Smatterings

  • They’re Coming!!

    …and it looks like they are a week or so earlier this year.  Get your feeders ready.  Those early hummers will need it when they get here. I've noticed that the little flying bugs are out now, so the hummers shouldn't be too far behind.

    Map-rubythroat-us2009

    toohoot!

    Go check out the hummingbird website.  It is packed with all kinds of good information.

    For those of you that don't remember how to make hummingbird food, here's the recipe:

    Fill a measuring cup to the 1/4 mark with sugar. Then top off to the 1 cup mark with water.   Heat to boiling.  The ratio is 1:4.  The first time I fill the feeder each year, I add a bit more sugar, say 1:3. 

    8 responses to “They’re Coming!!”

    1. Manise

      Yay! It’s awfully cold for them poor things. I’ve had the tiny flying bugs for well over a week now.

    2. Carole

      My feeder broke last year so I get to treat myself to a new one. Yippee!

    3. Tamara

      Judy!! our first one (that I’ve seen) showed up during dinner last night – a sweet little female. I thought of you, like I always do! 🙂

    4. Susie

      Great info — I definitely sweeten the mix for them early — and then late in the season.

    5. valerie

      My biggest problem is keeping ants out of the feeder. Any tips on that?
      And the ants have appeared already around here.

    6. gayle

      Yay for the hummers! Now if I can figure out where I put the feeder last fall…

    7. Judy

      Yes, Valerie. Ants are a problem. Try thickly coating part of the hanger with “sticky foot” or vaseline. Glob it on. The ants don’t want it on their feet.

    8. Diane

      Thanks for the reminder. I haven’t seen any yet here in Kansas City but I’ll get my feeder out tonight and see if I can entice any to stop by.

  • ten minutes (for Tuesday)

    got ten minutes..

    find a rock

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    another ten minutes..

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    and another..

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    and so on, and so on, and…

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    I'm having a lot of fun with this.

    10 responses to “ten minutes (for Tuesday)”

    1. Carole

      Those are fantastic!

    2. Manise

      Yes you are! They’re wonderful!

    3. Julie

      Those are just beautiful! I’m now eyeing my shells thinking they would make beautiful buttons too… what sort of bit do you use for the drilling? And as long as I’m asking questions, I never do get my hummer feeder up early enough. Is it about May 1 to put out the feeders for them? (I could really just go look that up couldn’t I? I think I will, ta!)

    4. Barbara-Kay

      I see that the appropriate questions have been asked. Let me just say, inquiring minds want to know the technique details.
      You New Englanders have always been creative with all the rocks that were bestowed to you! VBG!

    5. cyndy

      A very good way to spend ten minutes!

    6. Marcia

      They are terrific and I’m with Julie….details, please! I have a flexible shaft tool for jewelry…think I can get a bit for that, or would I have to use one of hubby’s tools. (Drill press?) I’ve wanted to do something like this with sea glass, too, but I was thinking more along the jewelry lines.

    7. Ruth

      They are lovely – I’ve often thought about doing that with my flexshaft, but was too chicken. Did you use a drill press, or was it hand held?

    8. catsmum

      yes need details … so beautiful

    9. gayle

      Love these!
      Good reason to dig out the Dremel. I’m thinking stone buttons would look good on my handspun Cotswold sweater. Not that I’ve even cast it on, yet, but it’s never too early to organize buttons, right?

    10. hollyk

      Nice buttons! Hey, we have rocks here, maybe I could make some. What kind of drill? Polishing?

  • weekend

    The weekend brought the first sound of peepers, only a few, but a sound so welcome that I left the window open so that I could fall asleep to it.  The andromeda bloomed and there were small insects flying, everywhere.  I heard, but didn't see, my first red winged black- bird of the season. 

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    The sky was an impossible blue, but was it really that blue?  I can hardly imagine.  Whatever the color, Sunday was gorgeous.  The wind came from the land, not from the water.  We'd started the morning working. Again.  You know the expression "wound up tight"?    We needed some time off.  Really off.  It didn't take much to persuade Chris, just the mention of a picnic and a walk along the water and off we went.

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    You know what that means.. don't you.  While everyone else is showing you pictures of their spring flowers, ( I don't have any yet) from me you get..

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    more stones. 

    13 responses to “weekend”

    1. Laurie

      I was actually looking covetously at the stones on the beach.

    2. Manise

      Yay! More each stone buttons! It was a beautiful day on Sunday. Glad you got to go and enjoy the sights, smeels and sounds of Spring. Yes that sky is an impossible blue- it’s perfect.

    3. Carole

      I saw red winged blackbirds about 2 weeks ago, I think. And we heard peepers so loud the other night that we didn’t even have to roll down the car windows!

    4. Susie

      I thought you lived in Vermont — is that stone beach on Lake Champlain?

    5. Anne

      Stones are still good – the lack of flowers is more than made up for by the sky and the sea.

    6. Barbara-Kay

      I just discovered the song of red winged blackbirds this weekend. We often see them around our lake…I believe they nest on the far side. This one was sitting on our juvenile cypress tree and serenading me. I heard him all the way in the house!

    7. cyndy

      Stones work for me! Nice choices–future buttons?
      Glad you both had some down time…and a beautiful setting to enjoy it!

    8. Hanna

      Oh, andromeda and peepers!! Those are the kind of lovely small details that makes me yearn for New England.
      I’m glad that spring is finally coming your way. Here in Arizona we’re trying to stave off summer!

    9. Carrie

      I love the stones. I especially love when you turn them into buttons. It’s the best thing about blogging – I get to see all the seasons in all the parts of the country that I may never have the chance to travel to. Thanks for that.

    10. Pat K

      Hey! Stones and blue sky and water are all good!

    11. claudia

      Flower pictures are vastly overrated. I’ll take a good stone photo any day!

    12. diane

      The red wing black birds have actually been coming to my feeder and the peepers are deafening! I collect nice, flat, round shore stones to put beneath my spigets outside. Nothing like the shore for relaxing:) Good idea.

    13. elizabeth

      You see stones, I see buttons.

“Our lives are dyed the colors of our imagination.” ~ Marcus Aurelius

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