It sure is beginning to look like summer around here. The day lilies are blooming and my hydrangeas blooms have started to fill out. I was hoping they would be blue flowers but they are pink because the soil is more alkaline. When we were at the county exchange the other day we bought a bag of aluminum sulphate and that should do the trick. What ever color they are....they are beautiful! We still have a lot of pretty wild flowers on the land. Oh yeah...and the blackberries are all turning red! Won't be long now.
It took longer than usual for our little hummingbirds to show up this year but they finally have. We so enjoy sitting on the porch and having them come constantly to the little feeders that we put in the window boxes on the railing. We have been trying to count the different ones that come to the feeders and we are up to at least five. I can't wait for Genavive to see them when she comes up this summer. I'm sure she has never seen one in person. 
A couple of weeks back, we stopped at the corner " so called flea market"in Cado and bought three metal old timey chairs and a little metal porch swing. Today, Chuck made a pergola in the garden area, to hang the swing on. We bought a couple of wisterias and planted them on each side, so once they cover the whole thing, the swing will be in the shade. PLUS! come Spring, we will be sitting under beautiful lavender nice smelling flowers! Chuck also put up a post and hooked my square flower pot that I had planted a week or so ago, on the top of it. I am hoping that the side flowers will grow big and hang down to cover the wood that it is sitting on. I have spent the last two days, weeding the pumpkin patch but it's coming along great. Several of the plants are blooming. Sure hope that means there will be several pumpkins!
Chuck says it's "official"!......The first step to building the house was today. We were sitting here drinking coffee, in our PJ's around 8:30 this morning and we heard this huge truck coming up the drive way. It was the guy who was to take down all the trees. Chuck hurried and put the tape up where we wanted the trees down and he unloaded this big bob cat looking thing and started right in. He knocked down one tree and ran over it....it got eaten up by the " tree eater"and mulch was spit out. Tree after tree....gone. He worked all day until around 4:30. It is so weird having so much land cleared and so much sun light. Chuck and I just keep looking at it and laughing. We still have a few trees between the TT and the house site but we will be able to sit on the front porch and watch them build the house. ....which I think they will start this week or next. I'll let ya know. Exciting times, happening at Brambly Pines.!!!!!
I've been waiting to go to the Alabama Hot Air Balloon Festival for a couple of years now. We were never up here on the land, this time of year. It was worth the wait!!! They were suppose to have a race at 6:00 am Saturday morning but it was canceled because of the rain. The " Balloon glow" was going to be at 8:00 at night and there were suppose to be around 40 balloons but because of the weather, they did it earlier and there were only around 8 balloons that decided to try and beat the weather. I can't imagine what it would have looked like if there were 40 balloons. It was awesome with just the few that were there. It was so neat watching them blow the balloons up and seeing the wicker baskets up close. I just can't imagine what one of those things costs!!! Have you priced wicker lately?....even the plastic kind? Not only were the balloons something to see but there was a craft show, an old car and tractor show, rides and tons of food to buy. We had homemade ice cream again. It's a "big thing" up here. ...and I'm glad. It's sooooo good!!! They are going to try and hold the race at 6:00 am today but the weather is suppose to be the same as today. I'm glad we got to see the balloons up close. ...another "first"......wouldn't want to go up in one though....you know me and heights.
Remember when our huge, pretty stag horns, froze in the barn, this winter? Well, as I thought, they didn't die. They just lost all their leaves but they are growing back. By the end of summer, they should look like stag horns again. As I was watering them, the other day, a little wren flew out of one of them. When I looked....there was a nest and five little speckled eggs in it. Now, I have to be very careful when I water them so I don't water the baby birds. We now have wrens using our Alabama birdhouse, wrens that filled Mom's watering can up and using that for a nest and now the ones in the stag horn. We sure are going to have LOTS of wrens living on the land.
The new " roadside flowers" happen to be pretty day lilies. I tell ya, you can have fresh flowers in your house all the time, by just stopping and picking what is growing along the side of the roads. It's a good thing because the bunnies have eaten everything in my "cut flower garden". ...the little buggers!
I finished painting the door to the mansion this morning and Chuck put the hardware back on it. THEN.....we moved the girls in and they LOVED it!!! There is so much room for them in there. Priscilla likes the roost the best and Dixie likes sitting on the window sills. They all enjoyed taking a " saw dust bath" before taking their "chick naps". As Chuck painted the trim around the roof, I watched the girls play in their new home. They are the funniest birds I've ever seen. I am hoping in the next week, to get the rest of the outside painted and Chuck is going to work on their fenced in yard. That will be another funny day....when we let them actually go outside. We have a couple more months before Chuck has to build their nesting boxes. We shouldn't have eggs until at least August or September. 
Miss Annabelle Lee Peterson got out the door of the TT this evening when Chuck was going in. My most dreaded thing to happen here on the land. It's not easy keeping up with a cat on 22 acres so you can head her off from going down to the road. I had sight of her for about 30 minutes and then she went into deep brush. ...I couldn't see her any more. I walked down to the gardens, calling her but didn't hear her bell. On the way back up the garden path, by brick creek, I heard her bell and then her crying her head off. I kept calling her and she headed towards me until she got to brick creek. She went down into it and walked up it for a few feet. I kept calling her and she came right to me, crying the whole way. I think she was glad to be in my arms and us going back to the TT. Chuck said that she did make it down to the gardens when he was trying to catch her and she ate a bunch of grass down there. He went over to the BNOE to make the dogs bark, thinking that they might scare her home. She hates dogs!! After 45 minutes of panic.....she is safe and sound in the TT again. Now that she has been out, it's going to be even harder to keep her in. ....plus, now we have to deal with the fleas again. ....sigh!
