birds nesting

Last week we had a pair of mourning dove appear on our windowsill next to my desk where the promptly build a nest and began laying eggs!

first one egg appeared...

next afternoon a second egg...

I tried my best to keep the blinds closed and leave them in peace but it was an ill fated spot for many reasons. Not long after this photo the mate was devoured by a hawk which Keith saw as he was coming home one afternoon. That evening we listened as the survivor called but got no familiar reply... and eventually abandoned the nest and it's two white eggs. 

In the following days we watched for the lone dove out the windows. Out back I found that it found a new partner who was very attentive, they preened together in the cedar trees. 

Then they started a new nest in the tree about ten feet from the old nest still holding the eggs abandoned and undisturbed. 

It's close but not easy to photograph, the drama continues in that area each day. I took a short video of them early in the process of building that new nest. 

In the backyard I hung the usual house wren house for the wrens I heard singing it's mating call back in early April. Now that house is full of twigs and when I went out to sit in the garden I noticed a mate has joined the male bird who built the nest and began adding her own grassy bed on top of the twigs. 

Look closely you will see she has a fine sprig of grass in her beak and the big twigs hang out the bottom thru the air vents at the base of the house.

Behind me in the choke cherry tree which is beginning to flower another nest! This year, lets hope the cats or raccoons don't attack it, on a branch another dove is nesting and keeping a watchful eye on me in the garden. 

It was a great spot that some robins built in last spring and raised a brood of three orange breasted babies. 

Now all we need is a bunch of tent caterpillars to spin their nests in the native choke cherry tree to provide food to these babies that will soon arrive looking extremely hungry! 

Mid July with Mom

The middle of July is when my mother was born. 81 years ago this year and we packed up and went out to spend a couple days with her. Keith walked the garden and selected a few pretty flowers to take for a table arrangement, I packed up my little gift of hand made lavender sachets plus a new purple cone flower and we took off to buy a nice birthday cake at Whole Foods and make the drive out to Manassas.

yellow day lily is a new cut flower for our mid-summer bouquets 

We discovered from Pure Mädderlake that day lilies keep on blooming after cut one day at a time.

Keith the florist on Monday July 15th wrote his journal beside his center piece for mom's birthday

This time of year is usually so hot you can barely breath but this is just beginning to be the start of heat in DC above 90º. We have had great levels of rainfall and no one has had to water anything until now. When we arrived it was a delight to see Mom's garden looks great and is in big bloom and to know she hasn't had to put much effort into maintaining it thus far. We visited a while and made a nice lunch while we caught up on all the news. We took a trip to Lowe's and Home Depot to find some new plants for the garden a kind of tradition for our birthday gift to mom.

Then later we decided to risk a dinner on the lake outdoors in the "heat" on the deck at Logan's Road House. As it turned out this was the perfect night to go. It cooled down and there was a nice breeze and clear blue skies over the deck as we enjoyed the birds swooping over and under the deck. Canada geese, Mallard ducks, and Barn swallows are all around the deck and on the lake. Over in the shrubs by the lakes edge we heard song sparrows singing as we arrived. When we got home we dove into a nice slice of lemon curd topped vanilla cake with a butter cream icing.  Made the mistake of eating it before the butter cream got to room temperature but it still was a nice finish to the meal.

