Art, Birds and Flowers

     Hi everyone. Happy end of the week. Another week has flown by for me. Did yours fly by? 

    

     Today I have a bit of art and some photos. I'll be linking up to Friday Face Off over at Nicole's blog and also to Friday Lunch Break at Gillena's blog.

     Let me start with this journal page, my penultimate piece for Matilde's People challenge at Art Journal Journey. This challenge runs through this coming Monday, the last day of June. 

    It even has a face on it. 😏 This page is an insert in a journal I'm making. I used various paper pieces to make the background.  I also stamped the numbers, dots and the light bulb. I did some coloring, gessoed over the numbers to dull down the color a bit, and added some yellow glitter to the light bulb.  The woman is a TH image and the definition is a very old Cats Life Press stamped image.   I finished by adding the tape along 3 edges and cutting out the crow from some clear tape and adding it to my piece.

     You may remember the baby bluebirds that I shared some photos of earlier this month. Well Mom and Dad have had a second brood in the birdhouse, and those babies look like they're almost ready to fledge. I'm not sure how many are actually in the nest, but there's at least 2, since they are now sticking  their heads out the opening on occasion.

And sometimes they even look like they're about ready to fledge. It must be getting crowded inside the house.

    I wonder if this will be the last nest the parents have for the season or if they'll manage 1 more. I would love to get in and do a bit of cleaning in the garden where the birdhouse is located. I haven't  had any chance to get in there at all this season as nesting of these 2 broods has been going on since early May. It's a good thing this garden area is supposed to look on the wild side and not be formal. 😏

     I have lots of Spirea plants in my yard, most of them self seeded from two that I bought and planted a long time ago.  I like how they fill in where the woods meet my lawn, and I like them even better when they are in bloom with pretty ink flowers. All the bees, both my honey bees and the wild bees, seem to love those flowers too. Here's just a few views. 

      In the garden around the bluebird house, I also  planted a couple of goats-beard (Aruncus dioicus )
plants. At this time of year they have these long grass-like white blooms which are also attracting a lot of wild pollinators. I can't get close enough  to photograph them without disturbing the bluebirds right now, so I took this next photo while standing in my veggie garden.

     I think it makes an interesting photo even if you can't see the whole plant.

     And I'll finish this post with these flowers from a dogwood that I passed while walking one day before the heat arrived. It was just covered in flowers.

Have a super Friday and start to your weekend.