Blue Bottle Garden

 The blue and white anemones are blooming, heralding spring.

 This year I am determined to do a major re-do in my herb garden aptly named 'Blue Bottle Garden' because I have two blue bottle trees in it ( not shown here ) and cobalt blue glass type things all around it. Two of our grandsons helped me with the weeding and digging, and they really were a very great help.

 These two grandsons have fun together while they work, and that makes it fun for me.

 This little guy weeded a good size herb bed ( with help from his big brother ) that had been almost completely taken over by a weed that disguised itself as the sage the bed was planted with. After choking out most of the sage the weed proceeded into the garden paths headed for the oregano & rosemary. It was a big job and I had to dig up the few remaining sage plants so we could get the weeds' roots. In the background you can see the cage my husband built me years ago for some of my doves.

 I moved the doves to another aviary and we now have 5 parakeets happily living here.

 Parakeets are such active and funny birds to watch.

 On the other side of the herb garden fence, under brown fern fronds, one of my ducks is sitting on her clutch of eggs. She is one of the ducks Ella & Fella ( my Sebastapol geese ) hatched out last spring. Her nest is lined with her down. I only saw her because I was weeding the inside of this fence line. She is well hidden and even my dogs haven't found her.

 Ella is also sitting on her own eggs and I am hoping she is successful in hatching her goslings. Fella guards her faithfully , as he did her and the ducklings she hatched out last year.

On the other side of the Blue Bottle Garden , outside the fence, is the fountain my husband & I bought to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary a few years ago. I can hear this fountain burbling from the herb garden. My husband weeded & mulched this flower bed that is under our living room window. From indoors we watch hummingbirds bathe in the water flowing from under the doves, then the busy flying jewels take a break and sit in the bushes in the sunshine to dry themselves.

All this was done and observed in the last week while we had record high temperatures for this time of the year. The Blue Bottle Garden is finally being shaped into the garden I've wanted it to be for a long time now , the flower beds and vegetable garden are being prepared for spring planting. I am so excited to finish the planting and enjoy even more the time to work in the garden while I watch the new life hatch and grow. I am going to post frequent updates on this garden because I have found that blogging about my gardens keeps me on track and motivated to keep up with the weeding & tending. The garden looks sparse right now , but soon it will be full of the sage, thyme, rosemary, blueberries, and so much more that has grown there for years. Hopefully minus the choking weeds.

The Odd Couple, A Sweet Pair of Quackers

This was an unlikely pairing to me,kind of like joining together a closed umbrella with a toy duck. The tall, skinny duck is a female Indian Runner. The little guy is a Call Duck. He quacks louder than most big ducks, and he flies. She does not. She runs a little faster than the average duck, she leans forward and runs..looking like a closed umbrella with legs, running fast! I did not think they could actually mate and produce ducklings. Watching them join together on the pond was like watching a ship with a little dinghy on top....it took quite an effort on the little guys' part, but he was persistent!

Mama duck laid many, many eggs and was diligent in her nesting.

The little guy waited , watched and and fretted around her. I could tell he wanted to go swimming in the pond and forage for bugs and slugs, but he stayed close to his sweetie pie. Then came the nightly raccoon raids. We could tell the raccoons were trying to grab the ducks and eggs through the pen wire and finally, for their own safety the pair of ducks left the nest to sleep in the middle of the pen where raccoon hands could not grab them. I ended up putting a few duck eggs under one of my bantam hens, believing the little guy really could not possibly have fertilized the eggs.....but look! He did and here is one of the two ducklings. I was happy for this! First , because I wanted to see what a pairing like that would produce, and second, the Odd Couple were the only 2 survivors of the coyote attack last winter that killed all the rest of my flock, so any ducklings to survive and grow should have good survival instincts. Here is one of the ducklings, grown up. They both look similar, and are smaller than most of my ducks, a little bigger than their father, and as loud as him. They both fly too. They are pretty nice ducks, I am thankful to the Odd Couple! By the way, they stick together pretty closely, and Mama Duck seems to be the leader in the duck flock, with Papa Duck chasing away any male duck that approaches his gal! They really are The Odd Couple.