Then Monday the sun came up and the heat started to climb. We enjoyed breakfast but were concerned the AC wasn't keeping up with the heat out side. It was four degrees above the setting on the thermostat so Mom called in the service man from Sears to have a look. While we were eating a delicious Pannera lunch he arrived and quickly found that there was a leak in the coolant lines which would require a repair man, not him a lowly service maintenance guy. To get a repair man would take four days wait since it was so late in the day and at the beginning of a heat wave. We decided to go looking for a solution to the muggy in the house while we had to wait out the next few days. We turned off the AC to let the frozen lines defrost and see how long it took. The system wasn't totally out it still functioned part way. At 81 Keith and I were very concerned about mom waiting for this repair in a hot house. Mom found a little table top oscillating fan that was used at a great price and we brought it home and with that in addition to the struggling central AC unit it was quite pleasant to sit in the living room even with the high heat outdoors. The phone line was also not working right. It came and went, in and out, one minute it was fine and worked then next it was dead and no calls or messages got through. That requires a cable company repair to come and all these repairs require brother David to handle his dogs so that these people can come to the house without fear of injury or the dogs escaping to the streets. The levels of stress that all this mishap added to our "happy birthday" celebration was one to be remembered. In the end I planted the new plants in the ground, watered and mulched, we ate delicious cake and enjoyed beautiful flowers. Jenny and Frank sent a wonderful bouquet of flowers from a new to us Haymarket florist that were a delight to see. We also have Casa Blanca lilies blooming in the yard and at home. I always associate them with Mom's birthday since they usually bloom on or near the 15th of July.

Jenny and Frank's arrangement with a bunch of casa blanca lily and soft pink roses & white daisies.

We got to enjoy the really unusually green scenery and trees at home and all along the route. I made a video of the deck where I sat mornings to write in my journal under the big American Beech tree that we dug up in the forest as a sapling back in the early 1960's with Dad who died five years ago on the day after mom's birthday. It is a great reminder of him and how much he loved flowers and gardens and trees. When we moved into the Manassas house back in 1964 there were only foundation plantings and one little maple tree in the yard. He soon turned it into a forest and ever since I have been a tree hugger because I know what it is like to live in the heat of a pasture with no shade! I used to marvel at the number of plants and trees my mom's dad knew the name of when we went on long drives. He would point them out and ask if I knew them. I do now and it's fun to think of that as a tradition brought to the city by me from my ancestors who come from the  woodlands of Appalachia.

American beech tree planted to shade the back of the house with dad in the 1960's

glider and potted hostas on the deck in Manassas 

Here is a short video sample of the view and songs of birds and cicada July 16th on the deck in Manassas:

We had a lot of unplanned repairs to see scheduled on this trip but soon as those are done it will be good to know that mom will be snug as a bug in a rug with her AC and phone line working and her flower garden blooming pretty pink and white flowers. Then on the next trip we will celebrate like Alice's friend, the Mad Hatter, all 351 Unbirthdays to come!

START AIDS Study video

Yesterday, I watched a new AIDS research video. I am a member of a community advisory board since 1990 at the Washington Veterans Hospital research site and late last year they asked me to give them a little of my background for this new video to try to help get more patients into the study. It was a real honor to be asked in as a veteran of the battle to find an effective AIDS treatment. In 1989-1993 I was a treatment activist as member of ACTUP ( activist group: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and one of the ways I survived my battle with the infection was to be very involved in the back room work to support and advise doctors in their search for treatments that really worked. I survived what seemed a certain death sentence many of my friends succumbed to over the 1980's and early 1990's. Now researchers are working on an international study of when is the best time to start using the many effective treatments that are now available. Is it better to start early or wait until you reach a lower immune system marker and show progression towards real dangerous HIV related infections? The only way to find the answer is to try both options and follow real results to see what is the best outcome over a number of years in a research study setting.
The START study is trying to find healthy HIV positive individuals who have not had any treatment are willing to toss the dice  for the choice of using drugs now or waiting until they get to the lower level T-cells. This video explains many of these details and asks us to share it with anyone who might be interested learning more about this study's objectives.
Here is the link to my minute of fame for a very good cause. The START Study.org
http://www.thestartstudy.org/

