Tuesday, May 08, 2007

bluebird nests and lilacs

We put up a bluebird nesting box in March. Yesterday we met the neighbors - tree swallows. They are beautiful and their song is fluid warble.


Sing on! sing on, you gray-brown bird!
Sing from the swamps, the recesses—pour your chant from the bushes;
Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines.

Sing on, dearest brother—warble your reedy song;
Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.

O liquid, and free, and tender!
O wild and loose to my soul! O wondrous singer!
You only I hear......yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart;)
Yet the lilac, with mastering odor, holds me.






In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle......and from this bush in the door-yard,
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break. When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman


7 comments:

  1. Lilacs are a favorite of mine and these pictures are wonderful!

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  2. Oh, birds and lilacs...

    Spring has come.

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  3. Because of difficulty breathing, we had to close the windows and turn on the air conditioning. Now I am safe in my cocoon with no birds singing and no smell of flowers.

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  4. Our bluebird box was abandoned for some reason and then the sparrows took over. They are still nice neighbors too. The swallows hounded them for a week or two. Then my husband read how one could put up two bluebird boxes, and one will be occupied by bluebirds, and one by swallows, because the swallows don't like the sparrows to get them.

    Doesn't exactly make sense to me, but they really do pester the sparrows.

    Lovely pictures! Lilacs are one of my favorites.

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  5. Thank you. Love the girl's dresses!

    And thank you for the colored pictures, here and there. I know, your style is b/w. I understand. But thank you for putting some colored prints in too. :-))))

    Mari-Nanci

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  6. Lilacs are my favorite! And great bird shots! :o)

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