What is a monkeybox?

When I was a little girl, we had a pet monkey named Amanda. My Dad worked in the produce business, so each night he brought home that days culls in a big box - spotty cucumbers, pithy apples, limp celery, moldy oranges and the like. We called it a monkeybox. It was really just trash, but my Mom would take each piece of fruit and trim it, pare it and cut it up to make a beautiful fruit platter for Amanda. Even though it was deemed trash by one, it still had life left in it and was good for the purpose we needed it. That's how I live my life - thrifting, yard saling, looking for another's trash to be my treasure.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Done Sprung

After the ice storm, everything looked so sad. Sad is the best word I can think of to describe what all the destruction looked like to me. Sad. Broken tree tops, broken limbs, broken everything. Since the ice storm, there have been hundreds of trucks hauling storm debris from yards and by the roads. Truck after truck, day after day, load after load. If I never see another stick in my life, that is okay by me.

I wondered if Spring would ever come and when it did, what would it look like - would things still bloom and green up? Or would they still look sad? My answers came to me late last week as things started greening up once again. It is so nice to not see the broken limbs in the trees and the piles of debris everywhere.
Our Dwarf Peach tree encrusted in ice in January.

The very same tree with green leaves and a Mama Robin hiding.
(I know she is a Mama, keep reading...)

The huge one hundred year old tree out front covered in ice with broken limbs at it's feet.

It still has broken limbs, but they are breaking out with gorgeous green leaves.
This tree drops these horrendously sticky pods everywhere that I usually hate.
This year, I don't mind them so much.

The crunchy icy grass in January.

Freshly mowed (Thank you Breadman) green grass with cool shadows.


Forsythia in ice.

And the Forsythia all green. It never got the beautiful yellow flowers this year - I think the ice had something to do with that. I did find this one lonely little Forsythia bloom today.


The blackberry brambles covered in ice.


Sunday we were walking around the yard, doing some Spring yard work, when I noticed this birds nest in the blackberries.


Today we went out to check on the nest and found a Mama Robin guarding the nest.

She let me get really close before she flew away. But, not too far away.

Blue Robin's eggs! From a Mama Robin! In our very own once was covered in ice but is now GREEN yard.


Do you know how badly I would like this nest and these beautiful blue eggs in my living room under a cloche? This picture will have to do though. Stay tuned...for baby bird photos. *Cross your fingers*

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:31 PM

    beautiful, shara!

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  2. When she is done you will at least be able to have the nest. I got the nest from our robin a few years back, but never did find any evidence of the egg shells. (Freeze the nest first though to kill any buggies.)

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  3. ahhhh spring! Love seeing the stark reality of winter and then knowing that spring has sprung! Good luck with the nest - we found an abandoned one in the Christmas tree that we cut down this year (now lives in my living room)

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  4. What beautiful pictures. I love the picture of the blue eggs- and especially love the picture of the green grass w/ the fun shadows.

    Isn't it so nice to have some green again? I love it!

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  5. Happy Spring to you Shara! Love the photos today...thanks for sharing. Love that robin's egg blue!! *elaine*

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  6. How wonderful that things are turning green! There is nothing prettier than Arkansas in the spring...

    I found a super-cool birds nest last summer..it was made out of horse hair from the horses next door...a real unusual find for us!

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  7. Just a note to say that it is illegal to take bird nests (even after they are no longer occupied). Just something I read over the weekend (it was in the Ask Marilyn column in the newspaper)

    "The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 prohibits the removal of all listed species or their parts (feathers, eggs, nests, etc.) from such property."

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  8. I guess I am ok as the nest was on the ground and the trees were long gone...beside, not sure what laws apply in the UK...

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