A Precious Early Morning Visitor and Glimpses of My Garden

I woke up just after daybreak this morning and looked out of my window into my back yard.  I saw a small brown lump, which at first I thought might be a large rabbit or a big clump of bark.  I did not see any deer in the yard, so I did not think that it was a fawn, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to see little white spots on the brown.  I picked up my camera and went out into the yard and slowly approached the little brown mystery.  As I drew closer, my heart began to sink.  It was indeed a tiny tiny fawn curled up tightly in a ball.  Where was its mother?  They never leave their little ones alone.  Was it sick or injured, or worse, dead?  As I came closer, I could see that it was breathing, and it raised its little head and looked at me.  I talked to it softly for a few minutes and took a few pictures.  It was so tiny.  I could not believe that its mother was not around.  I took one step closer and it jumped to its feet and bounded across the yard on its spindly little legs.  It seemed healthy enough.  It turned and looked at me and then ate some grass then playfully bucked on its back legs before scampering into my neighbor's yard. 

A few minutes later a doe, presumably his/her mother, appeared from my front yard and joined the little one and I breathed a sigh of relief. 

I have a love/hate relationship with these lovely creatures.  I have a steady herd of about a dozen or so which spend many hours a day in my yard.  Over the past ten years they have decimated my once beautiful perennial gardens into shabby wastelands.  I have resorted mainly to potted plants, but, alas, they boldly come only my porch and deck and feast away, along with the groundhogs who live under my deck.  I persist, however, with my pots, and below is a glimpse of some of my summer lovelies. 
   First, a glimpse of my precious Bunny in the morning sunlight.

This is her very ornery brother Henry Frank II.  He desperately wants to have a "walk about" on the wild side.

I begin with a photo of my "Ivy Soup".  I bought a very inexpensive soup tureen at Goodwill and drilled some holes in the bottom for drainage, and planted ivy.  [Here are some tips when drilling holes in porcelain.  Use a masonry drill bit.  I tape the area where I am drilling the holes with a piece of silver duct tape, and most importantly, I put some water in the bottom of the bowl where I am drilling because the bit will get very hot.]  I took the ladle and some scrap booking letter labels and wrote Ivy Soup.  I also wrote "Eat, Pray, Love"  on the inside of the ladle since I am reading that book now and thoroughly enjoying it.  I sealed the ladle with a sealant spray to make it waterproof, and tadaaa!

         An old ladder can make a shelf for some goodies.

My table pots and trellis.  I found these old industrial scissors and gear thingie at a flea market for 50 cents.  My brown pottery bowls on the table I bought at Goodwill for $1.

My tomato plants and my pepper plant are going crazy.  I will have to fend off the groundhogs once the tomatoes appear, though.

This is a remnant of my perennial gardens.  Jack-in-the-pulpit and foxgloves in the early morning light.

        My garden bench welcomes visitors to my driveway.

I have potted chairs on either side of my front door.  They had twine seats which I cut out and placed a grapevine wreath on the seat so that the pots would fit in the space. 

     I love birdhouses, and this is a great barn wood masterpiece.  It weighs a ton though!

Speaking of birdhouses, this is my little sparrow motel which for many years has produced brood after brood of perky little babies.  Honestly, I don't know how their parents survive raising two broods per year.  They must be so totally exhausted all of the time!  Those babies are hungry little buggers!

                 Bzzzzzzzzz.   Plenty of bees here. 

 Herbs anyone?  An old ash tin is the home for my mini herb garden.

   Vibrant blanket flowers make me want to go to Mexico and drink margaritas.

             A tiskit, a tasket, a pretty little basket.

Even when it is raining, thanks to my friend Kathy, the sun always shines on my garden.

             Words to remember:

So, thank you for sharing my little garden tour today.  In keeping with my tradition, it isn't too hard to figure out what made me smile today.  It was the precious fawn at dawn.  My favorite movie of all time is Bambi.  It was the first DVD that I bought.  I am a nerd, I know.  

