Some Days

The geese are gone from the field...

The eagle in the background is too, now that the fields which had finally lost their blanket of white are now cloaked once more with powdery diamonds.

The bird feeders need replenishing, that will be this afternoon's task.

Some days the birds I like to call "bully" birds get to eat with abandon while their more shy, much smaller neighbors wait in the bushes for their turn.

And some days, upon closer inspection, I learn to appreciate the bully birds for their absolute beauty, even if my heart always goes out to the tiny underdog birds.  It's no wonder mankind invented fashion when you look at what mother nature did without a stylist!  You can see how we might get a little jealous over the millennia!

We have fresh snow and bitter temps here at Casa Low Tide, but I'm kind of embracing this winter and all of its chilly beauty.  That's not the case for so many who never see snow and are dealing with all the chaos that comes with snow and ice in the deep south, and to those of you stranded and suffering, my heart goes out to you.  It wasn't too many years ago that our daughter was stranded in the DC metro area for over 12 hours in her car on her way home from work, and she will be the first to tell you that it was NO fun!

I hope this icy grip will loosen its hold on you folks, and I hope the first responders who brave the elements, no matter how bad, will stay warm and out of harm's way.

How Cool is That?!

Yesterday I "made" my son take a tour of our yard to look at all of the roses and other new plantings we've put in this year.  He doesn't really mind, but he does like to make comments like..."what are you, 80 years old now?" as I point out the various plants and make him lean over and smell all of the buds.  I consider this time spent together to be mother son bonding time, and he considers it a way to learn which flowers to send his girlfriend, so it all works out.

As we passed by one of our huge old walnut trees, I told him to take a peek inside the bluebird box to see if there were any eggs.

When we moved into this house, there was already a bluebird box affixed to this beautiful tree, and with each passing spring I have waited patiently for a nest to be built and eggs to be hatched.  We've seen mama bluebirds come and go from the box over the past 6 years, but there were never any eggs and so I waited, and hoped.

Then, just a few weeks ago, we noticed that there seemed to be increased activity at the box, and one day while passing by the box, Mr. Tide announced that a female bluebird had flown out of the box and "scared the #$% out of him," as he walked past.  He also concluded that he had probably startled her more than she had him.

I just knew that this must be a good sign, and that we would be rewarded with eggs this year.

So when my son gently tapped the side of the box so as not to get a face full of bird when he opened the top, and he took a gander inside, this is what he found...5 beautiful blue eggs!  At first, when he said that there were in fact eggs in there I almost didn't believe him....we had waited so long for this moment, well I had anyway!

I was so excited that I squealed a little and vowed to come back later with my camera to take a few pics.  Later that evening I did just that.  While standing on my tiptoes I pointed the camera down inside the box and hoped for the best since I couldn't see what I was shooting.

I didn't want to linger too long because mama was not happy, though she was very accommodating and simply flew off to a nearby tree to wait out the interloping humans.  After I grabbed a few shots...some of which were perfect pics of the side or top of the box and not the eggs, I backed off and switched to my long lens in hopes she would return to her tiny egg shaped treasures.

She was hesitant at first, even with me a fair distance away, and she called in reinforcements in the form of daddy bluebird.  They worked as a team, with him chirping out warning signs if he thought the coast wasn't clear, and then finally giving her the go ahead to venture back inside the box...even perching above her to watch her back as she nestled down inside.  See her little eye peeking out from the box in the photo above while her other half checks to make sure she is safe and sound...love that!  And yes, he really is that blue, I haven't changed the saturation, I just lightened the picture so that you could see her more clearly.

Here she is on a nearby perch waiting for her mate to signal that it was time to return to her babies...isn't she beautiful?  Even though the females aren't as stunningly blue as the males, they are still a treat to see. 

