Baby Cardinals Up Close in Their Nest

The kitchen is closed today as I take time out to talk about gardening and all of the fun things associated with it. When we lived in Vicksburg, Mississippi in an house we remodeled on Confederate Avenue in the old military park, azaleas and camellias grew as high as trees in our yard and we were never sure when to prune them.

To complicate things, every year Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal built a nest in the azaleas right outside our dining room window and the last thing we wanted to do was to disturb their nest.

I thought you might enjoy seeing their nest and the babies up close. We made a photo album of this for our granddaughter and named it “Miss Birdie and Her Babies.”  These photos were taken a long time ago from inside our dining room window, looking out on the azaleas, on film, so bear with me.

Even Mr. Cardinal takes his turn feeding.

Here in the mountains where we spend our summers now we don’t have to worry about pruning azaleas because Bambi and his friends drop by and perform the task for free. But if you would like to know how and when to prune azaleas, my friend Larry at Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings has a very informative Gardening Series each Thursday that no serious gardener should miss. The other day he discussed when to prune azaleas. Larry, (smile), where were you when I had those overgrown azaleas and needed you?

I am linking this to Sidewalk Shoes' Garden Tuesday. Be sure to stop by and see all of the other interesting things going on in gardens around the world.