Two little peeps

Although I see bluebirds flying in our neighborhood we didn’t get any to nest in the bluebird house last year.   I think we got it up too late.  Very early this spring we saw bluebirds investigating the house and then didn’t see them for awhile. Just last weekend I saw a pair flying about and I thought I saw one go into our house.   I am extremely excited to tell you Bob peaked in the house today and there are two little baby birds with feathers.  He said as soon as he opened the door one lifted it’s head to get fed.   I tried to look in but am not tall enough to see much more than the top of a little bird head.  

This photo is from images.google.com but I think it shows what are two little peeps look like.

Gardening Resource – Name that plant

Thanks Jane for this valuable website.

A Valuable Gardening Resource — A Local Master Gardener Janie Marlow held a free seminar “Name that Plant” at the Sargent Branch Library in Travelers Rest.

 For those of you that missed it, Marlow will share this information from her website    www.namethatplant.net    which allows users to search names and descriptions of a wide variety of plants and flowers.

 NamethatPlant.net currently features 2785 plants and 9640 photos.

What’s new in Travelers Rest?

A couple weeks ago I went to the Travelers Rest Small Business meeting.  There were about 40 people there which I think is fantastic for a town this size, 4600 people.  It is heartwarming to see such pride and enthusiasm in the community.  In a little town a few people can really make a difference.   The big thing going on now is to open a museum in Travelers Rest and the historical society just published a book on TR.   I haven’t gotten it yet but I definitely will.  Here is a link to Travelers Rest website.

Coming soon we are getting 4 new businnesses.  A cupcake shop, grocery store and deli, bakery (can’t wait for that) and a new restaurant featuring seafood and steaks.   Yippie!  Lets hope the economy perks up so they are successful.

The Washington Post just had an article on Greenville and our best Travelers Rest Restaurant The Cafe at Williams Hardware on page two.

Southern Living magazine has a story on our Swamp Rabbit Trail here in Travelers Rest.  If you come to visit you can have a nice long walk or rent a bike.   In May there is a race event that should bring in 5000 runners!  Good advertising for my little town.  http://www.southernliving.com/travel/south-east/greenvilles-swamp-rabbit-trail-00417000072658/.  Here is the article:

The Ride
A former rail line, this 13.5-mile South Carolina trail is blissfully flat and traffic-free, connecting Greenville to Travelers Rest along a scenic stretch of the Reedy River. Roll beneath Liberty Bridge in Greenville’s Falls Park, adjacent to dramatic waterfalls. At the midpoint, a connector path meanders around Furman Lake.

Your Guide
You. (It’s hard to get lost.) You can hitch a ride back on one of Greenville’s buses, equipped with bike racks to offer “shuttles” to and from Travelers Rest. For more info on the trail, visit Greenville Rec.

You’ll Love It If…
You’ve got kids or hate traffic. It’s straight, hill-free, and closed to cars.

Gear Up
Reedy Rides will deliver a bicycle to you, with a helmet, bag, and lock.

Sabrina’s Easter present to us

It appears we won’t starve with Sabrina around.  I check her mouth every time I let her in to make sure there are no gifts coming in with her but today Bob opened a door downstairs and I didn’t see her come in.   Fortunately I was in the kitchen and saw her chasing something behind a bookcase.   I didn’t see anything run out the other side so figured whatever it was it was under the bookcase. 

 I went downstairs and got Bob and said “Sabrina brought something alive in the house again.” He came up right away and got our mouse catcher, also known as a tupperware bowl with lid, and pulled out the bookcase and sure enough there was a good sized mouse staring out at us.  Of course Sabrina is very excited.   Bob plops the bowl over the mouse and slides the lid under the bowl and we have “mouse in a bowl”.  We have used this technique before.    It is still very much alive and he carries it out and let’s it loose.  

So Sabrina caught the mouse outside, carried it upstairs and brought it to the family room to play with it.   She looked around for quite awhile to find it after we caught it.  I know some of you will be horrified at this story but after 50 years of having cats you get used to it.   However, I sincerely hope she never brings home a snake.

This photo isn’t of Sabrina but it sure could be.

Once every 13 years the cicadas hatch and that should happen any day now.   I have a feeling she is going to go nuts over these 1 1/2 inch bugs in the lawn.   They don’t harm anything and I don’t think bite but apparently they make quite a racket during the day.  They mate, lay eggs, hatch the eggs in trees, the baby insect falls to the ground and burrows into the soil and lives there for the next 13 years.   Quite a trick of Mother Nature.

Happy Easter

Fay, Bob, Sabrina and Smoky wish you a very happy Easter and a beautiful spring day.  I’m sure the cats would love a little bunny or some fluffy little chicks to perk up their day but no luck.   We don’t have anything planned for the day except a good ham dinner with all the fixings. 

