Sublime Ramblings

…a slightly different, yet oh so much fresher, look!

I hated the ceiling fixture almost from the day I bought it, but it was very expensive so I had to bite the bullet and live with it. The curtains: What the hell was I thinking? I know that you can mix patterns as long as the scale of the print is about the same size. So why did I do it this way? I don’t know.

Old, dark icky look

Bright, fresh clean!

Another after view

So I got on line and ordered the curtains from Country Curtains. Then I got on line and ordered the vintage reproduction schoolhouse shades and sockets from Rejuvenation.

Talk about fabulous customer service from both places. First of all the ordering couldn’t have gone smoother because their websites are user-friendly and their phone numbers are highly visible. I got stuck a little on both (only because I couldn’t decide on some points and wasn’t sure about measuring) and got the answers from live people, no robots!

Okay, these things can happen. I noticed that after I hung the new curtains over the kicthen sink one was about 2 inches longer than the other. One phone call to Country Curtains and they said, “Keep the defective ones up until you receive a new pair. When you receive your new curtains send them back to us and we’ll credit the shipping to your card. Our people will hand-pick a pair and measure them to make sure they match perfectly before we send them out.”

After the ceiling shades were hung and illuminated one looked like it had dust in it. I took it down and swiped my hand in it to see how dirty is was. It wasn’t dust, it was overspray or something. I inspected the other one and found it to be smooth and glossy inside. The phone call to Rejuvenation: We’re sending you a UPS call tag to your email address. Box it up and send it back to us at our expense. But keep it up until your replacement comes. We’re shipping you a new one today and we will inspect it before we send it out.”

Can you beat this? I don’t think so. Hope you send them your future business for all your curtain and lighting needs. You won’t regret it!

Oh, and do I love the bright, fresh look? Heck yeah!!

The nest is empty and what a mess! Oh well, I’m used to this, it happens every spring in several areas of the house. He didn’t go far, he’s sitting on the front sidewalk and I hope he’ll be okay until he is able to fly. Fly, little birdie, fly!

Empty and Messy

Out on His Own

The nest started out with six eggs: Five house finch and one cowbird. The last bird, a house finch, will be leaving any minute. The cowbird left a day or two ago and I didn’t see it leave. The other four eggs, what happened to them? Well, one rolled out onto my chair (Mama Finch or cowbird ejected?) and I sat on it. I wouldn’t have done that if I would have seen it…. Thankfully, there was no embryo, just yolk, so I cleaned it up. I do not know what happened to the other three. They weren’t on the porch floor or on my chair. Does the mother carry them out into the yard? I don’t know. It’s been fun watching them this spring but will I be glad to get this poop mess cleaned up. It always stains the porch siding so I’ll be out there for some time scrubbing and disinfecting. I’ll probably throw the ivy away and get some new. It’s just too hard to clean and frankly I just don’t want to!

Last House Finch

Getting Ready to Leave

A special delivery came today. What could it be?

Special Delivery

The new bistro set is here! Our other chairs and table were about 10 years old. We were having trouble finding good replacement cushions, but the big problem was the chairs were at railing height. It doesn’t sound like a big problem but if you wanted to see something in the street or yard, you either had to stand up or scootch down and look through the balusters. And a huge problem: I couldn’t see the birds at the feeders!

So we decided on a balcony-height set. It will take some getting used to, because of all the drawbacks of the old set there was one plus: We felt kind of hidden on the front porch. Now we’re kind of “on display” at this height. Oh well, it’s pretty, clean-looking, and opens up the porch.

I also painted the porch floor a couple of weeks ago. It used to be (was supposed to be!) terra cotta but turned out to be a very pink salmon. I can’t believe that we lived with that color for years. Now it’s a soft sage.

It’s a lovely litle spot to watch the bird feeders again….

New Bistro Set

…due to the cherry-red mouth. It supposedly serves as better target for the mother bringing food to the brood. Also, it was the first to hatch. Both of these traits enables it to have a better chance of survival. There’s a good possiblilty that the baby house finches won’t make it, but what am I to do? I’ll leave it to God. (Forgive the blurry pictures, I was standing on my tiptoes and I had to make a quick shot as Mother was scolding me from the tree.)

Cowbird Hatchling in the House Finch Nest

Cherry Red Mouth of Cowbird Hatchling

I captured this pair of goldfinches today and they are in their breeding colors so we should be seeing babies in a few weeks! I love to see these little guys in the yard and not just because they are the state bird. They are colorful, boisterous and just liven up the landscape! They have been trying to fly into the picture window all morning but they are smarter than most birds; they know something’s there and don’t crash into the glass, they just flutter up to it, hover a little and then fly back to the tree. Sweet birds!!

Male Goldfinch

Female Goldfinch