Spring Beginnings

My first blog posting. Spring is the time for starting new projects, right? So here’s what I’m planning:

New blog, new website update coming this summer, and starting the research for a new historical novel. Details to follow as it goes along.

In the meantime, I spent the weekend planting: wildflowers for my butterfly garden, which was a huge success last year, and herbs for the kitchen and summer meals. Squirrels ate all my tulip bulbs except for about six, however. I’m not feeling very fond of the critters at the moment. Should I try again? Do hot red pepper flakes planted with the bulbs really work?

I’m attaching a picture of a neighbour of mine. We have osprey nests on the telephone poles all along the road leading into our village. The Hydro people didn’t think it was a good idea for the birds to build right on the poles, so they built platforms for them. The birds built quite fantastic nests on the platforms and come back to them every year. This particular osprey has had a hard time of it for the past two years, but hasn’t let that discourage her.  The winter before last she had a well-established nest, but the wind blew it down. I was there on the day she returned. I have never seen quite such an indignant bird. She strutted from one end of the bare platform to the other, obviously furious. I could imagine what she was thinking:

“I left a perfectly good nest here last fall and just WHERE is it NOW?”

But, she rebuilt it.

This year the nest survived the winter, and she spent the spring embellishing it with colourful bits and pieces of all sorts of stuff. Plain old twigs weren’t good enough for her. Then the winds came up, and down it went again. Undaunted, she is rebuilding yet again, and searching out even more colourful decorations.

A lesson for us here, perhaps?

If at first you don’t succeed, make it better.