Leaving Home

Today is the day! While I was washing up breakfast dishes this morning, just before leaving for church, chickadee baby #1, poked its head out of the birdhouse, looked around for about 5 mins. and then just took off. Baby #2, tentatively looked out of the hole, but decided he/she wasn't quite ready to check out the world.

When we got home from church, baby #2, with some encouragement from attentive parents waiting nearby, finally decided to take the plunge. He/she made it out of the birdhouse, flapped about a bit, trying to figure out where to land and safely made it to the roof of the outbuilding. Whew!

Baby #3 (not sure if there are more than 3!) has looked out of the hole, but has decided to sleep in for a bit longer!

It's been such a treat to watch these hard-working parents attend to their offspring. I've discovered several things by watching them:

1. They work in tandem, one primarily brings little green worms, the other brings moths and such. Sometimes one parent will spend some time in the nest and the other parent will feed it as well as the babies.

2. They apparently know how many babies should be in/not in the nest. After the first two left, I wondered if they would come back to check on the third one. They have and are still feeding it and encouraging it to "get a job"!

I'm curious to see if they come back to the nest at all after all the babies have left.

Father's Day

HOW DEEP THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US

How deep the Father's love for us

How vast beyond all measure

That He would give His only Son

To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss

The Father turns His face away

As wounds which mar the chosen One

Bring many sons to glory

Behold the Man upon a cross

My guilt upon His shoulders

Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice

Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held him there

Until it was accomplished

His dying breath has brought me life

I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything

No gifts, no powers, no wisdom

But I will boast in Jesus Christ

His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?

I cannot give an answer

But this I know with all my heart

His wounds have paid my ransom.

By Stuart Townsend

1995

House Warming

I've been watching and waiting for a few weeks to see if the chickadees that were deliberating about housing choices had actually made a decision between these two choices : http://ridgelyhoyt.blogspot.com/2009/05/buyers-market.html

Sure enough they have made their choice :
So much for the "official" chickadee birdhouse purchased from the wildlife store! For the past few weeks the Mom has been nest-sitting, spending most of her days in this little box, while the Dad spent his days finding bugs and other such delicacies to bring to her. But the babies have hatched and now they are both very busy bringing food to their wee ones. I can hear them peeping so there are at least 2 of them if not more. I am hoping they will make it to flying stage and that the cat next door won't make a meal out of them. In the meantime, I greatly enjoy watching them. It's taken me two years to catch this photo. They are so fast they are in and out of that house before I can push the shutter button, so this pic is a miracle!

In Memorium

Isabel Williamson Hoyt

June 14, 1918 - July 7, 1993

I still miss you, Mom

Budget Fallout

Another victim of our local school district budget cuts was our library advocate at the district level. Ann Reed was Director of Library and Media, but her job has been eliminated altogether. We no longer have an active voice in the "instructional" side of technology use. It would seem logical that schools + technology (should ) = instruction. Sadly, 'tis not always the case. The future of school libraries is uncertain, many districts across the nation have eliminated librarians altogether. We only hope that this recent move is not a step in that direction.

We had a grand send off for Ann on Monday evening featuring an international potluck and a good time for all. I believe it was the only time all of the school librarians and the assistant librarians have all been together in one place! John, my partner in crime, is in the front row, left side...gray hair...it's from having to work with me! :)

More Baby Pics

Here are some sweet shots of McCartney Liu! Those eyes make me melt!

Circles Unbroken

The Hoyt clan was increased by one in December when McCartney Liu Seversen was born to my neice, Eliza, and her husband, Sean. The Seversens live in St. Paul, MN, where my other neice, Meg and her family live. My brother and sister-in-law (Rob and Marilyn) are recently retired and now split their time between the grandkids in MN and the grandkids in Seattle. Rob, Marilyn, Eliza and McCartney flew into Seattle last Friday and we were able to catch Eliza and McCartney during their brief stay before they returned to MN. How cute is this baby?You can't fully appreciate her huge black eyes or her rosebud mouth in this pic, but there will be more!

Great nephew Finn was heartbroken when Wally had to leave. He and Finn made a real "connection" in the brief 4 hrs. we were there! Kindred spirits me thinks!

We are having atypical weather for the end of May/beginning of June. We are usually wet this time of year, but for the past 2 weeks we've had sun and more sun and now heat! The flowers are loving it and so are we. Sunday Wally and I hiked up Chuckanut Ridge to catch the view. It's a 1,oo0' climb mostly straight up! But here's the reward, panoramic views of the Skagit Valley, the San Juan Islands and the Olympics. We could even see Mt. Ranier, but it was a bit hazy so it wouldn't show up in the pic.

We thought it would be fun to go from one extreme to the other, so we hiked back down the ridge and on down to Larrabee State Park to sit by the sea and soak up the sun!

Summer....you gotta love it!