Welcome to my "Open Window"...a place of hope, encouragement, and adventure as we journey down the road from "Closed Doors" to the new opportunities God places in our pathway. I hope you will take the time to go back and follow the trail of mixed blessings and fears, failures and triumphs from the past and side-trips in the present. Perhaps it will conjure up some of your own special memories, and be an invitation for you to share with others. I look forward to spending this time with you!
What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!
Yes, the whole Sand Hill Crane Family, with one day old George and 2 day old Abe!
They walked them all around the island and across the narrow canal to get over to our side of the pond.
Remarkably, the young chicks can swim at this age, and they did a great job of working their way over here, with the encouragement and protection of Mom and Dad.
They spent the whole day over here on the shore of our Still Waters Pond, learning to forage for food and also stopping now and then to just take a quick little nap when needed.
Mom and Dad were always right close by and never let the chicks get out of their sight...
Aren't they precious?
I know this is cuteness overload, but they only stay little for short time, so please bear with me!
Mama was actually feeding them little bits of whatever she was finding there in the dirt that was tasty and good...
I'm afraid the Bluebird couple was a bit frustrated today as the Cranes were right there next to their birdhouse all day, and they weren't about to try and drive them away! LOL.
Tea party anyone?
Now, in this picture below it had suddenly started to pour down rain. Mama Crane just dropped right to the ground and the chicks came running up to here immediately to find shelter:
She huddled them under her wings and they stayed that way until the storm passed over:
Daddy Crane stood by and kept watch all through the storm. I don't think he ever moved once.
This was really amazing to watch.
After the storm they picked up where they left off and started foraging for food again along the shore.
In this series of pictures, Mama Crane has actually captured a small water snake and she is literally poking it to death in her strong sharp beak.
You can see the snake below her in this picture below. It kept wiggling even though I am sure it was pretty much already dead.
Apparently it made a tasty meal for herself and her babies as there was no sign of any remains later when I went out to check after they were gone.
Soon the family was growing tired and knew they needed to get back home to their nest before nightfall.
These pictures aren't very clear because there was a kind of mist or fog coming up from the water, but the family is working their way back across the little canal and to the island and back home to their nest.
I can't actually see the chicks in these pictures, but I know they are there somewhere, working their way across with Mom and Dad and a little bit later they were safely back on the little marshy island that is their home/nest. I know they didn't want to spend the night here on our shore, where there could be too many land predators around.
So meanwhile, some more excitement was happening today.
Earlier, before the Cranes showed up on our shore, I went outside and checked out birdhouse #2, that has been abandoned by the Bluebirds for a while. Remember...they built a nest really early and then nothing ever came of it, so I decided to look inside with my camera to see what was in there, and this is what I saw:
A nest with one lonesome egg. Because the Bluebirds have not been back to this birdhouse for several weeks I figured it was safe to remove it, and so I did.
Here is what it looks like outside of the birdhouse. I placed it gently in the garden as a little memorial to the little baby bird that would never see daylight or fly away into the treetops.
The other thing I noticed was that the Bottlebrush bush that I planted a few months ago was finally starting to bloom:
Not too many blossoms yet, but there are many more coming along soon.
So I was thinking also that it is about time for the Hummingbirds to be returning for the summer. I decided I'd better get some hummer food ready for the feeder, which I make by myself. 1/4 cup sugar dissolved in 1 cup boiling water. Make sure it is cool before putting outside in the feeder.
This evening while all the excitement was going on with the Crane Family, I noticed a male Ruby Throated Hummingbird flying around the Bottlebrush bush
And so I put the feeder out right away, and here's what happened:
Hooray!! So many fun things to watch these days!!
It's looking like it will be an interesting springtime and summer! I probably won't be getting much done. LOL.
Tomorrow is Palm Sunday!
Hosanna!
John 12:12-13
12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
For those of you who know me or who have been following my blog for a while, you know how difficult it is for me to do anything "wordless". That's just not me. I have something to say about everything. But I am going to try and be wordless on the first few pictures anyway, and then when something needs explaining, I will, of course, jump in and explain! But I think these first few pictures will not need an explanation to those of you who have known me a while:
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday!
