Two and Three Days Old

Forgive the blurry pictures from here on out...I have time to click about two pictures before I get attacked by Mom and Dad robin. The babies are getting fuzzy.

The Family of Robins

We have babies! Yesterday one of the robins hatched.

This morning the other one was sitting in the nest. Or being SAT ON in the nest! It looks like we've got a sibling slumber party.


I don't know what happened to the two other eggs. I have looked around the ground beneath the nest, but there is no evidence of dropped eggs or baby birds. Nature takes care of life and death somehow---it is a mystery.

Mom and Dad Robin were VERY protective this morning. I was almost attacked at my truck by one of them. I don't think they are very interested in the photos I am taking! They were not only very vocal toward me, but they both swooped down at me, long after I had left the vicinity of the nest!

More updates as more feathers appear.

Garden Gate

Here's a fun project a friend and I did together. I modified the original idea (to nail cans to a painted board to create a container garden) when I found this gate at a second hand store in town. At the same store was a case (2 dozen or so) Campbell's Soup cans--commemorative edition money banks. Ah-Ha! I got an idea...instead of nailing old cans to a [ainted board, I wired these cans (having opened the can) to the gate. I'm not really sure that there's enough room in each can for the individual flower I planted, but we'll see if they can survive! I wish it would have worked to have planted tomato plants in the tomato soup cans!

Rosalee the Robin

Please meet my new friend, Rosalee the Robin.


She and her husband, Robert, completed their nest in the kitchen window sill of my home. If I stand in front of my door, I could reach out and touch the nest, it is so close! I have been rather concerned that Rosalee would either attack me when I come and go from my house, or would abandon the nest on account of the distrubance of a human presence. Alas, I am thrilled to announce, Rosalee has staked her claim to the nest, watched me very carefully as I walk down my front stairs, and has resisted attacking me!

Here's a close up of Rosalee. She is a a beautiful bird.

And...she is the proud mother of FOUR, soon to be hatched, baby robins. I did a short search on robins and their eggs. If you are interested in some very user friendly information about this common, but very lovely, bird you can go to THIS SITE.

Basically, from that site I learned that robins typically lay only four eggs. An egg a day. I think Rosalee finished laying her eggs about last Wednesday (three days ago), perhaps. I learned that they incubate the eggs for about 12-14 days. I look forward to sharing the first pictures of her hatchlings in a little over a week from now.

Here's a glimpse of Rosalee's clutch.
Aren't they cute! Ok, well at least I think the color of the eggs is stunning. What an interesting color. Where else in nature can you find that shade of blue? Again, out of my curiosity for this amazing canvas God has painted called NATURE, I looked up some information about the color of a robin's egg. Coloration of eggs (and evidently there is a wide spectrum of colors in which bird eggs occur) is created from the hemoglobin in the blood of the bird. It creates the pigment as red blood cells rupture in the mother bird as she lays the egg. Birds who lay colored eggs often have predators that are color blind. The robin's eggs blend into the nest when the color blind predator peers in! Brilliant!

Evidently, from my research, many other people have had close encounters with robin nests. The advice I read from others who have lived in close proximity of a protective robin mother's nest indicated that the greatest risk of being dive-bombed really is only in the days right before the eggs hatch. One expert suggested making eye contact with the bird and carrying a balloon or broom above your head, as the bird will go for what it thinks is the top of your head. I don't think you'll catch me walking up and down my front steps with a balloon every day! I think I'll risk it! (of course my tune may change the first time I get attacked on my head!)

I have looked Rosalee directly in the eyes as I pass by her comfy residence into mine. I speak gently to her and go my own way. I'll keep you updated!

Legs Were Broken

Well, it was a successful school play. Here we have a random snapshot of the main character (a game show host) and his make-up artist. I really am not sure what moment this is, as we did not have any loud, sharp noises...perhaps a yawn? Actually, this student really was one of the better performers because he was willing to use very exaggerated experessions.

The kids had memorable experiences both nights, and the director (me!) did not get injured backstage like last year. These are the standards I try to meet! Thanks to everyone who came and supported these kids and our time and efforts.

In this picture you'll see the fine work done on the costuming...a tribute to what can get done when you give your student teacher a shirt, fake knife, paint, and duct tape! Please note...no middle school students were harmed in the production of this play!

The Herdman Kids Star in Another Play

So have you ever read THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVER? If you haven't...please do read it. Discover who the Herdman children are. You will get a chuckle. I'm not chuckling, myself, right now. But I will be in about five days. If I make it that far into the next week!

The past three months have been my yearly tango with middle school kids. We've been rehearsing for the all-school play. I'm the director. I have a cast of 45+ 7th and 8th graders who have been memorizing and forgetting lines, taking ordinary moments and making them funny, missing cues, tripping over scenery, breaking props, making hilarious facial expressions, and in general working hard and having fun.

I have to remind myself right about now (two days before show time) that this is a MIDDLE SCHOOL performance! I cannot take myself or them or this whole experience too seriously. Lending some perspective to my building stress, a friend encouraged me saying, "It's not like this is for a Tony Award or anything, right?" That is so right. When I find myself obsessing over how all my cast walks on stage and simply stays frozen in one spot (eventhough I have suggested perhaps 14,593 possible movements to add to the dialogue), or I get snippy about the feet I can see scurrying beneath the stage curtain, or when we sit in darkness between scene changes waiting for that one cast member to find the prop she forgot to place back on the prop table....(deep breath)...ahhhh. It's a middle school play. Middle school.

No real Tony Awards here, thank goodness. Then I'd have to be worried about what to wear on the red carpet! But I do think there will be some memorable moments. They won't play out all on the stage, and they really are not the scripted kind of scenes. It's for the following type of scenes that I do this each year:

When I stand at the stage door and give each of them a "high five" and they walk up the narrow backstage stairs to a pitch black backstage area...there's electricity in the air; the spotlight comes up and the student assistant director steps out with me and we make our welcome, blinded by the stage lights and faintly seeing familiar smiling faces in the audience...I leave the student out on the stage to complete the welcome...the cast backstage is still holding their collective breath; the utterance of the first line; the first laughter that errupts from the audience...every pubescent heartbeat quickens and then relaxes with a big smile; the first cast member who exists off of the stage and comes backstage, literally pulsing with excitement, whispering about how amazing it is to be on stage and how bright the lights are...all the others with sweaty palms lean in; in the crowd, proud parents and grandparents grow unaware of their gaping mouths and permanent smiles...they respond to their child on stage without any restraint; little sisters and brothers proped up, their knees upon the cold folding metal chairs speak outloud, "There's Josh, mommy!" and a giggle sweeps across the crowd...a controlled grin struggles to skip across Josh's face; after the show, friends will walk near and say, "great show"; mom's and dad's will take their actor/actress out for ice cream and siblings will want to stand in line next to the famous family member; before bed, the middle school kids will take a reflective pause in front of the mirror as they try to wash off the make up...and lying down in bed that night with the moonlight coming in through the bedroom window, I hope they pull the covers up to their chin, look out at the night sky, and think "I'm a star!"

Me? The exhausted director? You'll find me at home, asleep, lights off with the TV still on in the background, my limp arm hanging off the edge of the couch, half read newspaper in hand. If you look really closely, you might see the bluish-grey flashes from the television reflect off of a shiny gold statue on my mantel. It will be an award-winning night.