We have bird feeds.

Multiple bird feeders.

Initially, they were mostly to keep the cats entertained, but as we’ve had the feeders for quite awhile now, we get a lot of birds.

This year, we discovered we have two different species of woodpecker. Which is kinda surprising, since we live “in town” and have a lot of traffic, day in and day out.

What was not a discovery was that my windows are filthy, so if I want a clear picture, I have to go outside. Which, of course, scares away the birds.

This woodpecker, however, was quite fearless, and didn’t seem to mind me at all.

(Downy woodpcker)

This one I could only catch a picture of through the (filthy) living room window.

(Red bellied woodpecker)

I’m trying to figure out a way to get clear pictures without scaring off the birds, so I can get pictures and figure out what other kinds of birds we have (besides sparrows).

I had a huge broom at one point, but when we put in the parking spot, the ground got too wet and it died. So I planted another (slightly smaller) in a different location, and we were actually home this year to see it bloom! (YAY!)

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I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. But it was an apt descriptor.

Yesterday, we awoke to an ice covered world, which meant we did not go visit see my niece. But I did get a couple interesting shots of the icy world in which we were ensconced.

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So a couple weeks ago, I was looking for suggestions for displaying postcards.

What I neglected to mention at the time was that I have a single postcard on display, however, I purchased it “as is” so, recreating that layout was going to be beyond me.

But I love how you can see both sides of the card.

So I spent some time looking on-line, and didn’t see anything reasonable I liked. Then I checked Target where I thought I remembered seeing clear glass picture frames. I was right–they had them.

Unfortunately, this solution isn’t perfect–the frames were in a box, so you couldn’t see that they used double sided tape to hold the picture to the back frame of glass, and the wooden rectangle that holds the glass in the frame is kinda flimsy. Plus, the double-sided tape left ugly smears on the glass (Yes, I have Goo-Gone. But I figured the more I fooled with the glass, the more likely I was to break it and end up needing stitches). However, what I had going for me was that the postcards are thicker than pictures, and since some of them have spent years on my refrigerator, they aren’t particularly flat, all of which seems to work to hold them in place.

We’ll have to see how this holds up in the long run, but for now, I’m quite pleased.

It’s been a long time since we’ve done any major house projects, so we’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

First up: Replacing two storm doors. We put in storm doors when we first moved into the house, however, two of the three doors were doing that metal rotting thing that storm doors do, so needed replaced. The basement door was cheap, as it was added within the first six months (I think) of us moving in. The kitchen was done a bit later, when we replaced the kitchen door (it was wooden and was unusable) we put in a Pella, which surprised me when I rediscovered that, since I thought they had a reputation for being sturdy and holding up. Guess not.

We went for twice as much glass in the kitchen, which I believe the cats will appreciate.

Both doors also have the pull down screens. I’m a bit apprehensive about these, but really do like the clear view.

Note the valuable assistance Michael received while replacing both doors.

Basement:

Kitchen:

Next project: Replacing the pole light in the yard. Grrrr…..

Lemon Lily in the evening light. This one turned out significantly better than the others.

Thyme. For some reason I have a hard time taking pictures of groups of things.

This is another low maintenance rose bush that is absolutely thriving. And it smells good to.

The first year, the centers of these coreopsis were bright red, but the centers are slowly fading over the years. Ah well.

Broom

We had a huge broom at the back of the house, but when we put in the parking space for Grandmom, the soil drainage changed, and it died. This is the replacement, which I hope will thrive, eventually.

Lilac

I’m glad this is at the bottom of the hill, because it is extremely strong smelling.

It’s been raining since I left work, but the skies cleared in time for this sunset.

The above tree is on my walk home. Unfortunately it was very windy, so the branches kept moving, which made getting a clear picture somewhat difficult.
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The most impressive thing is I stood there and kept taking pictures until they decided they were ready to move on, and all took off in a giant feathered mob.

(and for entertainment, I noted all the birds with tweets on Flickr)

Photoshoperized, because it wasn’t a very good picture.

All I wanted was to clean the kitchen counter so I could start the rolls.

An hour and a half later, I had a mostly clear spot on the counter, but the rest of the kitchen looked like this:

On the other hand, I got a nice reorganization in, and if I don’t like how it works, I’ll just change things again!