On another note, I have reopened my Etsy store.  I will be adding new items over the next 3-4 weeks, so please keep checking.  I am running a special.  Become one of my Blog followers and receive a 10% discount on all Etsy store items now through July 31, 2010. Don't stop there though!  Leave comments on my Blog.  Tell me what made you smile today!

See the Etsy store for details. 
www.robinsnesttreasures.etsy.com

    

 

A Monumental Night

Last night, or rather very early this morning, I spoke about a friend of mine who was going to have a very special day.  Last night (since it is now after midnight), my friend  Patrick graduated with honors from Washington High School in Washington, PA.  As I said yesterday, I have been friends with his parents for over 25 years, and I met his mother in college.  I have loved Patrick and his little sister Megan since the days that they were born -- with all of my heart.  They are easy to love -- they are wonderful, delightful kids.  They are talented, smart, with great senses of humor, and are amazingly down to earth.  They are kind, generous people.  I am proud to be a part of their extended family. There is no doubt that Patrick is his father's boy.  When he was born, it looked like someone took his Dad's head and shrunk it down to a tiny version and put it on Patrick's body.  We all laughed hysterically, the resemblance was so uncanny. 

Since his Dad is a pilot we wondered if he would follow in his footsteps and fly the friendly skies.  As you can see, he even had a bit of early training.    But, alas, his talents led him in a different direction.

Here is Patrick at his graduation ceremony.  

Here are his parents and his sister Megan who just finished 6th grade with straight A's.

Here I am with Patrick.

It was a wonderful night for everyone.  Patrick is headed for Slippery Rock University where he will major in Music -- Voice -- and I believe that he will follow in his very talented Mother - Nancy's -  footsteps one day and become a music educator.  We are so excited for football season to see Patrick in marching band since our longtime college friend Jim Berry is a Music Professor and the Marching Band Director at Slippery Rock.  Nancy, Jim, and I and many, many other great friends share tons of fantastic memories of our college and marching band days at IUP -- Indiana University of Pennsylvania.  (Many years ago).  Ha ha.   I'm sure that there will be more stories of Patrick and Megan in the months to come.  This is a wonderful, exciting time for him.  

So Patrick, some parting words -- Do what you love -- Love what you do --  Soak it all in -- Get to know as many different kinds of people as you can.  Work hard every day and take pride in your work.  Love many women, but treat them all like queens.  Keep your heart and mind open.  Always keep love and laughter in your heart and soul.  Thank God every day for your health and your fantastic family and friends.  Always take time to be kind, it only takes a few extra seconds or minutes.  Most of all, be kind to yourself, you deserve it.  Don't let anyone put you down.  Never forget that I have loved you and Megan since the days you were born and I will love you both until the end of time. 

I'm Back

It has been a long four months since my last post.  I am so happy to see that I now have three followers.  I am glad to know that someone out there is reading my Blog finally.  I have been very ill and have spent a lot of time in the hospital in March/April, but hopefully things are back to "normal" health wise now.  My life is going through a lot of difficult and major changes right now.  I am trying my very best to keep a positive attitude as much as possible. 

This makes my portion of the Blog -- "Something made me smile today" so much more important to me.  It is about 4:30 am on June 9th.  Later today one of my very dear friends' son will  graduate from high school.  He and his sister are the closest thing that I have to my own children since I do not have any children of my own.  I have loved them with all of my heart since the day that they were born.  Today Patrick will graduate and soon he will be off to college.  He will indeed make me smile and cry at the same time today when I watch him walk across that stage.   How could time have gone by so quickly?  Wasn't it just yesterday that his mother and I were in college together?   He has his whole world ahead of him, and it will be wonderful, beautiful, magical.   He has a fantastic family, he is in good health, and he will have amazing lifelong friends.  Those are the true blessings of life.   

I will post some pictures tomorrow.  I promise to post regularly from now on.  I just started to read the book "Eat, Pray, Love" -- I think that it will be an interesting journey.  Until tomorrow -- Robin.