spring

Quick duckling progress story!!! First ducklings of the Spring!

May 25, 2013 By // by Penelope Bianchi 24 Comments

This picture is right after they hatched!!

April 13,2013

And this is today!!

May 25,2013

All 11 ducklings have survived; in 10 more days they will be able to fly!!

They are a little hard to distinguish from their Mommy!

(she is in the back watching!)

HAVE A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

AND PLEASE ENJOY WILDLIFE AND THE OUTDOORS!

ALL THESE DUCKLINGS HAVE SURVIVED…….WHEN I WALK OUT THERE……HEY SWIM TOWARD ME. I don’t ever “touch” them;

(it is very tempting) However, I do not want them ever to be vulnerable to people who do not want to “help them”; and who want “eat them”!

Lots of ducks do fly to our pond……..(they do fly to where they “hatch”!Last January……..65!

They are welcome!! I live in heaven……and I haven’t even died yet!!!

thank you for following me! I am astonished!!!

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French Lavender Oil

May 12, 2013 By // by Penelope Bianchi 21 Comments

When we were building our house; we went on several trips to Provence.

We stayed on one trip at a wonderful hotel in Aix-en-Provence called La Villa Gallici.

http://www.villagallici.com/en/hotel

It smelled absolutely divine; so I looked everywhere for a housekeeper who spoke English!

I found one and asked her what on earth smelled so good!

She explained that they used drops of pure lavender oil on the carpets and rugs throughout the hotel!!!

It is a natural insect repellent; it is a anti-anxiety treatment, and I have been using it at least 4 times a week ever since!

This is a big bottle; but to use it on our rugs, it is convenient to have it in small bottles that release just drops at a time.This

bottle is to refill the small ones!

I don’t know how to make it! I do make sachets out of our lavender!

Surprise!

And our little hen hatched 5 baby chicks just in time for Mother’s Day!!!

I transported her chicks to the “maternity ward” coop in this basket! She is taking great care of them!

Happy Mother’s Day!

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Spring Is Here!

April 18, 2013 By // by Penelope Bianchi 25 Comments

Today really feels like spring! 11 baby ducklings!

Just in time for the Piedmont Garden Club!!

The proud Mommy! It’s the most we have ever had!

The duck house in the rear (from LWB Creations in Georgia) is where she sleeps to keep the ducklings safe!

She laid her eggs and hatched them in the one in the front!

The ivy is growing new leaves!

I was asked by the Piedmont, California Garden Club to show them our garden and house.

I was so pleased and flattered; I asked them to have a picnic lunch in the garden at the long table!

They are coming on Tuesday!

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Spring is Springing in Santa Barbara!

April 15, 2012 By // by Penelope Bianchi 28 Comments

I posted the very beginning of Spring a while ago. Some people say we have no “seasons” in Southern California!”

Yes we do!! Spring is in full swing!!

DO WE HAVE SPRING???

YES!!!!!

We have a handsome new deer trophy! (wrought iron) in a proud position!

The house is fully cloaked with ivy! (People ask me why I bothered to pick a color of the plaster!)

You can see the plaster in the winter; all the leaves turn colors and fall off!

I found a wonderful “dovecote” from the estate of the wonderful artist, Jack Baker! I’m hoping doves will make nests!

The arbors are covered with different roses!

This giant azalea is as old as I am! There are pictures of me as a child next to it! It is in a big pot!

These roses all came from the wonderful place “Rose Story Farm” in Carpinteria! They only have old roses; and roses that have fragrance!!

(I learned there that you have to leave your nose smelling for a full ten seconds to get the fragrance!)

This is the stupendous (I think!) view from the window by my husband’s desk in his office!!

“The maternity ward” has a hen with five chicks!

They are so fast!

Can you see the wisteria in the tree?

Our grandchildren’s clay art works are displayed on this table! It’s their “Art Gallery”!

This is the “olive allee” with its focal point of an Anduze pot we bought in Provence!

and our lovely “faux bois” bench from my friend Janice who owns “Janus et Cie”!

Our proud “trophy “!

at night….I learned from Tara Dillard!! Pretty to see in the windows!!!

Another angle!

The roosters are so happy to have their tails back!

I love the damp and mossy stuff on the pots! and the other rooster! (I AM SO SO lucky to inherit pots !!)

Tara says to buy pots and garden accessories that people will “fight over, at your estate sale!”

A happy rooster!

We really do have Spring , Summer and fall in Santa Barbara!

The only thing we really don’t have is “Winter”! I must admit!

I almost forgot! Here are the “Spring slipcovers” They go on the first day of Spring!!!

A lovely little bird took a tuft of our cat’s fur (I put it on the bushes when I brush her) and flew off to put it in her nest!

I’ll do another post about the garden when it’s Summer!

And we have a mallard sitting on at least 8 eggs in the floating duck house! I will show you right away when they hatch!!!

HAPPY SPRING!!!!

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Early Springtime in the garden 2012

March 30, 2012 By // by Penelope Bianchi 31 Comments

These pictures were taken two weeks ago, around the middle of March!

Many people think we don’t have seasons in Santa Barbara; but I am going to show you that we do!

You can see the wisteria; which not only looks beautiful, but smells sublime!

It creeps across the front of the garage, and around the side through the “sweet olive”!

This is pretty much its prime; no leaves yet!

The finial fell off the duck house; I am not replacing it until the end of the summer! The wood duck loves posing as the finial!

wood duck!

The juvenile black-crowned heron takes turns! And there is a mallard sitting on eggs in one of the nest boxes!

This heron won’t hurt the baby ducklings; but we chase the Great Blue Heron out of here when there are baby ducklings!

Our Boston ivy comes in red in the beginning; red leaves are not appealing to birds. The rooster is happy to have his tail feathers coming back!!

From the other side!

The real roosters didn’t lose their tail feathers!

This shows a glimpse of our mesquite front gate.

This shows the mesquite railing that goes across a small stream from the pond ! It is interwoven with willow; so it is a living railing! The willow loses its leaves in the winter.

Hardenbergia vine blooms in the winter (the purple one) and the white potato vine (a type of jasmine) blooms 12 months a year!

Chickens busy at bug finding and eating!

The crabapple fence just starting to leaf out in the herb garden!

These steps are petrified wood!

I love the rock edging on the herb garden; and the lavender planted in gravel.

This is our “Certified Backyard Habitat ” sign! My granddaughter was in the first grade when we went online; filled out the application, and sent it in with photographs.

It says “This property provides the four basic habitat elements needed for wildlife to thrive: food, water, cover, and places to raise young.

It has been certified by the National Wildlife Federation as an official Backyard Wildlife Habitat Site.”

We are very proud of that!!