Early spring in the front yard.

The sun was out and birds were singing early this morning.  I love this time of year when I wake to the birds.  There is a pair of ducks that continue to fly across the school yard over the fence every morning, sometimes they have an extra guy with them.  He seems like kind of a third wheel because they appear to try and lose him as they swerve around the sky.  I've seen pairs of birds near almost every birdhouse in our yard.  Plum and cherry trees are blooming and you can really smell them when the breeze is blowing.
It's still a bit cool outside but I wanted to get some pictures of how some of the front garden is looking right now.  There are so many different colors of green (and red and orange) on the new leaves.  It won't be too long before many of these plants are blooming.

 You can see a picture of this garden on the sidebar to see how it will look later in the summer.  I'm always amazed at how much it changes over the year.

 We put this birdhouse up last summer and angled it so we could see it from inside in hopes that birds would use it.  Well there is already a pair of Chickadees making a nest in it.  They don't seem to mind the activity of kids and the dog around them.

 From the front you can see all the moss that has grown on the edgers this winter.

 The flowering cherry tree is blooming and the bumblebees are loving it.

 Spirea has already leafed out.  There's some empty space to fill in this bed this year, not sure what will go in it yet though, but I do love empty garden space!

 The water garden was cleaned out this weekend.  I trimmed all the plants, dumped the water and will let the rain fill it back up.

 Pink Hyacinths that were planted last fall are blooming.  The slugs have been terrible about eating them.

 I planted this container last year and am so happy with how it's doing.  The Pieris is blooming and the Clematis on the obelisk is quickly climbing up.

The entry bed is full of color, it's difficult to tell in the lighting here though.  Hellebores, Crocuses, Tete-a-tete daffodils and Heucheras really brighten it up.  The moss has gone crazy here this winter.

It looks and feels like we are returning to the cooler and wetter weather that we had most of the month.  I'm hoping that the daytime temperatures will stay above 50, but I see some days of upper 40's predicted.  This time of year I guess you just have to enjoy any dry and sunny day that we have because you never know how long it will be until the next one.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

House hunting already?

It seems a bit early to me, but maybe the birds know something we don't know.  Our weather has gotten chilly again, although the sun has been out most of the day, snow is still in the forecast.  That's why I was quite surprised to see the birds out house hunting in the middle of February.  I thought I had noticed a pair of Chickadees visiting a new birdhouse yesterday, but then thought maybe they were just being nosy - Chickadees are pretty curious birds.  But then they were out there again this morning.

 I hung this birdhouse last year purely as a decoration.  I never thought birds would actually try to use it.  As you can see it's right by the deck where a lot of activity happens.  I'm not sure this is the best place for them to choose.

 Normally the birdhouse behind the pond is the first to be taken by Chickadees.  Hopefully they'll decide to use that one instead.  It's much safer and less commotion to disturb the family.

 The Bewick's Wrens start numerous nests in different birdhouses and then decide which one they'll use to lay their eggs in.  One of the birds had a big beak full of dried grass while this one would rustle around and then poke it's head out every so often.

 I love when birds pop their heads out just to take a peek of their surroundings.

 Probably wondering where their partner went with all the nesting supplies.

 I think the Wrens picked the perfect spot in this quiet corner under the Cedar tree.  Lots of Hellebores blooming to give their front yard some color.

Just had to get another picture of Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double'.  I keep hoping it'll reseed like the others have done in this area.

Anyone else seeing signs of house hunting by the birds near them?  Lets hope they aren't confused and know spring won't be far off.

Flyaway - A book review.

Anyone that reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I'm a bird lover. I am fascinated by watching the birds that visit my yard. I've done as many things as I can to attract as many species of birds as possible. So, when I was asked to review the book "Flyaway" by Suzie Gilbert I was very excited to do so. Suzie Gilbert is a wild bird rehabber and since my only bird rehab experience has involved scooping a small bird that flew into a window into a shoebox and then placing it up in a safer spot, I was interested to see what a real rehabber does.


Suzie started off early on being a bird lover. She tells of her childhood experiences with birds and about reading a book that taught her how to actually gain the trust of Chickadees to eat from her hand. Through different life experiences she eventually was led to work in a raptor rehab center where she enjoyed getting to know the birds and watched as many were healed well enough to be released back into the wild.


