Spring has sprung...

Spring has sprung,

The grass is riz,

I wonders where the birdies is?

That poetic gem came to mind as I was looking at these pictures. The animal life is definitely getting down to business around our neighbourhood in the last few weeks.

The fishing creel on the front door had a few tiny branches sticking out of the lid a while back so I pulled them out of the top of the basket.

I had to take the basket down to get them out and found this inside. At first it looked like a bunch of debris that someone had picked up off of the ground and put in the basket as a joke. I realized that the depression on the right was a bird's nest.

Trish, my wife, moved the basket off the door and onto the wall 10 feet away. Undaunted the bird kept on with building his home. We soon realized that the basket and nest would get very wet when it rained, so I put a nail in the wall under the upstairs overhang so that it would stay dry and moved the basket yet again. We weren't certain if the bird family was around or not but I saw him/her today. All is well in bird-land.

Last week a raccoon wandered across our yard and onto the neighbour's fence.

It wandered along the fence directly opposite one of the living-room windows. Raccoons are so cute.

I love Spring and this bird's nest shoe is my tribute to all of those busy birds. Go to my Etsy shop to purchase my "Spring Time Bird's Nest Shoe".

The Urn Arrangement

This is the arrangement in the cast iron urn that I mentioned in my last post. I will take you through the steps that went into creating it.

The first photo shows wire screen placed on the opening of the urn with the salal branches in place.

Don’t forget to strip all of your branches of the excess leaves on either side. Inside the urn is a plastic bucket that stays there the year round. In the summer we place a pot of annuals in the urn. It catches any excess dripping water. The bucket also gives a shallower bottom to the urn, so that the branches for the dry autumn arrangement don’t have to be as long.

The next photo shows the cedar in place. All of the branches so far are laid around the outside of the urn to create a base for the arrangement. Some of the branches are sticking up a little but with addition of more branches will make them lay flat.

Two small scrubby fir trees are added side by side to give the effect of one full looking tree. Pine boughs are added next.

I continued the triangular shape by placing the boughs on either side of the fir tree and a few pine boughs in the front of the urn. I want the central area in front of the fir tree to be flatter for a small display to be placed in this area.

Rose hips, hawthorn berries, and holly add colour and interest.

Two bird nests are tucked in the boughs, one in the top of the fir tree and one at the base of the tree. Added to the birds nests are two paper party hats, bird size of course, and a "tin can" telephone made from two thimbles and a length of thin string. Three strands of 50 mini lights are tucked in amongst the foliage. Three large pine cones and ribbon are wired in among the boughs.

It takes a while make a large arrangement but is definitely worth it. I started the arrangement with a concept not a finished idea and then proceeded from there. I hope this inspires you to try some freeform designing of your own.

Have fun getting ready for Christmas. Don't burn out, take time for others and above all have fun.