Drat those squirrels!!!

Squirrel damage!  No wonder people hate them!

 I decided to pot up some tulip bulbs in the Fall so that I would be able to bring out an urn early with some beautiful  unusual tulips in the early Spring when every gardener is dying for some colour.  So, once the carefully planted and stored bulbs started sprouting, I decided to move the innocent, succulent shoots outside.  Just what the squirrels were waiting for I guess, because the next morning you can imagine my horror when I went outside to see the ravages of my careful work. It wouldn't be so bad if the squirrels actually ate them! But to just bite the tops off!!! That is a cruel dashing of hope. I salvaged what I can and put a cage over them. Why oh why didn't I do that from the beginning?  Live and learn.

This is what I was hoping would come up.

Squirrel barrier

Oh, the horror, looking out to see a bitten off top. This unattractive barrier has seemed effective so far.  Only one bitten off shoot.

It's for the Birds

Snowdrops and crocuses are the only flowers in the garden right now.  Note the clever use of a branch in the base to provide cover for the birdhouse. 

I can't get over the ingenuity and creativity of some people.  They have gifts that the rest of us can only appreciate. I bought this bird house at a craft sale and just hope some wrens move in for the season. I love watching birds and have my feeder positioned so that I can see it from every part of my kitchen.  The orioles are visiting now so we started putting seed in the feeder earlier than usual. The orioles are just starting to put on their richer yellow colour.  But the bright white bars on their wings are a dead give-away to identifying them.  

Grosbeaks, purple finches and yellow orioles in addition to our resident cardinals, are visiting right now. Of course we always have chickadees, nuthatches and  sparrows.

I love the fact that these bird houses look so natural and hope the birds will too.  I have many 'pretty' bird houses that remain vacant all year, so hopefully something will move into these homes.