Brrrrrrrrr

It's 32 degrees.  I walked outside this morning with Otis to check things out.  As you can see, the water in the bird bath is frozen.  Otis high tailed it back into the house already, no doubt, straight to the sofa and under his blankets.  

 Not a bad idea.  

I might just stay here 'till spring.  

Remember our feathered friends

On these cold gray days of winter, remember our feathered friends.  Even though they find berries and bugs to eat, it's nice for them to have an outdoor cafeteria!  

Give them safflower seeds.  The cardinals and songbirds love them.  

Or just a wild birdseed mix will do, and you'll see blue jays, finches, chickadees and titmice (the mourning dove will eat what falls on the ground).  Bring out the suet cakes and make the woodpeckers and nuthatches happy.  

And always remember fresh water in the birdbath.  

Happy Birds,

and you'll enjoy watching them!  

Ice in the birdbath

I went out to fill the bird feeders this morning and noticed ice in the birdbath. It's still really cold here, 32 degrees right now. On Sunday, however, it's supposed to hit 60 degrees....looking forward to that.



As you can see, we still have some leftover snow mostly in the shaded areas of the garden.

Otis and Riley will find whatever little spot of sun they can.

They waited for me.....

while I filled the bird feeders.

Too cold to be outside today.

For the love of birds

This pretty green glass bird with feathers was just waiting for me to snatch him up this past weekend when my sister and I were shopping. I saw it, and just had to have it. You know how much I LOVE birds. And the nice thing about it.....it was on clearance for $3.00!

I hung him in the kitchen window so I can see him everyday.

It's those little things that make us happy, right?

So guess what my sister and I found at the garden center?

The creme de la creme!

This beautiful bird for my birdbath.

He reminds me of the seagulls at the beach...

flying overhead so gracefully and free,

making those little screeching sounds that can lull one to sleep.

I think he looks right at home here in my back yard, and the mourning dove are quite happy with him too. They hopped on the birdbath shortly after I put him in.

Speaking of mourning dove, this sweet mourning dove was sitting here with her two babies outside my kitchen window. I snapped this photo yesterday and this morning the babies have hopped out and flown away.

Birds..........just love 'em!

Birdbath surprise

Remember when I told you my birdbath had fallen and was broken here, and my dearest hubby repaired it, and that I had a surprise for you?

I decided to mosaic it! I always had it in the back of my mind that I wanted to mosaic the birdbath, and now this was the perfect time to do it.

See the pink rose and the two little white dove.

Here's how it looked when hubby was repairing it.

He mixed up some concrete and filled in the cracks where the birdbath had fallen apart.

Then he secured it with bungy cords, added more concrete and smoothed it out.

Then we waited till it dried.





Now for the mosaics.

Let me remind you that I am definitely not a professional when it comes to doing this. I am rather clumsy, actually.



I cut and broke the pieces of glass and porcelain. I added a few marbles, added the rose and the dove, and then glued everything on with tile glue that I bought at Michaels.








Next for the grout.
I had this grout for another project and it was white, so when I mixed it up I added a little bit of black acrylic paint to make it more gray.

Then I put on my rubber gloves and smeared it all around and in the cracks and then smoothed it out. I'm not sure, but I think I may have put too much grout on.

Trial and error, I say.

After it dried I wiped it off with a wet cloth.






I left it cure for a few days,
then added water.









And now I have a pretty mosaic tiled birdbath.
It was a lot of work but worth it.

And, it's now back in the garden where it belongs.

And the birds are happy.

My birdbath

You know.......... here at Mourning Dove Cottage, we love the birds....

we love to watch them,

and feed them,

and make sure they have lots of water.


Well, I was very surprised a few days ago when I noticed that my birdbath had fallen and broken.
It broke my heart.



But,

my dearest hubby came to the rescue and has repaired it for me (he knew how much it meant to me and how much I loved that birdbath).

So......

I have a surprise to show you.

Not yet, I'm still working on it.

I'll show you the birdbath in a few days.