New life

My dad was going to cut down and burn a dead holly bush that had not survived transplantation. However, when he went to take it down, he found a nest full of baby birds so, of course, he left the bush standing for now. It's lovely to see new life.


Speaking of new life, my parents have 2 litters of puppies at their house: 4 yorkies and 3 yorkie-poos. This is one of the yorkies. They are at a fun stage right now. They've got their eyes opened and are really exploring their surroundings. Their personalities are starting to shine.


This is one exception to my love of new life. If you don't live in Middle Tennessee or somewhere else that has them, you may not know that this is a cicada. They are everywhere outside and are starting to get noisy. When I say "everywhere" I mean that I stepped outside into the breezeway and had my choice of a multitude of cicadas ready to have their close-ups taken. These things plague us every 13 years so last time they were here I was 18 years old and next time they will be here Zoe will be 18 years old. Somehow I don't really remember them from when I was 18. I think maybe because I was too busy working. However, I remember being terrorized by them when I was around Zoe's age when we lived in Missouri. I'm not sure if they were the same variety of cicada since I lived in a different area, but I was extremely afraid of bugs at that age so it was a nightmare living with them around. I hope my kids are not as afraid of them as I was.