bird watching and gardening

If I had a job I would retire from, yesterday morning reminded me of future retirement.
All kids were at school, which only happens two days a week, husband was at home, but asleep. So I felt home alone.
There's a birdhouse in the backyard, built by my grandpa - it's a duplex. On the first floor, there's a wasp family happily residing. Ick. On the second floor, two sweet birds have built a nest and there's a baby, at least one, in there!

The kids and I know this because we see the mom and dad (the dad bird is pretty blue and reddish, the mom bird, pictured above, is the uglier less colorful version of the dad bird,which is so unfair, I think!) flying to and fro all day long. They leave and head the same direction, to some worm farm apparently, because they come back all the time with worms wiggling in their mouths, then fly into the small hole my grandpa made in the upper apartment building of the birdhouse.

So without kids home to witness, I got really close to the birdhouse yesterday. They've been warned NOT to. I told them if they get too close, their scent will stick to the birdhouse, and however sweet their scent is, birds don't like it, and they might move away. That encouraged a warning in chalk on the fence next to the birdhouse, written by Sidney. But I have a nice scent that won't stick to anything, so I'm allowed. I'm the mom, with special privileges.

So I got really close to the birdhouse yesterday, without touching it, but close enough to hear little tiny noises, but far enough to be away from the other hole in case wasps came out to bite or sting me. I even saw a little outline of a birdie mouth, but it's really dark in that birdhouse, so I didn't see much. Just enough to know there's at least ONE baby bird in there.

And I love baby birds.

As much as I wanted to squeeze my hand through the tiny hole and grab the baby bird and raise it as my own, I didn't. I left it alone. For a few minutes, until I found my camera, and then tried to figure out a way I could take pictures of it but it's too dark. So I backed off.

And I let mom and dad bird take over again, and they're doing quite well at it. According to my calculations, in the 30 minutes I sat outside bird watching and taking photos of all sorts of things, that baby bird was visited more than 10 times by its mom and dad, each with worms in their mouths. That's a lot of food. Those parents are busy.
Bird watching is more fun than I thought. And very relaxing. I just wish it didn't make me want to look at that baby bird again, or want to hold it.

From there, I looked around my yard, looking for things to photograph with my new camera, a Canon 60D, which I love, but I'm still getting used to. It's got far different buttons and stuff than my Rebel xti, which is what I was just using before it.
I spotted the mini roses my mom gave me for Mother's Day a few years ago. Several years ago, actually! I planted them outside in my yellow daily bus thing and they just trail all over the place. For mini roses, they get around! I cut them off the bush yesterday and made a cute little bouquet of them for my kitchen window.

And that is what I call gardening. (I have a gardener, so I don't have too much else to do around here other than bird watch and take credit for how the baby bird is raised and how great my mini roses grow.)