Ideas For Your Backyard

A favorite theme to any indoor or outdoor decor is Americana.  You know red, white, blue, eagles, flags, etc.  Almost anything that comes from early America.

There  are many ways to carry this theme out.  You can use Flags, benches, flower pots, plaques.  You can create your own design of things.  This makes it fun and unique.  Or you can purchase your items online, in store or out of catalogs.  Have fun!

I love butterflies.  They are so beautiful!  They are graceful, quiet, and don’t seem to bother anyone or anything.  They just seem to go about their business flitting from one place to another, one flower to another.  Doesn’t it make you wonder how and why they were created?  What their purpose is?  Does their varied color have any signifigance? I’m not sure, but I think that they must be the most colorful creature on this earth.

Did you ever wonder how baby birds seem to stay in their nests without falling? Baby birds spend about 14 days in their nest, so what is it that keeps them from falling?  Well they are born naked, featherless and are very squirmy.  Fledglings will have stubby wing feathers and their tail feathers will be about half grown.  As they change from a hatchling to a fledgling they have a very heavy bottom.  This serves a purpose to keep them securely weighted in their nest.

I love surprises don’t you?  How much fun it is to be walking around someone elses garden a spot a statue or object half hidden among the flowers, plants or bushes?  It’s not for the formal garden, but just fine for your backyard pleasures.  It’s a little bit of whimsy, and a great way for your children or grandchildren to help decorate your backyard.

Why not add some lights?  Outdoor spotlights can hightlight your fountain from above or below the water level.You can find waterproof lights in most larger hardware stores or garden supply centers.  Generally these lights come with colored lenses so that you can change them for different holidays, parties or as the season changes.   I love to be able to view the fountain at all hours of the day and night.

The Prothonotary Warbler (Prothonotaria citrea) is one of only two warbler species in North America that nests in cavities.  The other is Lucy’s Warbler of the Southwest, and it is not known to live in artificial habitats.  The Prothonotary Warbler is a user of birdhouses, and a pair will even use one to raise more than one brood in a year.  Different pairs will also use the same house to raise their broods in a given season.

This bright yellow beauty with blue-gray wings and tail is about 5-1/2″ long.  Its song is a ringing “sweet-weet-weet-weet-weet”.  It lives in wooded swamplands, flooded bottomland forests, and along streams with dead trees near them.  Sometimes they live in trees actually in the water. The borders of creeks and rivers seem to be their favorite nesting places, but nesting over still water is not uncommon.  Their nests are close to the ground.

The Prothonotary Warbler’s range covers most of the southeastern states, north to Minnesota, Michigan and New York.  It appears occasionally in New England in the spring and during migration periods may appear anyplace coast to coast.