Spring Bouquet - May "IT" Challenge

Spring Bouquet (13"x 17")

The "Interpret This" challenge photo for May was chosen by Libby of Creative Endeavors.

 My interpretation of Libby's photo is limited to the end of one branch.

Those blossoms were "virtually picked and arranged" in one of my favorite vases ... a water globe.

The decisions I made and how I constructed my interpretation is revealed on Interpret This.  I'm one of the last members of the group to post.  So while you're there, check out the preceding interpretations for this photograph of a full blossomed tree in a park on a beautiful spring day.

Good News!

My issue of Fiber Arts magazine arrived in the mail today.  "Prairie Performance" and I are published in it.

I'm pleased to be included in this publication that I've subscribed to since the first issue.  It would've been nice for it to have been a full length article, but this will suffice.

There's more news!  The Robin's nest is empty.

The last and the smallest of the chicks found its way down into the courtyard.

One of the parent birds came in a few times with food.  A short time later it winged its way out the courtyard door to the stand of pine trees to join its siblings and parents.  We miss the noise and drama of watching this family of Robins.  In retrospect, it all seems to have happened so fast ... the building of the nest, the hatching of the eggs, the growth of the chicks.  In reality, it was a month.  Really, that was a short time!

Two Have Left the Nest

This morning I came down to find the biggest, bravest Robin chick perched high on an African mask in the courtyard.  He must have had a good night in spite of being on his own for the first time.

When I came back from fixing breakfast, I couldn't see him anywhere.  A lot cheeping caused me to look up into the tree.  By golly, there he was.  I ran up the stairs to take his picture from the deck.

He flew to another branch, but missed it and ended up back down in the courtyard.  In the meantime, one of his siblings was looking bright eyed and doing a lot of cheeping.

 In a few minutes time he was making a big fuss and doing a dance of wing flapping on the edge of the nest.  This time my husband got to see a baby fly out of the tree.  It caught the tail of a bird sculpture on the way down.

This new little flier spent very little time down in the ivy.  He seemed strong while the other bird appeared to stop trying to make it back up into the tree.  I felt a need to do something.  So, I opened the courtyard door.  The biggest one would venture out to sit on the copper sculpture for a bit and then hop back into the courtyard.  After a while a parent bird enticed them into the bushes.  The last I saw of these two, they were flitting about with their parent in the stand of evergreen trees near where we park our car.

The smallest chick has the nest to himself.  How long will it be there?  I don't know how all three of them had fit in there before the first one left.

Baby Robin's First Adventure

 I actually saw him fly out of the nest.

Before I knew it, he was out of the tree and out of the courtyard.

I shooed him back into the courtyard and closed the door.  There's a cat that run's free in the neighborhood and he likes to hang around here.

 The little one flies from driftwood to sculptures.   It seems to grow as I watch it.  All day long it's been flitting around the courtyard and both parents have come to feed it.

It can fly rather high, but not up into the tree.  It seems to eventually be able to turn itself around on a perch to get going in the right direction.  It's now getting dark and the mother seems quite concerned.  I think it will be alright in the courtyard for the night.  There seems to be a lot of feathers on this little one and they can fluff out quite a bit, too.  I wonder if a sibling will be joining him tomorrow leaving the smallest of the three baby birds alone in the nest.

Robins and Their Tree

Yesterday it rained hard in the morning and then another storm came in the afternoon.  Lee just happened to look out of our bedroom window to check on the babies in the nest to see this.

The mother Robin making herself as large as possible to protect her brood.  Her wings and tail feathers were fanned out and all the others ruffled so she completely covered the nest.  I grabbed the camera and took the photo above through the window.  Then I ducked out in the rain to snap this one.

The mother really is not very large.  Especially with all the work of keeping those three fast growing babies fed and protected ... from me.

Her nest in this tree really is high off the ground.

 And the tree has a dense canopy.

I love that the robins chose our beautiful Maple tree and built their nest where we are privileged to see them caring for their young.  Soon we'll be watching flying lessons.