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...

  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...