does any one decorate with coffe cups,ive collected coffe cups from all the places ive visited in my life also cups with all the plants i have in my garden, living on a barrier island and being in a flood zone my house is on pillings and my cups are displayed on them also my theme gardens has a post 4 4 and cups are displayed on them . i have over ioo cups really nice ones and most of them come from donation centers where you purchase them for a very reasonable amt, just thought i would pass this on for garden junk folks

Paulette, I wish I could provide a home for many more birds. It's sad to see the scuffle that goes on when several birds want to move in the same house. They watch me when I go out on the porch with the dogs at night. But they are quiet and there is no singing going on yet. We'll probably find out that 'bird singing' is all about the mama bird yelling at her kids once they are born. LOL Sunny- That hardware is a brass piece that craftsmen who build decorative boxes use on the corners. I once had a homemade pot rack built of wood and had those same brass corners to decorate each corner piece. Lowes have shelf building ladder shaped pieces that you put two in a pantry and nail boards in between to create storage. Just one of those ladders make an excellent hanging pot rack. You can paint them and decorate them because they come in raw wood. When I converted to a metal pot rack, I reclaimed the brass trims that I had decorated with. The house on the left was built with some doll house pieces. I bought the house many years ago on Super clearance and I have been scraping it out for such projects ever since. The table they are sitting on is a mosaiced microwave plate with a glass totem type tower base that doesn't show. Now lets all hope that those English Sparrows dont come and evict my American birds. They are killers of the American Blue birds and other American bird house dwellers. Thanks for your kind comments.

Dorothy, I believe the calling or honking is between family members, like parents and children, and is how they keep up with each other's whereabouts as they fly. I saw purple finches at the finch feeder just yesterday and that's the first time this fall I saw any bird at the feeder. It is half empty, so clearly they've been visiting it, but not when I've been outside. Jeanie, With the hummingbirds, I only know the migration has begun because suddenly the hummingbird traffic at the feeders increases a lot. It happens as early as early August some years and not until late August in other years. The major increase in hummer traffic lasts maybe a month and then tapers off, although I still might have occasional slowpokes passing through even well into October. Also, I've noticed we see ruby-throats, rufous and black-chinned hummers during spring and fall migration, but generally only the rubies stay here. So, when I see rufous and black-chinned hummers either in spring or late summer, they are the migrants. I hate the black snakes because they kill our chickens and also eat eggs. We have a lot more trouble with the rat snakes killing chickens that with chicken snakes killing chickens. It is always somthing, I guess. Without cats to control the rodents, I expect we'd have a huge rodent and snake problem, so I greatly appreciate the cats efforts at rodent control. Some years we see the geese in fall headed south, but we always see them headed north in spring. I am not sure if I am not outside at the right times in the fall to see them, or what, because if I see them headed north (and I always do), that clearly means they had to have come south at some earlier time. A lot of waterfowl overwinter at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge, which is in Texas near Pottsboro near Lake Texoma, and so is a few miles east/southeast of my part of Love County. I've often wondered if the geese that I'm not seeing in the fall are taking a route slightly east of us and stopping to rest at the Hagerman Wildlife Refuge before heading further south. When we lived in Fort Worth, I saw the geese every year, and they always flew over my brother's place near Crowley too. Here, geese sightings are much more hit and miss in the fall but very consistent in the spring. Normally we have ducks move in to live on/near our big pond, but it was dry for so long that there aren't any here this year. We've always had a lot of turtles here because of the creeks and ponds, but the last three years, one large one (she's about the size of a dinner plate) has laid eggs right under the plum tree in our yard. The raccoons always dig up and eat the eggs laid near the ponds and creeks, so maybe by laying the eggs further from a body of water, her babies have a chance to hatch out. So, having the turtle digging in the yard (an activity that freaks out the cats) and laying eggs is now one of the signs of spring we watch for. Susan, It does sound like a Carolina Wren. I remember that Randy used to have wrens nest in his garage and/or greenhouse there in central OK. Tracy, How cool is it that you have the lovebirds? My son is a tropical bird lover and has two sets of lovebirds that are sitting on eggs in their little nests right now. The flycatchers are still here, so if you ever get to move back, you won't have to miss them any more. Jeanie, I think that Chuckwill's Widows are fairly unattractive as birds go, but not as ugly as the Vultures. Dawn

Thanks everybody. I love deep Hunter Green and it goes so well with the holidays too. Karen, I was pretty sure you would like the cardinals. Marlene, I really appreciate the compliment. Kath, I like plaids a lot, maybe its my Scotch heritage. Jeanne, I loved your pictures of the real birds. The stemware was so pretty, that I actually paid full price at the TS for it, LOL Punk, the flatware is not as bright red as it photographs. Jane, I have some of her Snowman dishes also. They will be showing up soon in a future tablescape. The plaid mats and runner have some gold metallic thread in them. Just enough shimmer for the holidays. Frou, I only have those 2 figurines of cardinals, but they just seemed to set the table off perfectly. Luvs, the pattern is called Winter Birds because the salad plates have 4 different scenes of winter birds/birdhouses. Nana, the transition was very easy as the tablecloth, flatware, chargers, and mats were already on there from my Christmas decor. DC, they didn't have the salad plates at the TS, so I'll have to keep looking! TTFN, Candy TTFN, Candy