Eventually Suzie decided to start a bird rehab center in her own yard as a place to help songbirds that needed to spend time in a flight cage to strengthen their wings and practice things like foraging for food. She first decides she will not accept injured birds at all, but as the calls for help come in, she has a hard time saying no to people that need a place to bring injured birds. It's not too long before not only her songbird flight cage begins to fill, but so does her bathroom where she keeps everything from baby ducklings to a heron before she can find the appropriate bird rehabilitation center for them. Being someone who has a hard time saying no when it comes to animals (just ask my husband), it was easy for me to relate to her situation. I enjoyed reading about how her husband and two young children become involved with the birds too. The children took part in naming and caring for nestlings (baby birds too young to leave the nest). The amount of time and work that is required to feed them was exhausting just to read about. At one point she is called to help an injured Peregrine Falcon, an endangered species, whose beak has been split after flying into a window.
Many of her stories telling of how the birds behave with each other are quite funny. One of my favorites was about the turkey vulture and the pigeons who she named Jerry Garcia and the Deadheads. Unfortunately some of the stories have sad endings, birds that died from injuries or would never be released back into the wild again.
In her book she frequently mentions what humans have done to cause the need for so many birds to require being rescued. Everything from pesticides and habitat destruction to flying into windows and domestic cats causing them injury. She has a lot of information on how many birds are injured or killed each year by domestic cats. I found the numbers to be quite shocking. As a former cat owner I had always kept our cats indoors for fear of them being hit by a car or injured by a raccoon or coyote. I had never really thought about the impact they could have had on birds. After witnessing our neighbor cat catching a hummingbird, which thankfully was fast enough to get away, I can understand her reasons even more for encouraging cats to be indoors.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I learned so much about birds and how they are cared for and why wildlife rehabbers are so important. I had no idea how much was involved; time, money and emotions. I highly recommend this book if you are a nature lover or if you just want to learn more about what is involved in rehabilitating wild birds.
If you visit here you can read more about Suzie Gilbert and Flyaway, Inc. her non-profit wild bird rehabilitation center. There is also an interesting video of her releasing a female red-tailed hawk.

I left (part of my) heart in San Francisco.

My family and I spent this past weekend in one of my very favorite cities this past weekend. We flew down to visit the in-laws in San Francisco and had a great time. San Francisco holds a very special place in my heart. When I had finished nursing school a friend and I decided on a whim to move to San Francisco to live. After a year she moved back, the biggest surprise was driving up to our apartment to see her and her dad loading his truck up and her telling me she was moving back to Seattle. But I loved living there and wasn't ready to move back to Seattle yet. I lived there a total of 2 years.
Anyway, we are now lucky that my husband's brother lives right in San Francisco and we had lots of fun visiting and doing lots of touristy things with our kids.
I couldn't get over how much was blooming there right now. Although the weather wasn't very cooperative, just looking at flowers everywhere you would've never thought it was the middle of January. We saw Azaleas, daisies, Princess flowers (Tibouchina urvilleana), Red hot poker (Kniphofia uvaria), Ceoanthus, Camellias, succulents and many more flowers blooming all over the city. No one else was really all that excited about the flowers as I kept pointing them out, but I knew you all would be!

A view from the living room. We could see from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge and everything in between. I couldn't believe how pretty it was.

Sweet Pea and I had fun using the zoom on my camera to try to figure out the different plants from the house. I loved this tree but have no idea what it is. One of my favorite things to do when visiting a different city is looking at the trees and plants that grow there. Many of the trees in San Francisco have a Dr. Seuss look to them. Update: Norfolk Island Pine - Araucaria heterophylla as identified by Susie of Poppy and Sage and lotus leaf of Garden tropics.

This Anna's hummingbird was quite far down from the house but we could see him sitting there all day with occasional visits to some sort of yellow blooming shrub that was nearby. Hummingbirds were all over the place, even in very busy tourist areas.

Another bird we saw frequently from the house was this blue one. I don't know what type it is.

Probably my favorite new place that we saw was inside the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. I loved the indoor rain forest. Inside this four story contained rain forest was an open inner area with a ramp that you followed up to the top. This picture was taken about half way up.

Inside butterflies and birds flew around and landed here and there. These Blue Morpho butterflies were everywhere, huge too! Flash was not permitted inside so some of the pictures are a little dark.

Looking down from the top you could see lots of fish and turtles swimming around.

You had to keep your eyes open, you never knew what frog might be hiding under a leaf nearby. Sweet Pea found this one.

I think this is an Orchid, the flower was much bigger than my hand. Update, this is actually not an Orchid but Aristolochia elegans (Dutchman's Pipe) as identified by Alison and Prospero of Serendipitous Garden.

More Blue Morpho butterflies.

One of the walls filled with lots of different plants.

Another butterfly. A cute little yellow bird was hopping around here, but I couldn't get his picture. All throughout were displays of reptiles and amphibians from the rain forests. An elevator took you from the very top to below the water (seen in a picture above) and you were let out into the Aquarium. There is also a Planetarium and many other things to do inside. Sadly the weather was too rainy to visit the Botanical Gardens or Japanese Tea Garden.

Another day while the other adults and big kids went to see King Tut, the Littlest Gardener and I went for a walk/hike around the neighborhood. We got a good workout as his house is on a very steep hill! We found these purple flowers blooming. Update: This is called Blue Hibiscus, which is actually not a hibiscus but Alyogyne huegelii also identified by Susie.

More flowers, not sure what most of these flowers are. Update: Rosie from Leaves'nBloom id'd this as Leptospermum scoparium/ The New Zealand Tea Tree.

More flowers... Update: Darla from More Family and Flowers id'd this as Mexican Bush Sage.

More purple flowers.

A beautifully landscaped garden. This house is on a corner and was this beautiful all the way around. There were bird feeders and garden art tucked in everywhere. I was hoping someone would be working outside so I could see more of it.

The Littlest Gardener at the top of our hike.

More of our view. Not a surprise that the view is obscured by the fog.

What a beautiful city, so much to see and do! As much as I love the Seattle area, a piece of my heart will always belong to San Francisco.