Spring was in the Air -- Birds and Blooms (indoors)

I love nature and spending my meal times watching the birds eating is one of my favorite things. This week it's been colder than usual for this time of year.  The poor little fliers are cold, thirsty and hungry.

The Dark-eyed Juncos are still around. They love to be on the deck floor eating what the sparrows and finches drop on the floor.

I also get visits from a couple of Downy Woodpeckers. They visit the feeders when I put out the yummy suet.

The Cardinals love to come and eat the peanuts I put on the feeder.  I had three couples come visit right after a snowy day in February.  They are so beautiful and photograph so well.


The Blue Jays love to tell me when I'm out of peanuts.  They will squawk until I put some peanuts out.

The Robins came early this year.  Usually I don't see the flock of Robins until Spring is ready to arrive, but this year they came before our last snow fall.  I was convinced Spring was coming soon and then, WHAM! we get hit with a snow storm and then an arctic blow out. The Robins came with a non-welcomed group of Starlings.  They do look pretty when they have their "stars" on in the winter, but they scare away all the other birds except the Robins it seems.  Robins don't usually come to the feeders, but they do like the water in our heated birdbath.

Now the Blooms of this winter. I have a few orchids that I managed to not kill this year  I have two plants that have new shoots with flowers on them already.  I did kill the big orchid I got a few years ago from my son.  It never bloomed again and it finally died this year.   I love orchids inside.  They don't take up too much room and their blooms last a long time.

I also have a trusty and very old african violet and a christmas cactus that blooms for me all the time. It was full of blooms in November and December and it just started blooming this month again.

These birds and blooms make me feel a little happier during the long winters in Nebraska.  It seems we've had winter for 4 months already.  Although I love the snow days, the friged cold temperatures with winds between 15 and 40 miles per hour get old really fast.  It keeps people indoors and you think twice and sometimes three time,s before you decide to engage the bitter wind to go out shopping.  Just going from the car to the door can be wicked.

March is just a few days away and hopefully spring will come in just a few weeks.