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Julia closed on her house last week, a one story farmhouse painted a soft yellow.  Her new garden has raised beds planted with salad greens, and there is a small pond and a chicken coup behind the house.

Julia moved over the weekend and her house is sparsely furnished. She telephoned me and seemed very happy.

Lisa has owned her own home for several years. She and her husband are saving for a homestead on 40 acres without the mule, where he can practice survivalist tactics in anticipation of Armageddon.

Charley and I have lived in the same house for a quarter century. We would not consider buying a new house.  But this spring, birds are making new homes throughout our gardens. 

In early April, the first birds to fledge were baby cardinals who nested in the George Tabor azalea behind the house.  Thin red birds flapped their wings furiously on the first day, but by the second, were already gliding from tree to tree, barely clearing the fence. 

A Carolina wren made her nest in a small white basket from Lyon Farms pick-your-own strawberries. The door to the old armoir on the patio was left open one cold and wet day and the small brown bird discovered the warm and dry place near an abundant supply of dry leaves, twigs and moss. The first clutch of baby birds fledged two weeks ago, and three speckled eggs appeared in the nest again this week.

I  wonder what happened to the thick green moss that grew on my fountain head?  All that is left is sticky mud.

I bought this blue gourd birdhouse at the family reunion last summer at an Indiana State Park.  I haven't seen a bird, but there are soft leaves inside.

I hung my new wren house in my "birdie neighborhood" in the backyard.  No wrens yet, but a bluebird is nesting in the tall blue and red birdhouse in the background. 

I found these two birdhouses on the curb years ago.  This spring I tucked them in the trunk of a crape myrtle in the birdie neighborhood and a titmouse moved right in.

Julia and Morgan gave me this artistic birdhouse for Christmas.

My Audubon birdfeeder attracted a flock of bullying crows to my garden, so I turned it into a birdhouse. 

There are 3 small eggs in a nest tucked inside the native honeysuckle vine.

And a mother bird sits on her nest in the native Jackson vine also.  A mockingbird is in the possumhaw virburnum.

Good luck little birds!