The Triumphal Entry
John 12:12-13
12 The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,
13 took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
The King of Israel!”
(this picture was from last year's Palm Sunday).
And then the next Sunday is Easter already. Do you have any special Easter plans? Will you be able to attend church on Easter Sunday? Does your church have any extra special events or activities planned that pertain to Easter? We will have a Good Friday service on the Friday before Easter. On Easter Sunday morning our choir will perform an Easter Cantata entitled:
"O What A Savior"
We will be recording it for our church website if we can get all of the permissions and licensure agreements approved beforehand. If so, I will post it once it is available. It's a beautiful Easter musical.
Do any of you sing in a choir or other musical group? Will you be doing any musical for Easter? I would love to hear about it. Our choir isn't anything super great as far as talent goes, but we sing with our hearts for the glory of God. That is what really matters most.
Now, switching back to nature:
"Let Heaven and Nature Sing:
This is my "Room With A View" where I sit while I write to you...
And this is what is outside my window:
Mrs. Bluebird has a story to tell...or maybe I have a story to tell about Mrs. Bluebird and her family.
Mr. (or Mrs.-I haven't really noticed which). Black Cat loves to sit either under the bird feeder or lately under the bluebird house and just watch and wait. I guess he's hoping someday one of the birds will be too slow and he'll get lucky. Well, I am not too happy about that behavior, especially now that we have baby bluebirds in the birdhouse and also the baby "Colt" Sand Hill Crane in the yard frequently...which by the way, this cat was dumb enough to stalk "Colt" in the presence of the parents and almost got himself speared with the beak of a very irate Sand Hill Crane parent!
Anyway, the other night after dark I noticed Mr. Black Cat sitting out there under the birdhouse, just watching it. He was actually getting right under the house and looking up and sniffing and getting way too close for comfort. So I squirted at him with the garden hose and told him to go away, which he did then. As I said, it was getting dark, and we went to bed.
When we woke up in the morning, before it was very light, Mr. Black Cat was sitting out in front of the Bluebird house just staring at it. In the dimness of the morning light I thought something looked different about the house. I shined a flashlight on it and realized that the whole front door was totally open and I could see the actual nest inside the birdhouse, open to the whole world to see, and more importantly, to the cat. But he was just sitting there a little at a distance and watching, and waiting.
Well, I went outside and shooed him away and then I checked the birdhouse to see if the nest was destroyed. Actually, the nest itself was intact! It didn't look disturbed at all. I shined the light inside the nest and I could see what I thought were two very still, small baby birds, about the size of my finger. I honestly thought they must be dead. I was just sick, and very sad. But I closed up the door on the house and secured the latch and went back inside our house to wait and see if the parents would come back.
Sure enough, at daylight, there was Mrs. Bluebird, back in the house, looking out the window as if to say, "Thank you for taking care of my house and babies". Well, I didn't know what to think. I really thought the babies were dead.
But just like clockwork, Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird have been bringing food to that nest all day long...
She watches while he delivers, and vice versa.
I don't think they would continue to bring food to the nest if the babies were dead, so they must have just been sound asleep when I saw them!! I certainly hope so! I hope and pray that they will continue to grow and develop and maybe one day we will see them fly away to the world in the treetops with their parents. And I hope Mr. Black Cat will not be anywhere around on that day!!
Speaking of "Colt", the baby Sand Hill Crane:
He was having a good time splashing and bathing in the pond this morning.
under the watchful eye of his mother, of course...
Later he took a nap out there on the ground, while Mom and Dad ate their lunch. Then he woke up and was ready to run around and look for some food too:
I think he grew a few more inches while he was napping:
And then as it was getting later in the evening, the family took off back into the water to walk around and perhaps swim out to the island in the pond. That is apparently where they are spending the nights.
There they go! Colt runs as fast as he can to keep up with them!
And that was the last view I had of Colt before he joined his parents in the water.
And with that, I will bid you a good night as well.
