweet.  Then I saw Mama Robin fly from the BoBo tree into the birch trees across the way. Could it be I wondered?

I scampered over to the tree trying not to get my hopes up. Last week Sunday, my sister-in-law, Donna and I were exchanging bird stories — she loves the birds in her yard too and takes utmost care of them.  She shared a story of a bird leaving its nest of which she felt bad about thinking she’d caused it to leave too soon — just like what happened with me and the baby Robin that bounced out the tree when I was trying to tighten the twine to hold the tree straight.

But she said not to take the nest out of the tree yet—that Mama Robin will likely return. She said she will fluff up the nest before laying eggs again. Sure enough, I saw that about three days ago when I checked on the nest.  The grasses, and whatever natural materials she used to originally build the nest appeared to be a bit messy —and “fluffed up.” It reminded me of when we change the sheets on the bed!

So when I heard the tweet, tweet, tweet, yesterday I was pretty sure it was her warning call.  And sure enough, when I peeked, there were two new pretty blue eggs! Oh what a welcome surprise!  A new little set of young ones will soon be here!

And this time you can be sure I won’t try and adjust the twine on the tree. Lesson learned!

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Tweets and Ribbets Abound at the Zen Writing Cottage

Tweets and Ribbets Abound at the Zen Writing Cottage

I’m so excited to share with you that the robin eggs have hatched!  These two fuzzies came into the world on Wednesday, June 23.  When I posted a photo of the eggs two weeks ago, there were four, but only two made it.

robin nest 2016

Their nest is right outside one of my windows in my writing cottage, so I see the mama coming and going all day as she takes care of her precious little ones. I also put up a short video of the little ones on my Facebook page if you want to check it out.

frog

And the tree frogs are back too!  I just love these little guys (and gals!). They are like little surprises when you come upon them. They can be quite sneaky and all of a sudden, there they are. They always bring a smile to my face. Two summers ago we had two around almost the whole summer. I called them Mr. and Mrs. Green Jeans.  This little guy was on my front porch, while this little gal below joined me for lunch one day on the deck.

frog 2

Oh! How I love summer!  New life abounds and old friends have returned. And time to brew some sun tea!

sun tea

Well, friends, I hope your weekend is a good one and you experience many small and big joys as the summer days unfold.

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Spring Time at the Zen Writing Cottage

Spring Time at the Zen Writing Cottage

It’s what I imagined when I dreamed about a little space of my own over nine years ago. A room where I could feel like I was part of the world, separate from our house, yet secluded with lots of silence except for the rustling of the leaves blowing in the wind and birds chirping or splashing in the bird bath. And a place where my dachshund could snore away the day while I did my writing. First Frankie, then Joey, and now Gidget have been my faithful companions in my 10 x 12 cottage off the southeast end of our deck.

With our new landscaping, now in place for about a month and the plants really beginning to bloom and come to life, has brought with it new life also. Last Saturday I watched as a Robin built this nest in the limelight hydrangea tree right outside the front east window of my cottage. Complete with streamers as you can see in this photo below!  Isn’t she so talented?

robin nest 2016 3

And then I watched for the eggs to appear. And each day a new one.  Right now there are four eggs in the nest as you can see. I’m not sure if she will lay any more. But I’m so excited to watch as they progress and soon little fuzzy heads will be peaking over the top.

While I was writing this post I looked to the left of my writing desk where I have another long window and two finches were happily eating their breakfast.  These are the moments that make up a life full of simple pleasures. The moments I can’t ever get enough of. The moments that fill me with gratitude.

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