Bits and Pieces

This fuzzy photo is the best I could get in the circumstances under which I was working.  A young female Cardinal (if you look closely you can see her head/beak on the right and tail on the left) has taken up housekeeping in a small hanging basket left out in the freezing cold over the winter. In the carefully constructed nest just below the top of the container are three small eggs, the first cardinal eggs I have ever seen.

The circumstances I mentioned above are (1) that the basket is hanging within four feet of my back door, and (2) opening the door widely spooks her off the nest.  I just opened the door a crack, stuck out my cell phone/camera and snapped without really looking or trying to focus.

It makes my heart glad to see her there, and my heart needed a gladdening.  I discovered her nest this past Saturday morning, when my grandson and I went to the back yard to dig a grave for my sweet Missy cat, who went to play with her baby Sweetie Pie last Friday afternoon.

I now have four cats buried in my back yard: Bubble (the sweetest kitty I have ever had) died in July 2000; her brother Squeak died in May, 2012;  Sweetie Pie went to be with the kitty angels just over a year ago, and now, Sweetie Pie's mama, Missy.  They are all buried in their favorite sunning places.

I think that's the end of my having cats; it's just too hard to let them go, even when it's inevitable.

Tomorrow is also a day.

A Flash of Red

(this photo may be enlarged by clicking on it)

Just after sundown a few days ago, but while it was not yet quite dark, a flock of fourteen Cardinals descended upon the peach tree in my daughter's back yard. There was no way I could photograph them through the window, nor could I exit the house by the door which opens into the yard; too close -- they would fly away. So I took my camera and went out by a front door and walked around the house and quietly and slowly onto the carport where I hoped I could get a few shots. The photo above, which shows several birds, is as good as I could get in the extant light with my still limited photographic ability. The one below is, I fear, not much of an improvement, but is a better example of the glorious red of the Cardinal's plumage.

Methinks I need to take camera and tripod and just camp out in my daughter's yard for a few hours on a brighter day.