We had some beautiful sunny days in Plymouth this past week and my courtyard came alive. Last Thursday my fence was lined with robins. They hung out on the fence, my outdoor fireplace and the roof of my neighbor's home just long enough for me to take some photos. I heard a ruckus at the end of the courtyard so I went around through the garage to investigate. The birds were disturbed by my presence but I saw the aftermath of their feast. The end of my courtyard is bordered by two hetzi columnar juniper trees which had been laden with dark blue juniper berries.They must have knocked...

  All of these photos were taken on August 31st, 2015. It is not the date that is important but the fact that the photos were taken on the same day which is quite remarkable to me.I have received so much joy from my garden this summer.I have had two broods of painted lady caterpillars and have had black swallowtail butterflies lay eggs in my courtyard as well. I had a Giant Swallowtail butterfly which I never had in my Lakeville garden and  are pretty rare in Massachusetts. We have had many beautiful sunny days and I will often think I might like to go to the beach or take a day trip to Cape...

We moved into our new home in July 2013 and our courtyard remained a sand pit til the late fall. Susannah Davis of Davis Land Design in Marion designed the courtyard and it was worth waiting for. We had definite ideas of what we wanted including a small pond, a fireplace, and butterfly and bird attracting plants and shrubs. Susannah and her team were able to achieve them all. We took one of our bird houses from our Lakeville backyard and placed it in the courtyard. It was like one of those “build it and they will come” miracles. The chickadees appeared around May 10th and together, Dick...

With the beginning of spring and all the exciting life and growth in the garden, I felt inspired to blog again. My mind races ahead and I want to share our backyard adventures, but practicality sets in and most of them remain just a memory or a story or photo for another time. I wanted to be true to this blog as I originally envisioned it with a focus on nature and photography, centered on my favorite place to photograph-our own backyard. As my husband's illness has progressed, I have prioritized  spending time with and caring  for him and writing on a more personal level on his lotsahelpinghands...

It's been difficult to spend much time in the backyard as our lives have been overrun with radiation and chemo treatments, negotiating doctor's appointments, health insurance, pharmacies, closing a business, and the like. About 2 weeks ago, I decided that we needed to give ourselves at least a fifteen minute break in the garden each day. The very first day, we were rewarded with finding a new family of house wrens who had moved into our birdhouse! Please see my blog of March 10, 2012 in the Archives entitled,"Nesting House Wrens" for information on the nesting pattern of the wrens. If anyone can identify...

  We had the most beautiful day last Sunday and it will be imprinted in my mind forever. Here we are-empty nesters, and we spent the day "tending nests"! We had a pair of cardinals who were frequent visitors to our yard this spring and I caught this photo of the male cardinal last Saturday. When I enlarged it on the computer you could see the cardinal was carrying two green worms in his beak. So Sunday morning we set out on a hunt for the nest, and sure enough, within five minutes we found the cardinal nest with four babies, in the woods that border our house. Dick set up the tripod...

Hummingbirds usually return to Massachusetts in mid to late April. This year I put my hummingbird feeder out early since the weather has been so mild. I've been anxiously waiting for the first sighting. This weekend I slept in after being up late with holiday preparations. My four year old granddaughter attempted to wake me starting at 7 a.m. On a later attempt, she exclaimed,"Nana, I saw the hummingbird!" Despite her New York City upbringing, she has become quite adept at spotting butterflies and hummingbirds during visits to our backyard. I jumped out of bed to check out the feeder... The...

During that nice spell of warm weather we took the opportunity to open up our backyard pond for the season. We took off the mesh covering which catches the leaves over the winter.As you can see there's always a lot of work to do at the beginning of the season. We usually have some perennial visitors when we open the pond- snakes, frogs, masses of frogs eggs, but last year was a first. We opened the pond on March 20, 2011. It was the first day of spring and a lovely way to celebrate.The following day, when my husband came home at lunch time, he found two mallard ducks happily swimming around in our little...

We had the pleasure of watching a family of tufted titmouse birds who took up residence in a birdhouse in our backyard last summer. We only observed one baby who already looked quite big when it first  made an appearance at the entrance to the birdhouse. The birdhouse was about 12 feet high on the tree, with the opening facing south. By the time the fledgling was ready to leave the nest, it appeared larger than the adult bird. Because this baby needed to be fed so often (about every 20 minutes), I was able to set up my tripod and camera and wait for the right moment to catch the mother feeding...