A few weeks ago I saw a male bluebird on our fence fly off and bring a bug or grub back to his female companion who was also sitting on the fence.  I thought it was so sweet that I texted Mr. Tide who was in the other room....yeah we're weird like that and sometimes text instead of yelling things from one end of the house to another.  Now I wonder if it wasn't this pair of bluebirds who seem so perfectly content and happy as they are about to welcome 5 baby bluebirds into the world.  Thank you Walt Disney for making me anthropomorphize birds into a newlywed couple setting up house and having their first children. ;-)

Whatever human characteristics I may have conveyed upon these two doesn't really matter, the fact is I have 5 awesome bluebirds eggs in our box and that means more bluebirds flitting about my yard in the future, and that my friends makes me one very happy camper!

Some of you have been so kind as to email me and ask that I re-open my comments section.  Thank you for your wonderful words, but please know that my goal with any post is to leave you with a smile, much in the way that seeing a cute video, or reading a magazine article does.

I don't need the feedback, and am content in just knowing that maybe someone enjoyed what they viewed.  Like reading a magazine, maybe you will rip out the page for later, or even mention it to a friend, but you don't feel the pressure or the need to write the editor unless it's really something you feel strongly about.  So for now, please just enjoy my blog for what it is, and I will continue to try and provide you with silly words and hopefully joyful pictures.   xoxo Kat

Sowing Seeds

Have you ever planted a seed or seeds only to have them washed away, plucked from the earth by a hungry bird, or damaged by lack of rain and too much sun?

That is how I feel lately, like the seeds I've been sowing, which all looked so promising when I first nestle them into the soft ground, have not taken hold and reached for the sky as they should have.  It's like nurturing that tiny seedling (or dream in this case) and having it not blossom into what you hoped it would due to outside forces.

After months of working hard to get the website up and running with a partner, it became evident yesterday that the tiny plant I'd been carefully cultivating had withered on the vine.  I would stop to feel sorry for myself, but when I look around at what so many have lost this past week I would have to be crazy, or incredibly selfish to complain.

So instead, I will plant my own garden, tend to it myself and if the seedlings grow in to ginormous plants I will reap the rewards.  I have friends and family, really good friends and family, who will help me fertilize and monitor these tender plants, and like so many tenacious farmers before me, I will see my vision come to fruition with their support.

And although my most recent endeavors will now go in a different direction than I anticipated, there is always sunshine and gentle rain on the horizon which will ensure a bountiful harvest in the long run.

If growing a beautiful garden was so easy, maybe the fruits of our labors wouldn't bring us so much joy when it does all work out.  And you can't be too upset when things don't go as planned, because maybe that seed that was snatched away was better served as someone else's dinner, eh?  Mr. Bluebird concurs!

Did You See Me?!

First of all, thanks everyone for your wonderful feedback on my last post where the talented Kelley of The Polished Pebble guest posted and rocked the  house!  I knew you all would love her style as much as I do.  Thanks again Kelley!!!


And before I forget, to the reader who said she couldn't get the subscribe thing to work on my blog, thank you for letting me know!!!  I will look into it and try and get that fixed ASAP.  And to the nice person who liked my kitchen, thank you so much!  Your email isn't enabled, so I couldn't reply directly back to you or the reader who was having trouble subscribing...:(

The photos in this post are what you would call random.  They are random because in a way they signify my day yesterday and today, kind of crazy and a little disjointed.

And that's how my brain has been too, a little wacky and all over the place.  But hey, you get what you get when you pop by this here blog, some days it's awesome vintage bathroom beauty, and other days it's a votive holder and some bird photos.  I like to keep you all guessing, or at least that's what I tell myself as I cobble together posts every now and then. ;-)

The reason I wanted to show you this votive holder, which was a lovely gift from my mother in law a few years ago, is because I think it would be such a cool project for all of you super crafty bloggers out there.  Notice I did not say "us" but instead said "you."   As you read further through this random post you will see why I don't have time to be crafty.  I have time for another c word...namely to be CRAZY, just not crafty.  Those years ended when my children entered middle school and I realized I had been forcing that craft gene for far too long.

