5/1/09 Gifts From The Garden

I thought you might want to see my roses. These are my climbing Queen Elizabeth's, and they are absolutely faaaaaabulous right now.

Here's the full trellis.

Closer.

Even closer.

And here's a special surprise! This is the momma cardinal that makes a nest here each year. She's almost completely hidden, and more than once has surprised me by rocketing out of the foliage and making me stumble backwards.

The picture is a little blurry because I was trying to take it without being close enough to spook her. But eventually she left and I snuck over to get a shot of the three blue speckled eggs.

Imagine my surprise when I peaked into the nest and saw no eggs. Instead, there were tiny little pinkish-brown blobs with black fuzzy down on their heads. They must have just hatched because when I checked on them two days ago, they were still in their packaging. Again, sorry for the blurry pic. I was trying to take the picture from a respectable distance while keeping one eye on a ticked off momma bird.