Signs of Spring

With flowers blooming, trees pollinating, temperatures warming, and longer days, we know that spring is more or less here.  This week I've had a couple of other signs of spring, too.  On Friday I put up the hummingbird feeders and on Monday I had my first "customer".

A friend gave me a new bird house last week and I put it out almost immediately.  It's an unusual-looking thing, and I was wondering if it would have takers.  This morning I looked at it and saw a chickadee (Carolina) poking his or her head out the opening, and I've seen that kind of behavior once or twice more today so far.  No pictures of the bird there, but here's the feeder.

Today's other spring sign is the return of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.  I'm reasonably sure it's the same pair as last year, because when I spoke to them softly and gently approached, seed can in hand, to enrich the seed supply they were scarfing up under the feeders, they didn't flee.  They just backed off a little and gave me room,  mumbling their little mallard mumbles.  If it is the same pair, they will probably appear off and on for a couple of weeks, glaring at the back door if there isn't enough seed available, and then disappear for another year.

Springtime in Crownsville!

And Down She Comes!

Back in February I wrote about a house across the street beside my house.  It had been damaged in 2003 by Hurricane Isabel and had been under tarps since then.  That's a LONG time to go without repair, and as time went on the condition of the house deteriorated with storms and snows and heavy rains doing a number on the tarps.  By February of this year, this is what I could see from my deck or my yard:

Then came some heavy rains and winds, and it got worse.

In early March I was told the house was to be demolished the following week, but it didn't happen.  FINALLY, this weekend they began to move in equipment to take care of it.  When I left for church at 10:30 this morning, the house still looked like the picture above.  When I got home at 12:30, this is what I saw:

It just got better and better:

 Note the cheering neighbor in the bottom left corner.
By 1:30, this pile of rubble was all that was left.  Amazing!