ButtonWillowCottage

Hmmm...

So disconcerting to see some flowers completely blossomless due to our resident snail population.  Interestingly the average lifespan of a snail is FIFTEEN years.  Mrs. Rabbit tells me there are a few here at ButtonWillow that have lived even past that! And that they are filled with wisdom and respected for their tidy little homes (even if they never can accept visitors indoors for tea). 

We've yet to truly make an effort to get to know them... perhaps the effort should be put forth on our parts?  It seems to me that maybe we could come to some sort of a compromise... and at the very least, we shall learn exactly what sort of tea they choose to enjoy. 

We're guessing it somehow involves flower petals.

Filling Your Field Bag

Springtime seems, for many, to be a time when everyone wants to get out and experience the natural world, but here at ButtonWillow, autumn is the season that nudges our wanderlust.  While nature is well and truly hunkering in for the seasons to come, there is still plenty to see no matter what the weather.  The life of small dwellers is constantly transforming and it's always lovely to see what changes each season bring isn't it?  A lovely addition to these excursions is a field bag.  Each should choose one that works well for them.  The bags can be a simple one pocket sewing project, or many can be purchased that have a plethora of pockets and wells to fill.

While your interests may vary from ours here at ButtonWillow, there are always a few basics that should be within the contents of any well-packed field bag...

~ A Magnifying Glass
~ Binoculars
~ A thick pad of drawing paper or your own personal field journal
~ Good pencils, a sharpener and eraser
~ Assorted field guides (Wild flowers, Birds, Insects, Minerals)
~ Small specimen containers
~ A pocket knife

Then, depending upon your personal interests or needs one can add in a variety of other items...

~ A camera
~ A portable Watercolor set
~ Colored Pencils
~ Tape or Pins
~ Small Scissors or X-acto type knife (safely encased of course)
~ Regular or double-stick tape
~ Tweezers
~ A small digging utensil (a sturdy metal spoon is ideal)

Then don't forget to add in the comfort items...

~ A flask of water
~ Mints or chewing gum
~ Insect bite salve
~ A few Band-aids
~ Lip Balm
~ A whistle (for safety sake, this is an essential item in a child's field bag)

Having a field guide sitting 'at the ready' near your cottage door will surely beckon one outdoors more often and make your impromptu rambles that much more pleasurable.

Immigrants

One (of the many) advantages to not using pesticides in the ButtonWillow garden is that it's supremely fascinating each spring to find some odd new little visitor and think..."well hello there little one, where did you come from?"

Let's hope this welcoming attitude keeps them from eating more than their share.

Oh So Quiet... (For Now)

Here in the fork

The brown nest is seated;

Four little eggs

The mother keeps heated.

While we stand watching her

Staring like gabies,

Safe in each egg are the

Bird's little babies.

Soon the frail eggs they shall

Chip, and upspringing

Make all the April woods

Merry with singing.

~(excerpt "Nest Eggs") Robert Louis Stevenson

Cozy Feeders

Birds can lose up to ten percent of their body weight trying to stay warm on cold winter nights so it's lovely to provide them a little helping hand to keep from whittling away.  Feeders that are most useful in the winter have a wide cover over feeding ports, perches and dispensing trays so seed is not buried during snowfalls or storms.  Fly-through platform feeders are especially practical designs for winter bird feeding. Do make sure that the covers extend several inches over the edge of the feeder to ensure protection from all but the most blustery storms.

 

Heart Filled Hovel

Oh the unbridled envy
of welcoming spring
from such a romantic little home.
Enjoy little Small Dweller, enjoy.

Blue Sky is Where You Find It

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

Henry David Thoreau

Frisky Squirrel

It was a fine day--so pleasant that the children from the little red schoolhouse over the hill came to the woods where Frisky Squirrel lived. They came for the first picnic of the season, and such a noise as they made had never been heard in those woods before. Frisky Squirrel was frightened at first. But at last he grew accustomed to the uproar, and he crept out on the limb where he lived--not too far away from the door--and looked down and watched the fun. When the picnickers went away, Frisky lost no time. He slipped down the tree in a hurry. You see, he had seen the children eating their lunch and he hoped he would be able to find some tidbit which they had left behind them. Sure enough! there was a feast waiting for him. Most of all he liked a bit of something that was covered with a white coating, which looked a good deal like snow. But it did not taste like snow at all; it was as sweet as sweet could be! Rusty Red-squirrel found a piece of the same dainty, and he explained to Frisky that it was called "cake." "I ate some once at Farmer Green's house," he said. "Farmer Green's wife makes it." And Frisky decided on the spot that he would pay a visit to the farmhouse. Adapted from
The Tale of Frisky Squirrel
Arthur Scott Bailey
1915

Shhhhhh... Do You Hear It?

They're warming up...
I think the concert is about to start!

Just Add Water

Attracting birds to your cottage is as easy as adding water! However, there are some hints that are helpful in bringing our feathered friends in for a dip or drink. Most concrete birdbaths sold at garden centers and stores are too deep for birds. Plus, the sides can be a bit too slippery since birds tend to like to wade in for their baths. Placing some clean gravel at the bottom of your birdbath can help with this. Also, a clean small stone or a few branches arranged in the middle gives them something to stand on when they brave the deep end of the pool! Water should be at about 1/2 inch to an 1 inch on the edges sloping to about 2 inches in the middle.

Here They Come To Save The Day!

Perhaps you notice a congregation of ladybugs on a rose stalk. Don't invoke the old nursery saying and ask them to fly away home. Their house is not on fire. Your roses are, with aphids, which the ladybugs are feeding on - and you can bless yourself that they have come to your rescue.
~Eleanor Perenyi

 

A Butterfly Lights Beside Us

A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam...
and for a brief moment it's glory
and beauty belong to our world...
but then it flies on again, and although
we wish it could have stayed,
we are so thankful to have seen it at all.
~Author Unknown

Thank You Honey...bee

Nearly one third of  our food is pollinated by honeybees.

To thank the bees, plant a seed!  Beautiful bee-friendly plants include, bluebells, jasmine, violets, thyme, cosmos, coreopsis, sunflowers, lavender, rosemary, and yes, even dandelions, if you can think of them as flowers.  Because, after all, the bees do!

Fun places to visit:
Help The Honeybees (Häagen-Dazs)
PBS Nature: Enter the Hive
PBS Nature: Bee Anatomy
The Bumblebee Conservation Trust U.K.

Sweet Love

It takes 4,000 flower visits to make 1 tablespoon of honey.  To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers.  In a single collecting trip, a worker will visit between 50 and 100 flowers.

Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

Almonds are 100 percent reliant on honeybees for pollination.  Every February, half of the honey bee colonies in the U.S. are moved to the Central Valley in California to pollinate an impressive 80 percent of the world's almond crop.
~source: Häagen-Dazs

Equal Opportunity Employer

The pedigree of honey
does not concern the bee,
a clover, anytime, to him, is aristocracy.
~Emily Dickinson

The Great Love Affair

No flowers, no bees.
No bees, no flowers.
Blooming and buzzing.
Buzzing and blooming;
Married and still in Love.
~Mike Garofal

Worthy Accessory

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.
~Henry David Thoreau

Visitors

"The world has different owners at sunrise ... Even your own garden does not belong to you. Rabbits and blackbirds have the lawns; a tortoise-shell cat who never appears in daytime patrols the brick walls, and a golden-tailed pheasant glints his way through the iris spears."
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh