Mother's Day 05/24/08

Let's talk about Mother's day and the beauty of SPRING! One rainy day I looked out my kitchen window to see a robin flying to and fro with muddy grass in her beak. I couldn't tell where she was taking the grass until I  stepped outside. In one day she had built a beautiful nest in the hanging planter on my back porch.

I stepped up to check it that evening and it was empty but by the next morning it had one little blue egg  and by the next day, there were three!
We watched that nest for a few weeks with no change. But there soon appeared one little newborn, helpless and practically naked. His birthday was April 29th, 2008. He grew and grew until he filled that nest. Then, last Sunday, on Mother's day, we watched as he jumped out of the nest, through the chain link fence, and out to the grass of the big wide world beyond!
He hopped around the yard looking a little frantic as we all wondered where Mama-bird was. After about a minute, here she came, close behind, to reassure him. We saw him the next day balancing precariously on the frame of our hammock as it blew in the gentle breeze.

The other two eggs never did hatch.

Baby Robin was a bittersweet reminder of how short our time is with our little ones. Soon my own kids will jump from the nest and spread their wings to fly away and build their own nests. Think they will notice if I hop alongside them for a while?

Roofer 05/01/08

Brian the roofer may be a crook. I paid him a month and a half ago to tear-off and replace the shingles and rebuild the porch roof. He has done nothing but lay two sheets of particle board on the roof, OVER the existing shingles. Everytime I call him he has a new excuse: "It's too wet, I broke my ankle, We're finishing another house, You're next in line." But he always ends with, "There's no reason why we can't get out there by the end of the week, next week, Friday, Monday....." he's promised every day you can imagine.

In order for it to look like he is "accomplishing" something, he has dumped scrap lumber and shingles (red, I ordered green) under the porch. There are also a dozen sheets of plywood that I had to move because they were laid up against the front door.

In the mean time, the porch ceiling has fallen and it is hazardous to even get to the front door. I am making myself sick over this and loosing sleep most nights. When I wrote him the check for supplies in March I knew something was weird but I didn't listen to my intuition. I am praying for guidance on how to deal with this because we don't really want to go to court. We just want the work done.

On a better note: We have been able to get inside and do some painting. All rooms but the bedroom, are primed. So the crazy jewel-toned rooms are now toned down to white primer. The red living room and purple/mustard kitchen will need another coat.

We were also able to take another load of trash from out of the house. This is the third (and smallest) load that we've removed. Each other load was at least a dozen lawn bags of stuff. The previous owners just left everything behind.

But we've got daffodils and a beautiful redbud tree blooming on the property!