Seattle’s Pike Place Market takes on a new air after the vendors leave and darkness takes over the evening. Bright lights and shiny surfaces don’t show the commerce and hustle and bustle that crowds the market each day. Neon lights still point the way, but to gated off stairs and closed walkways. The wet floor no longer tells tales of spilled coffee and smashed fruit that accidentally hit the floor. It’s all waiting for another day.
We have quite a few nest boxes on our place and a Spring ritual is to go around with a ladder and various tools and clean them out. Some people like to do this in the Fall. We think birds might like to roost in the boxes during the winter so the old nesting material may provide them a little extra warmth during the cold season. Most of the feathers in the nests are ones from ducks and geese that we ate during the previous winter. When the swallows are flying and gathering material for their nests, we toss the feathers into the air and they swoop down to catch them and take them to the boxes!
Sadly, some birds don’t make it out of the nest.
Wasps in the boxes will discourage nesting.
This nesting bird found a Northern Flicker feather to add to its nest.
Swallow nest – Tree or Violet-green?
Some baling twine from the straw we used to mulch our garden.
Tiny House Wrens like to fill boxes with sticks before they build a tiny nest on top. They will also simply fill boxes with sticks to keep other birds from using them. If we see them doing this with several boxes, we try to clean the sticks out so that swallows and bluebirds can also use the boxes.
A House Wren nest.
Here is a House Wren nest on top of a bluebird nest. Both nests looked sucessful.
The bluebird nest.
Seems like I’ve had lots of images lately and these slipped my mind. If you recall, on March 19th, there was a Super full moon. According to NASA Science News “Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee). Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit. The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee–a near-perfect coincidence1 that happens only 18 years or so.”
So, one week later, here are the images I made on the evening of March 19th.
While waiting for the moon to come up, I noticed this towering cloud over Studhorse Hill and lower Bear Creek, north of here.
The moon glow over Balky Hill
Two days of spring-like temperatures, some sunshine and rain have led to a diminishing snowpack. It is a bit of a relief to walk on solid ground in some places. The garden, near the house and with a southwest aspect is rapidly warming and the dirt is showing signs of life. After being able to walk to the compost pile ALMOST without walking in snow, I decided to take my camera out for a walk to see what it can see.
Jerome, the garden gnome, slowly emerges from the snow, ringing his bell to welcome the change of seasons.
One of last year’s hops, drying in the snow.
Chives, ready to eat.
More chives.
Catmint, planted late last summer. I wonder if cougars are attracted to it?
One of last year’s leaves, in black and white and in color.
A johnny-jump-up alredy showing color. I knew I loved these invasive little annual/perennial delights for some reason.
And Lemon Thyme, already fragrant and green!
Although these chairs are made of plastic, their bright colors made me feel like Spring was closer. Even as the snow melt flowed off the metal roof!
My Everyday Photos 