Bluebirds!

This is what I've been doing lately. We had five little bluebirds in the backyard birdhouse, and they just fledged today Fortunately I was in the kitchen and saw the first one fly onto our deck right outside the back door. He sat there as if to say, "have you seen my Mama?". His siblings soon fledged, too, flying off in all different directions. It's a good thing their parents are good at rounding them up! Now we can enjoy our deck again. Dear husband was able to mow that part of the yard again, too, thank goodness! We're going to go sit on the deck and have a glass of wine tonight to celebrate!

Has it really been that long?

Well....I guess it has been that long. It's spring now and we don't need a fire in the wood stove so often now. In fact, we've had some days that were more like summer than spring...one day in the upper 80s...that's summery enough for me!
But my cherry trees have been in full bloom this week. We had a drizzly day earlier and some of the blossoms are dropping now, making a beautiful pink carpet underneath. Fortunately I got these photos before that began. We're supposed to get some much needed *real* rain this weekend and that will take the rest of the blossoms down, but I'll have these photos to enjoy anyway.

We have firewood!

Here's what we're doing with the wood we're cutting in the backyard! Well actually not the new wood. A sweet neighbor who came and cut up the larges trees that had been pulled out of the ground, also brought us a load of seasoned firewood to burn in our new wood stove.

Getting there

It's going to take us awhile but we're working on clearing up the hurricane damage to our backyard. Here are before and after photos of one section:

The bench is in the same place in both photos.
Fortunately, we have a wonderfully generous neighbor who has been over twice to help take down the largest trees that we simply could not have handled with just the two of us. Thanks Tony!!! We will need to call professionals to come and take the root systems from both large trees that were pulled up when the trees went over.
The good part is, we're going to have tons of firewood to burn in our new wood stove next winter!