A Rite of Spring

It's Wednesday -- and time for Outdoor Wednesday, hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. Thank you, Susan, it's a fun event!

Before Spring, outdoors is limited on the prairie for winter is mostly brown. We sometimes have snow, we sometimes have ice, and we even sometimes have rain.

But we welcome Spring (as we welcome the coolness of fall after the heat of summer) with open arms. It's fun to see the world wake up and watch spring come.

And with the first few warm days, it's time to get all of the bird baths at Linderhof ready for our feathered friends. We do keep one operational during winter with a heater -- and the birds appreciate their spa even in the cold weather. We've noticed a greater number of birds since we opened our "spa".

But we like to have water available in different areas of the garden in the summer. And in spring, cleaning them, putting them back and filling takes an afternoon. We do it as soon as the weather seems warm enough. Even if we get a freeze (even a deep one) -- the frozen water once in the bowl will not harm it.
This is a favorite -- with two doves in the middle. It's concrete, stained so it looks a bit old. We've planted daffodils and tulips around it (and there are two roses beside it) and will plant Stella d'Oro day lilies in between the spring bulbs. It's on one size of our pergola and our doves (the turtle ones) seem to like it the best.
A smaller one that I can see from the kitchen window. It has a non working fountain in it and the little birds seem to prefer this one. There is lettuces in the pot below -- starting to show green.
The side garden, my secret garden has this birdbath (with the rabbit to keep it company) -- it was a gift and I like the smallness of it and it's perfect for this corner of my secret garden.
A sqaure birdbath that looks as if it has some age, but alas, it doesn't. I like the fact that it looks like it has been around forever. A bird feeder is to the left of the bird bath and often the birds will snack, fly down for a sip before they fly back up for another bite.

I like things with age -- or things that look like they have age and most of our baths do. They look like they've been in the garden at Linderhof for a long time -- even though the square one was a last year purchase.

The birds enjoy water -- both to drink and to bathe. We get a lot of joy out of watching the birds antics in their baths, as both the first and the last can be seen from our breakfast room while the shell birdbath can be seen from my desk which overlooks the secret garden.