While holding my new little baby outside last week, I noticed a tiny Chipping Sparrow building a nest within one of the little Dwarf Alberta Spruce trees we have in our landscaping right up by our house where I was sitting. The bird would work its way into the dense tree carrying one tiny twig in its beak at a time. Just yesterday I carefully pulled back some of the little branches to spy the momma bird sitting upon a tiny nest.
After looking at it from another angle, carefully moving more of the pokey branches, I must have scared her off the nest for a moment...but then 3 very little pretty blue eggs were revealed. They were similar in color to Robin eggs but so much smaller.
The momma bird hopped about on the ground near my feet and jumped up on our porch, never going very far from her precious little eggs. And we let her be then so she could get back on the nest. Being a new momma myself, I now fully understand not wanting to be very far from my little newborn.
This little nest made me happy too...to know that it's still summer...birds are still building nests. Because I've been in a haze of newborn-ness lately (a very good haze of course!) and I'm sure this summer will whiz by without many of the usual hallmarks of summer for me, as tending to my newborn is shifting all other priorities or things I used to do, but I'm realizing nothing is more important. And no other summer will be quite as special in this way ever again.
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P.S. On a totally different note, would you like to see a few photos of a recent lovely wedding? It just so happens to be a Minnesota wedding too. The bride ordered a
LillyBonBon cake topper for her wedding cake and you'll see a photo of that as well,
all right here!
I’ve always liked the idea of finding edible things in the wild…such as berries like raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or the currants I discovered growing in our woods a couple years back…or morel mushrooms (a very rare find!)…and there is nothing quite like the taste of wild asparagus, so tender and fresh! So I was especially delighted to find something new this summer growing on our property...wild gooseberries! Earlier in the season, I thought they were a type of currant and I was waiting for them to turn red...but they never changed color. So recently, after doing a little research online, I found out that they are actually smooth, green gooseberries. I think I'll freeze them to use in smoothies...as there aren't too many and it sounds like they can be pretty tart on their own unless cooked into a pie or jam or some other sweet dessert. But still exciting, oui?! :)
