Some Recommendations For You

Hi all -- are you glad to welcome the merry month of May?  This is always a busy month for us what with planting spring flowers, strawberry season, celebrating Mother's Day and our wedding anniversary, and last but not least, Memorial Day.  Whew -- I feel like I'm behind already.  😜  Today, I want to share a few things that I've discovered in hopes that you might find them interesting, too.       

         As is often the case, I found a new decor item from reading other blogs.  Prior to Valentine's Day, I noticed some folks had used pretty velvet hearts in tablescapes and around their homes.  I checked Etsy, and sure enough, there were lots to choose from.  By the time I got around to looking, many were quite picked over or priced higher than I wanted to pay.  I lucked out and found Jennifer at TheSeasonsCo.  She had velvet hearts in three sizes and lots of lovely colors, however, most of the colors were already sold out.  I was able to get a medium-sized heart in Dusty Rose, which turned out to be a perfect match for my living room.  As you can see, I also fell hard for the Chinoiserie hearts and ordered two of those to go with the velvet heart.  This seller is in California, and my purchase arrived here in North Carolina in a very timely manner.  My mom really liked mine, so I ordered two more Chinoiserie hearts for her belated birthday gift.  Again, the hearts arrived here very quickly.  Jenny was so nice to deal with, and I'm happy to give her a shout-out here.  I have not been compensated in any way by doing so -- just sharing a product I like.              

I like the blue and white hearts so much, I've decided to leave them out here in the living room year round.  I may try to get one or two more velvet hearts next winter.  Jennifer also had velvet easter eggs, carrots, and pumpkins as part of her offerings.  If you're interested, I put the link for her shop in the previous paragraph.      

You may know how much we love bird watching here.  Hal captured the above shot at Southport back in 2015.  We now have multiple bird feeders in our back yard and a birdcam on the back porch, and we love to see our daily avian visitors.     

   Just the other day, we had a rose-breasted grosbeak (migrating) to stop off at hanging tray feeder.  They're a real treat to see, since this is not their normal habitat.  We had a pair of them last spring, too.      Over a year ago, we discovered Lesley the Bird Nerd on YouTube, and we love to watch her videos.  She lives in Newfoundland, Canada, and makes frequent forays into the woods to photograph, video, and feed the wild birds.  She's one of those amazing people who has coaxed wild birds to feed from her hand.  She has a variety of wild birds fly to her and take seeds from her hand.  That must have taken a lot of time and patience on her part to achieve.  Just last night, we watched her latest video, "The Positive Effects of Birdsong".  The video is only a little over five minutes long, and it's a good one.    

    We truly love to see the cute antics of small birds and the sheer beauty of the more colorful birds such as northern cardinals, eastern blue birds, and goldfinches.  Over the past year, we've come to appreciate another kind of bird altogether, the American crow.  I used to strongly dislike these birds; let's face it, they're far from pretty and not your typical definition of "cute".  However, these birds are incredibly smart; they belong to the corvid family which is the smartest of all groups of birds.  Their intelligence is said to rank alongside that of primates and dolphins.  
Below is a video about crows from Lesley the Bird Nerd.  We have a ground tray for the squirrels, chipmunks, and crows, which Hal fills every morning.  The crows are now daily visitors here, and we usually hear their "caw, caw" sound when they arrive.  We stand at the kitchen window and watch them get peanuts out of the shells or hide their food for later.  On two occasions, they've actually followed us on our afternoon walk.     

The last thing for today is a video of Fable the Raven.  Ravens are also members of the corvid family of birds, and Fable is pretty amazing, I think.  Her owner and trainer, Amy, lives in Scotland, and let's just say that Fable is quite a character -- you can meet her in the following video.            

I hope you enjoy these videos.  They're short, because I know you're busy; I hope you find something new to love about birds.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a great Monday!!
All the best,

Denise