Hayden Garden August 2023
Category Archives: Home & Garden
Growing morning dove chicks in front porch Welcome sign
For those who have been following, the morning dove chicks in the welcome sign on our front porch are growing beautifully. Below you can see two chicks with one of their parents. The other parent is usually fluttering nearby on our roof, which hangs pretty close to the nest. They trust the chicks enough to stay safe when they both leave the nest now. We put out some birdseed nearby.
Seeing them healthy and thriving when we returned from vacation was inspiring, especially after we had observed another kind of chick that was extremely young and which had fallen from its nest outside of our hotel room.
In a previous posting of the doves at our home, I only saw one chick that had very scrawny feathers, so it’s good to see them this mature and well-fed.
This family home is hanging up with one nail! When they leave for the year, I’m going to make sure it’s reinforced. I’m told they will probably come back to nest there annually, which is thrilling.
And for the skeptics who think these aren’t real, here is some updated video:
And a few days later, they were gone!
Some creatures take the Welcome sign literally
So I’m hanging a piece of recycled art on our front patio, and I turn around and look at this welcome sign that has hung there for a few years, which was a gift from our former roommate in Hayward. I called Shando because I did not know where he got the bird figurine which was sitting there staring at me in the welcome sign. Well, there’s a good reason for that….BECAUSE IT’S NOT A figurine. It’s a real dove nesting on her eggs! I’ve seen these doves flit around our front patio in the past few weeks, but always thought they were building a nest on the roof at a “safe” distance from our front door slamming. Now I see they have been inches away from us. Even the hammering I just did today had not caused her to flinch. I love that they feel safe there and hope they come back every year now.
Front Porch Dove Chick has Arrived
Some may remember the story of how I found the morning dove on our front porch. Well, now the couple’s chick has arrived! I only see one so far. If you look carefully at this video below, you’ll see its heart beating and it moves its wing just a tad. Mother actually blinks too, which is rare.
Front Yard July 2023
Indoor Home July 2023
Morning Glories vs. Bamboo Thickett
So mixed reviews on Morning Glories in our bamboo thicket from those on my various social media gardening groups. Hopefully I won’t regret what I just did, which was to “transplant” this one over the arbor at the top of the outdoor staircase. You may be able to perceive here that I planted the roots in the hanging pot. I guess I will monitor it to see how far it grows.
In the Bamboo Thicket
My own backyard garden continues to amaze me. Within the bamboo “forest” near the upstairs lookout, I found this purple flower on a non-bamboo plant. Further into the thicket, I came across this old tree stump I almost forgot about in the three years since I moved in, but now I see it’s covered with mycelia.
But is it Art, Sweetie
Someone else’s trash in Benicia now adorns the front porch. I love it, and it matches the color of the house trim!
Egg Chair in Lookout
Some who visit our home venture up the low-rise (love it) backyard stairs to our “lookout” behind the bamboo. From there one can see the East Bay and Crockett’s C&H Sugar Factory from our backyard. It’s the closest thing we have to a water view. We recently installed an arbor at the top of the stairs and have been brainstorming how to set up the lookout for a zen area of sorts. We began the journey by making it a real relaxation point today with phase one. This phase was adding an egg/gravity chair that leans back and is like a hammock. It’s suspended and so comfortable without the large footprint of a full hammock. For years we did have a hammock in another part of the yard. We donated it recently after deciding it was not used enough to be worthy of its footprint in most of our spaces, opting for another set of lounge seating. Besides that, the full-size hammock was too unwieldy for us (and our senior dogs) to use very often due to how challenging it was to get in and out of it. Moreover, we had to worry about mold developing on the material when it rained too much. Some years that was not a problem at all. Dismantling it and putting it away during the wet season was a pain and we like to think of our backyard as everything being year-round friendly, despite the rain and wind.
Below are pictures of the arbor and the new egg chair being modeled by Polar and Peaches.