Anyway, back to this pretty votive holder.  It's actually bigger than it looks in these photos, but you could use any size you like, just keep in mind the size of the tissue paper you will be using on it.  What the crafty person who made this did was to take a glass bowl and then to decoupage pretty tissue paper inside the bowl.  Simple right, yet so so pretty when it is all aglow, like tonight!

Now you crafty people probably know what to use to make this work.  I'm assuming you select something to adhere the paper to the glass that is non flammable, I think that would be a wise idea.  So if anyone has an idea of what to use, or has done something similar, be sure to comment away and let us know so that the crafty readers of this blog can get crackin' and make one of these pretty votive holders for themselves.  One which won't catch their houses on fire please!!

Today I wandered out to take more photos of the bluebirds.  I truly think I need a 12 step program for my bird photography these days!  And I want to give a HUGE thank you to Laura from 52 Flea for helping me out with some beautiful new textures!  She provided me with this very cool ephemera!

Ok, now on to a brief run down of my day yesterday.  I got up, did the usual work stuff, and then headed out to visit my friend Ms. M and take her some chocolate chip cookies I had made for her.  After a nice visit, I headed out to run some errands, including hitting up the bank.

I had some cash from the sale of my dining room table that I needed to deposit, so I pulled up to the drive-through window at the bank and put the nice crisp bills and a check into the little drawer.  The paperweight they had in the drawer was way far back, and in my big honkin' SUV it was hard to reach.  So as I was reaching for the paperweight to hold down the bills and the check, a big gust of wind came up and started blowing the money out of the drawer and all over the world.

Now let's just say that a few choice words flew out of my mouth as I screamed at the poor young guy working to shut the #*$% drawer before it all blew away.  At this point, I tried to get out of my big ole vehicle, but you know what?!  You can't get out because your door won't open!  So I may, or may not have gunned it and gotten up to a point where I could exit my vehicle and I began running like a mad woman chasing down my money which was truly blowin' in the wind!

You could cue a version of the song Blowin' in the Wind right now if you like, but it was more like that Charlie Chaplin scene where he is blown all over the place.  I mean it people, I was running, all the way to neighboring parking lots, major roads, you name it as those nice crisp bills were gleefully floating away.  We're talking $20s and one $50, not chump change, so I was determined!  It was like I was on one of those game shows where they put you in the booth and turn on the wind machine and you grab as much as you can, only I was lacking one key feature...the booth!

I'm sure the rest of the folks at the drive through, and anyone else in a large radius was wishing that they had a really good video feature on their cell phone so that they could post it all on You Tube!  Finally, out of breath, frustrated beyond measure, and mad at myself for not using the drive-through window the dang tube things that I hate, I ventured inside.  I'm sure I looked great, kind of a like a crazed wild woman.

A nice young man working as a teller asked if he could help me...poor dear soul, he didn't have a clue.  So I began to tell him how I had been at the drive-through, that my money had flown the coup, and that I was REALLY hoping the rest of it and the check were still in that drawer!

He went to talk to the guy in the booth, and quickly came back to say that he could see more money flying around outside and he would go try and get it.  In the meantime another teller, a woman about my age was NOT very helpful and acted like it was my fault that it was windy outside and that their window was inadequate to handle such tasks.  She pointed out that that's why they have a paperweight in the drawer...really?!!!!  

Before I could put the smack down on her, oh yeah, I was close, the nice young man came back in with a crisp $20 bill and we sat down and counted up what was left in the drawer and what I had collected and all was accounted for, thank goodness!  I had chased down $190 in fast flying cash and he had found the last rogue $20 bill!

At the point when we discovered that all of the money had been recovered, we then realized that my driver's license was missing...sigh!  We found it outside too!

Ahh, all's well that ends well right?  But I think it will be awhile before I go back to the bank again.  My family reminded me that maybe my grandparents weren't so happy about me selling that furniture after all...yikes!  Or more likely they just wanted to have a little fun with me!

So there you have it, a typical day for me, and the reason I don't have time to do crafts!!!

Have you done anything that could land you on You Tube?!