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The Missouri Botanical Garden fountain

Jim and I took a nice long walk at the Missouri Botanical Garden this morning, cameras in hand. This is my favorite time of year as the trees explode in shades of yellow, red and orange. Surprisingly the garden was not too crowded, even when we left for home around noon. Everyone must have been over at the zoo or something. Too bad for them, as we had the garden mostly to ourselves.

I love that the garden has their main fountain dyed red in support of the St. Louis Cardinals. The fountain definitely rivaled the trees in terms of bright red! We were entertained by a bird having a quick bath in one of the fountains. I imagined him laughing at the other birds as they took a drink from the same place he had been bathing!

Bird bath

Splish splash I was takin' a bath

Japanese Garden

Bird house

In July of 2010 we installed a pretty birdhouse in the back yard. We had an extra post left from the back porch when it was removed in preparation for the addition back in 2007. We held on to it since it was in such good shape, and decided it would make the perfect stand for a birdhouse. We ordered this particular house because we had admired the ones in Gramercy Park in New York City, and it was based on that design. The birds adopted it right away and it has been a full house ever since. Until now. The other day Jim was walking out to his car and noticed that the house was missing - as in totally gone! The weird thing is that the nests are still sitting on top of the post. So we think that in the storm the other night a branch must have landed on the house and knocked it off.

I didn't notice it was missing until he told me about it today. So I went out to investigate and found the pieces to the house all busted up in the shrubs below. It is really disappointing as it was expensive, and yet as I picked up the pieces I could tell they were made from thin wood. It seems even bird house builders use cheaper materials to save costs.

Bird nest

Bird house blown to smithereens

I can just hear the little birds saying, "Really? This had to happen just as it is getting cold here?" Looks like Jim and I will be out shopping for a new home. One that will be going to the birds.