New View of my New Path

On a few warm days in January, I started creating a path on a slope.  I found a huge rock at one point and came close to digging it out, but decided to put it off for another day--I think I was afraid I would screw up my back again and never finish the path.

I had a couple more days in February where I could work the ground.  If I recall, I finished it early March.

Here it is with an aerial shot.

(Well, I guess it isn't finished until I get that rock out, fill the hole, remove the garbage that I found, and, hopefully, seed it with something native--maybe path rush.)

Thank you, babe, for the aerial shot. :)

The other day, I added some elderberry cuttings along the slope--hopefully, they will root with no trouble and grow in in the next couple of years...along with some other native shrubs.  I have some silky dogwood still in pots that I can add...and I hope to buy some other species.

Thrilled!

I have had bluebirds nesting here since our first spring here.  After spotting them a month or so after moving in at the end of October, I put up nest boxes, and have had them here ever since.

In all of that time, I have never seen or photographed the babies fledgling from the nest.  Only once did I capture a shot of the father bluebird feeding three very young fledglings atop a utility pole!  Although, on occasion a baby or two has died over the tears...and, last year, the whole young brood was killed, I always assume, if they make it to the age when they are ready to become fledglings, they survived.  The nest will be empty with no signs of foul play...but I almost never have solid proof--seeing them fledge...or seeing them in the yard.

Today, I spotted some activity outside the bay window at the shrub dogwood there.  Their berries have been ripening for a week or so.  I thought it likely was the catbird, that I have heard in the yard, but, when, I grabbed the camera and zoomed in, I realized it was a bluebird--a juvenile bluebird at that!  :)

It is nice to know that he or she is likely one raised right here on our property.  :)