Birds, blooms, a bowling ball and Larry

Put up a bird feeder in the backyard and had lots of guests at Cafe' du Stephan all day long.  Kaleb's new favorite thing to do is look out the window at all the birds.  We had lots of House Finches, House Sparrows, a Mourning Dove, an Inca Dove and a Ring-necked Dove. At times there were a dozen birds vying for the six feeding stations, so I went out and bought a 2-pack of feeders at Big Lots for $6 and 9 lbs of seed for $5, as they went through about 3/4 lb today; I'll put them up in the morning.

Toured the yard and took pictures of the some of the blooms, here are the Dollar Store roses, still going strong; the Red Salvia that I planted last year and trimmed back a couple of months ago, coming back very well and the mystery rose that definitely is not Climbing Don Juan, but is very pretty anyways.

I've been planning to turn a bowling ball into a penny covered gazing ball and bought some Krylon Fusion Hammered Copper spray paint to paint the bowling ball, since the pennies would leave gaps where the bowling ball would be exposed, but after three coats of Krylon, I decided it looks great as is.  I placed it in the middle of the bulb bed on a candle holder I found at a yard sale; total cost of the project was just under $10.

Lastly, here's Larry, all ready to take in the remaining Cactus League Spring Training games for 2012.