1982 NYC about the time we learned of the new disease that has shaped my life ever since.  

natives in the garden

mourning dove and visiting king bird waiting for a drink 

"eastern king bird" high in our choke cherry tree

red columbine Aquilegia candadensis 

wide shot of the columbines

native Sedum ternatum white flowers 

white beard tongue, penstemon 

buttercups in the lawn

silhouette of song sparrow singing 

This week I have been enjoying the garden. The cold is gone and the warmer days are making some mornings perfect for sitting in the garden with coffee and paper. I noticed a song sparrow, new to our garden but known in the neighborhood, and I took the chance to record it's wonderful song in a short video and tried to capture his portrait but he was shy and kept it's distance. Then today I was watching out the back porch window and saw another new bird in our garden trying to get to the bird bath for a drink. Later I confirmed my suspicion that it was a Eastern king bird who has a strange song like electric fence  but very distinct markings and a black crest. The king bird didn't stick around very long but I was glad my picture captured it's visit here to share.
We went to two plant sales this past weekend and collected lots of new native flowering plants. Most are not in flower right now but a couple were so I have posted their photos.
We learned that beard tongue also called penstemon is a native that was cultivated more extensively in European gardens. On Wiki I read that in some of the 19th century seed catalogs as many as 500 varieties were available! Ours is a simple white flower with a reddish green leaf and stem.
One of our favorite woodland columbines came back this year. I collected seeds from a large plant in a sidewalk tree box near Douglas Kingsbury's house when I was visiting for my portrait sittings. I deposited them in our shady herb bed and was delighted when they sprouted new plants that summer that bloomed the following spring. Looking closely at plants pays off with free flowers if you arrive at the right time.
Finally I wanted to show the local buttercups that grow in our neighborhood. Some of the yards are full of them before the mowers come along and decapitate them. It takes me back to my childhood to see them remembering them in Springfield Va. yards of the 1960's There was a game we played that if you picked a buttercup and held it under a chin if their chin shined yellow they are in love. Sunny days worked best to reflect that bright yellow cup on the chin.
Wikipedia and USDA information Links:
Eastern King Bird 
Song Sparrow
Beard Tongue or Penstemon 
Sedum Ternatum
Red columbine
Buttercups 

Arboretum Dance

Japanese roof iris has a great story where that name came from follow the link to read about it in a brief article.

new miniature hosta Little Miss Moffet!

my new mini hosta "little miss moffet" set in place with three potted up last year counter clockwise named:"blue mouse ears", "cracker crumbs" and "stiletto"

our new bloodroot already planted on the north face in a woodland like setting

5 new bare root day lilies ready to plant and enjoy for only 25 dollars I went hunting the net and found images of them all from other growers and linked the names to the images on their web pages...

red volunteer, bright red

seductor red with green throat & scented

chesapeake crablegs orange spider type day lily,

firestorm another spider type red orange yellow,

royal trumpeter a coral orange with red zones

May pole dance with concertina accompanists danced at the Arboretum plant sale!

Today while at the annual Friends of the National Arboretum Plant sale we were lightly entertained by the maypole dancers and a few squeeze box musicians while shopping for delightful plants to add to our garden. Videos only visible on the Orange Explains it All blog page.

I got a new mini hosta for my growing collection and 5 new daylily from the growers who all had great stories to tell and lots of tips for growing. The advantage of buying from a enthusiastic grower rather than a superstore nursery like Lowe's, Walmart or Home Depot. I found strong bold red daylily and lots of spider petal versions in red,orange,brown, yellow, white and pink to choose from but it was a hard choice. In the end I just went with my gut and grabbed the ones that excited me most. They will go from bare root bundles into pots this year until they show me how they grow and maybe how they bloom.

Keith found some wonderful native plants and exotic Japanese specimens he can use in his ikebana arrangements and delight in the uniqueness of the exotic, hopefully not invasive hybrids. We brought home a woodland native flower called bloodroot which has a white flower that oozes orange liquid when picked in the early spring. My grand mother showed me the first one in the forest as a kid and I never forgot how I was amazed by that bright orange color fluid.

I have to say I am having trouble finishing this post about the garden because we have so much work to do and the images are flowing in fast and furiously beautiful. Fresh greens on the hostas, beautiful blues of our iris and now the clematis is beginning to open. Oh the most beautiful time of year when you have a garden is spring....