The Finished Potting Bench

Bob finished the potting bench on Sunday.   The instructions recommended that you not put in the boards for the top and bottom platforms or the ledge shelf on the top because it would be too heavy to move so he followed their instructions and finished assembly outside.   Our neighbor Ed helped him carry it out on Sunday afternoon and Monday he got it leveled in place and added the boards.   It’s beautiful.  We don’t have to worry about this bench blowing away.   I can’t wait to use it.  The cost was about $100.  I found a couple on craigslist.com and they were $200 or more.  It’s 57″ long and there is a 10 inch shelf with a lip so stuff doesn’t slide off on top. Sturdy enough for my biggest pots.

Odds and ends

Forgot to mention that my herb garden is doing well.   Everything is in pots and up in the screen porch or the deck so very close to the kitchen.   I have dill, 2 kinds of basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano and of course a pot of catnip.   Last year cats had no interest in it but lately Sabrina has been getting into the dried nip so maybe one of them will like it this year.   So far they totally ignore it.

I got about 3/4 of my potted plants and outdoor plants fertilized.  It was such a nice day so a good excuse to get outside.   I think I even got a little pink color in my cheeks.

Bob has already mowed the back yard three times and the front once but we only had to shovel snow once.   There are two different grasses and grow very differently.

We have a few squirels at the bird feeder but not enough that they are a nuisance.  They seem to eat up the dropped bird seed and that means the seeds don’t sprout so that is good.   Absolutely no problems with deer or rabbits or other creatures.  This really surprises me because we are in such a wooded area.  I don’t miss the smelly stuff I had to spray on everything  in MN and the fences I put up to keep the deer from eating everything. 

A perspective on our landscape and how much less work we chose to do here – We replaced a jasmine vine that had died with a clematis and now I think all the planting in the yard is done.  I get tempted to plant more but the soil is so rocky and hard and then it is just one more thing to take care of and we are all about life being easier.   In SC I had two wheel barrow of stuff to clear up after winter.   In MN I had about 400 gallons of trimmings.  That’s right 8 to 10 - 55 gallon garbage cans in the spring and easily that much more through summer and fall.  Bob put down a very thick layer of mulch – 8 yards here.   To just get a thin layer in MN it was 40 yards.  Much easier plus much less expensive.

I do miss the lilac trees.  They might grow where our house is but I’ve heard they don’t have a lot of fragrance and that’s what I like.   I have not seen any homes that have them.  Soon the magnolias will bloom and some of them smell good.  The iris’s here are almost done blooming.  I have a friend that is trying them in pots so am curious to see how that goes.  This is my friend who is a Master Gardner.  The yellow pollen is almost done making a mess on everything so then we can power wash the porch, deck and wash and wax the cars.

We have on our list to do a picnic and walk on Paris Mountain one day very soon.    There is a lovely little lake there called Lake Placid and it is just the right size to walk around and all flat land which you can’t say about most of Paris Mountain.  There are picnic tables and lots of shade and if we go during the week not too many people.   Below is the lake in the fall.

I have not seen the bluebirds for awhile so hope they still are building a nest in the birdhouse Bob built last year.

Design with Wine

I just read about a fun business in the Greenville Sunday paper.   It is called Design with Wine and it is a mother/daughter team that have started a business in downtown Greenville where you and your friends can bring in your bottle of wine or other beverage and they provide an artist and all the art materials for you to make an art creation.   You would have a wine and painting party.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  They can handle up to 49 people. They didn’t list a price so I have to check that out.  Hopefully one of the Newcomers groups will schedule something there. I guess it is really popular in Charleston.  Here is the link: http://www.designwithwine.com/

Maybe that concept is what I need to get me to take out my paints again?  On the other hand having some more free time when I am done with the Newcomers Board responsibilities might help too.  Below is one of the early watercolors I did.

Sabrina and the wasp

Well, now I know how Sabrina got stung last week.   This weekend she was playing outside and I heard her come into the family room and she was making funny noises.  I thought “Oh no, she brought something live in the house again.”  I was hoping it wasn’t another live mouse or lizard.  Turns out somehow she carried a very alive BIG wasp into the house and was batting it around.   How she did that without getting her mouth stung is beyond me.  I stepped on it and killed it.  She gave me a dirty look.  I see her playing out on the grass continuing to chase more wasps.

It was only a little more than a week ago I took in both cats for their annual checkup and I asked the vet what to do if the cats get bit by those awful fire ants.  He said he has seen plenty of dogs with snake bites and insect bites but never a cat.  Sabrina proved him wrong because two days later she was in the emergency room with an insect bite.   What am I going to do with her?

Can you see the little pink tinge to her feet from our red dirt?

Potting bench part 2

Bob worked all day Sat. and Sun. on my bench.   I helped him hold some of the big 4 X 4 pieces when he did some special sawing on them.  He has had a few boo boo’s but nothing that is serious.  He is learning so much with each project he does.

Here is all the wood.

Man at work:

 Progress

This bench is solid.   I don’t have to worry about putting my biggest pot filled with dirt on it.  Just hose off for easy clean up.