Spring, Spring, wherefore art thou, spring?

This is what I woke up to on Saturday morning:

SNOW!

We didn't get alot, but it was cold, only 19 degrees, and dreary. Luckily, the beautiful sunshine came out and warmed things up to the high 40's.

Our winter here in Colorado has been fairly mild, compared to other winters, where it dumped on us Big-time (think 2006). That was one of the worst I can remember, with 2 storm, back to back. It left us completely buried for days, and our roads a nightmare for weeks and weeks afterwards. I think my car is still suffering the effects of driving through snow sinkholes 2 feet across!

I thought I'd post a few pictures of my garden last year, for those of us who are suffering from Spring fever, and are sick of the cold weather. My snapdragons, delphiniums, and roses are my favorite, so full of bright, cheerful color.

I'm excited to get out in my garden and start planting. I am totally redoing 2 of my beds, by relocating some of my salvia (I had salvia overplanting issues last year!), and pulling out 2 large Russian sage, to let the Liatrus I planted there last year have some room.

The dang squirrels kept digging up the bulbs, after I planted them, and so I had to keep going out and reburying them! They could smell the fresh dirt all dug up, and knew something was going on, so they wouldn't leave the area alone!

This is not one of MY squirrels; when I went out to take pics of the 59 squirrels that live in MY yard, of course, there were NONE to be found! I borrowed one off of a squirrel picture website. Who knew there were so many squirrel fans out there?

I am an avid birder, so I have no fondness for squirrels anymore. Sure, they're cute when they frolick around the yard, with their stupid little antics, but when they destroy all my bird feeders trying to get the seed out, and gnaw their teeth down on my wood deck, and dig up and eat my bulbs, then they are on my black list!

I have baffles and deterrants on my feeders, but I am really limited on where I can place my feeders, due to the many trees on my property. My inlaws live out in the country, and they get those cute little ground squirrels, you know the ones that look like a chipmunk? They hate them , because they burrow tunnels everywhere, and ruin the lawn.

Today marked the return of Doves to my backyard. I have the Eurasian collared doves, and the mourning doves. I love the way they coo in the morning, so soft and sweet. Soon they will have babies, and bring them into the yard for food and water. Here is a baby from last year.

And a robin, freezing in our late spring snow!

The dove babies are so unafraid, that you can literally walk right up to them, as they are laying in the grass. They just stare at you, so cute and small. I'll post pics of them, when they are finally here. Just today in my yard, I've had Juncos, assorted Sparrows and Finches, Robins, 2 kinds of Doves, Black-capped Chickadees, Flickers, Blue Jays, and a few hungry squirrels. The juncos will soon be moving on, and we'll have spring migration moving through. What do you get in your yard during migration? Comment on your favorite visitor!

Hang in there, it's almost Spring!
(As promised, tonight or tomorrow I will post pics of all of the journals I made, covered with vintage paper ephemera.) I'll also do a short tutorial on how to make these darlings, so start scouring your local flea and antique store, for old paper things to use.

What's in a name?

So I thought I'd explain how I came to the name of my blog, The Cozy Chickadee. Several years ago, my Brother in law got me interested in birding, or Bird-watching, as some call it. Now let me tell you, he is BIG time into birding. Keeps a jounal of a list of daily birds he sees in his backyard, along with what the weather was that day. etc. Also catergorizes by state, and Life list, of course. Has every Birding book known to man. Worked in a Wild Bird store for awhile, just to get the discount on birdseed, which can run a couple hundred a month, according to my sister. Also takes awesome pictures of birds from all over, some of which have been published.
I really have just enjoyed it as a side hobby, and I put out seed on a regular basis, and have had alot of really cool birds visit my yard. My rarest sightings have been a Lazuli Bunting, an Oven Bird, and a Spotted Towhee. But for some reason, my favorite bird of all is the Chickadee. Doesn't matter if it's a Black-capped, or a Mountain Chickadee, I love them both the same. Their perky cutenes steals my heart, and they are not greedy at the feeder, like alot of birds. They take one sunflower seed at a time from the feeder, flying up into my Pine tree, and peck it open. Then they come back for another. They also have the cutest 2 note whistle ever, which just cheers my day right up.
Can you believe, I actually got to hold one of these darling little creatures a while back? One afternoon, we heard a loud thump against out patio door, and ran over, knowing it had to be a bird.
There, on the deck, was a very still Mountain Chickadee. I about died, thinking it was surely dead. I picked it up, and it seriously was light as a feather! I could feel it breathing really fast, but it's eyes were closed, so I thought it would probably die of shock, or a broken neck.
Then, it slowly opened it's eyes, and fluffed up a little. It sat in my hand for a minute more, with me saying words in little birdy talk, and then it perched on my hand, and flew up into the nearest tree. What a neat-o experience!
I was shopping at my favorite Goodwill store a few weeks back, and already having named my Blog, and getting it ready, it was fate that I stumbled upon this darling picture of a Chickadee. It was like a nubby material stretched across a wood frame, really plain.

 

Of course, my creative spirit could not let it stay like this, so here's what a little imagination and creative spirit did:
And here is a farther away shot, showing on my wall, above my little craft studio: area:

I will post more photos of my craft area, probably next week, to show you how I manage to stay organized in a such a small space. And by small, I mean one area of our already small master bedroom. You can get creative, and still have an area to call your own. Have any ideas for creating in a small space? Any cool bird stories? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear inspiration from my fellow Bloggers!