1st snow

collecting on the evergreens

rain wet branches slowing coated in white

Today it began as rain then switched over to large flake snow that is so common early in the winter. I was sitting at my desk instant messaging with Keith and later my mother watching as it began to collect on the limbs of trees and grass.

We are going out to the memorial service for Margaret Cox Ayers my back up mom, aka godmother, who died a couple weeks ago suddenly. She was a beautiful woman, full of love, kind words, wishes and actions. She left a big family full of the same love and kindness to the world but we are all very sad that she left us so suddenly. I feel lucky that I got to speak to her in hospital by phone about a week before she died and to tell her how much I loved her. I am hoping everyone travels safely today to this gathering.

Meanwhile we have a beautiful Saturday surprise. You can see in my little video the view from my window as it just begins to cover the grass and branches of trees newly bared of their leaves. Houston, Texas where my sister Jenny lives and all across the south saw rare snowfalls last 24 hours.

yellow bellied sap sucker ?

sap sucker 

sap sucker

more sap sucker

woodpecker

woodpecker's holes

cedar tree trunk detail of holes

yellow bellied sap sucker 

drilling

waiting for the sap

This past few days, looking out our north facing window perched on two white cedar tree trunks, I have been watching the most amazing bird. A woodpecker.  After I noticed it was returning to the same tree over and over I took the trouble to wash my window and raise the blind to have a better view. I wanted to photograph this migratory traveler less than ten feet from my desktop. It is a speckled bird with a red patch on it's head and a short pointed beak. I  looked it up knowing it was a woodpecker but not which variety. Two are common in our area that look sort of like this one: the downy woodpecker and the hairy woodpecker. It's markings  are not yet fully developed making the identification more difficult. Yellow bellied sap sucker adolescents keep youthful feathers all through the first winter. Spring is pretty much here now and I think this fellow is mature enough to have partial markings of an adult but the behavior is clearly that of a yellow bellied sap sucker. The Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker is a name common to us cartoon watching adults from the old Bugs Bunny character Yosemite Sam (short angry guy with a big red moustache and a couple of six shooters) who always called Bugs a "yellow bellied sap sucker"intended to belittle him, poor rabbit Sam hated rabbits. It was funny as a kid but now I am sitting looking at a real yellow bellied sap sucker out my window for the fourth day in a row. The behavior I refer to above is that the sap sucker drills series of holes in a a row on a tree to collect sap. They drill and wait for the rich sap to run which they then lap up and they also eat bugs that are attracted to the sap. Other wood peckers don't have this talent to draw the sap out of the tree. The sap sucker doesn't dig deep, only far enough to get to the layer just below the bark where this sap flows down from the leaves to feed other parts of the tree.  I have seen the local squirrels come chase the bird away and lick the sap off the tree trunk too. It must be full of rich nutrients. The article I read on Smithsonian National Zoological Park explains the whole mystery of how they feed themselves on sap and has another gallery of photos which includes babies and fully mature adults, male and female. 

I really enjoy the birds that come to visit us here in the city. The more exotic ones especially inspired me to keep looking more carefully and to use binoculars and a book to help identify which ones were in my area. I was surprised how many there when you bother to look and listen carefully. Sparrows come in many varieties, starlings change colors throughout the year, Crows one of my favorites travel in pairs when they are mature and in flocks or "murders" when they are adolescents before they mate for life. I think people tend to over look birds and many exotic songbirds get get lost in the mix of common city birds. I recall once noticing a blackish bird on the median strip of route 66 one day when I was stuck in rush hour traffic moving inches per hour rather than miles per hour. I saw one that had a brown head but was in a crowd of blackish starlings which do not have  brown heads. I came home straight away and pulled out my bird book and hunted for a brown headed black bird. It was a cow bird and since I know what it looks like now I see them more often. Before these cowbirds were just another starling to my lazy unobservant eye. 

This is a video of the yellow bellied sap sucker on our cedar tree today. Twelve seconds of a bird watching a man in a window. To see it you have to follow this link to the webpage where it is posted on the blog.