Bluebird Sympathy Card

Rachel asked me to make her a sympathy card for someone she works with and I thought this would be apropo. I'll bring you up-to-date about our bluebirds. They had their third nest all set and then the wrens showed up. It was a battle last weekend - us removing sticks from the nest, the wrens bringing more. The bluebirds were there watching. I could hear them in the trees. I'm assuming they were unsure what was going on, but once they saw the twigs, they stopped coming to the box. Eventually, I had to remove the bluebird nest because the wrens had made such a mess of it. And I kept removing the sticks. I thought that they would give up. But, no, the hen was ready to lay, so with only 2 or three sticks in the box she did. They have built their nest up around the eggs (3 now).

As they are a protected species, I didn't think it was right to destroy the eggs. But, that doesn't mean that I have to make it peaceful for them. So, whether you see them or not, I will be taking pictures, and generally keeping them in a tizzy.

Then on Friday, as I was leaving the garden after taking the picture of the wren's eggs I heard a lot of peeping in the spirea bush and saw a pair of cardinals and a nest. So I moseyed over there and got a picture of the new cardinal babies. The second pic was taken today (Sunday).

I've never seen a cardinal nest or babies before and since they are in an open nest I don't know how long I'll be able to take pictures because I don't want any of them jumping out unless they're ready to, but I'll try to keep you up-to-date.

Here's the recipe for the card:

Stamps: Avian Toile, Warmest Regards (Both Retired)
Paper: Confetti White, Regal Rose, Old Olive
Ink: Basic Gray Ink, Ballet Blue, Brilliant Blue, Really Rust, Certainly Celery, Old Olive, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Summer Sunshine, Pumpkin Pie, Bravo Burgundy
Accessories: Corner Punch, Aqua Painter, Crop-a-dile, Pink Taffeta, Sponge Dauber

I had seen the Avian Toile background stamp in the Splitcoast Gallery and really wanted it but it's been retired for some time. I got lucky and found someone selling it on Craig's List a few months ago for a reasonable fee. It was pretty stained but I was able to clean it up and have been waiting to use it. You haven't seen the last of it.