Spring & "Our" Fledgeling (2012)

a fledgling  on our balcony chirps, "Hello! I'm hungry!" :) taken early this morning

23rd of February, 2015 EDIT: Revisiting this blog, I decided it to change the title from "As Spring Slowly Bids Farewell" to "Spring & 'Our' Fledgeling"


It's not yet officially Summer but the last weeks of Spring makes you think that it is!

Since my last blog, posted more than a month ago, a lot has happened,  and as usual it's a challenge "to come back", and squeeze all those stories of the past weeks in one blog.  Actually, it's a challenge to decide what to blog first!

The photo I took spontaneously this morning, of the fledgling in the bird house hanging against the wall of our balcony, thankfully made it easy for me today. :)

What an inspiration!

It's gentle eyes, and wide expectant beak was such an innocent yet powerful image - it seem to me as if it's greeting:

"Goodbye, dear Spring! Hello, Summer - watch out, we will be spreading our wings, soon!

Last year in January, I blogged about liefste P and the girls purchasing a bird house, and our attempt to :

prepare our little  balcony to be a corner oasis for us , and hopefully a refuge for nature's creatures in Winter, Spring, Summer & Fall - Family Spring project 2011

Well, this year, around mid-March we joyously discovered that a pair of blue tits actually took residence in our bird house, and were already very busy, and in the middle of creating a nest.

one of the parent blue tit as we discovered it taking interest in the bird house, a bit later after taking this photo we learned that they were already busy building their nest - 23rd of March, 2012

close up of the blue tit - 23.03.12

close up of the blue tit- - 01.04.12

For everyone in the family, this is a first ever experience: providing a place for birds to create their home, where they could nurture their young family.

a collage created 11th of April, was shared and blogged here

view from our kitchen window, the blue tit sitting on the fence, seen upper right of the picture - 11.04.12

P quiet happy to replenish the bird food :)

the birdhouse with the new bird food, shaped like a house- 11.04.12

blue tit on the tree right in front of our balcony, waiting if it's safe to go in the birdhouse - 11.04.12

blue tit about to take flight, and go in the birdhouse - 11.04.12

blue tit parent feeding fledgling, it's head barely sticking out of the hole - 27.05.12

fledgling cozy in the birdhouse, waiting for mom & dad to come back - 27.05.12

fledgling with beak wide open, one of it's tiny feet protuding- 27.05.12

We have been in the Netherlands, since the Spring of 2009, and I made a silent promise to myself, as we begun with establishing our residence here - or as one could say, in the spirit of our hard-working blue tit family, as we created our own "nest" in Holland - to make more effort to record the beauty of our surroundings, and the wonderful creatures we discover around us.

One of the many reasons I love 365 projects is, it gives you the extra push and motivation to capture images, you would normally not pay attention to because it's always there, it always reoccur - like  how the season slowly changes, and the small miracles within each season, like how birds lay eggs, how they hatch and the busy activity of feeding fledglings until they live their nest.

If you have been a long time reader/blog follower, it would be obvious by now, how I love the changing seasons; the magic nature (re)creates, each and every year. 

Two years ago, I was finally able to complete a collage of the changing seasons, witnessed from the view in front of our living room window:

collage, blogged and shared here - clockwise:
upper left corner ~ Summer, 24th of July, 2010 - 17:21
upper right corner ~ Autumn, 30th of October, 2009
lower right corner ~ Spring, 19th of May, 2010 - 08:18
lower left corner ~ Winter, 17th of December, 2009

Several times, in different media platform, I've shared this collage,and  written what it means to me. I am sure I would be doing so again in the future, and I am quiet sure, that I will never tire of sharing it again and again because it represents (at least for me!) a positive essence of how exciting,  fascinating and magical change & renewal can be.

Showcased in this collage are the three trees just across our home. I no longer take pictures of them as religiously, as I used to but I continue to take pictures of trees in our area, as often as I can, hoping to have a complete set again to share another collage of trees through the changing seasons.

What I have not been able to do as much as I would like to, is take pictures of the different birds we see almost daily on our way to school or while biking around our area.

Sometimes, I am in too much of a hurry to stop, and can only admire the birds fleetingly.  Or  it's the other way around - I have time but the birds don't. :P

Often, the images I take are not good enough to share (read: the beauty, and the emotion I feel when I capture an image is not translated by the camera).

a sparrow, that caught Littlest eye while she sat behind me on the bike, image was first shared and blogged here

This is why I am over-joyed when the blue tit  family built their nest in the birdhouse we hang on the wall on our modest balcony.

 It might seem silly to others but this experience brings so much joy to me and my family.

Yesterday, eldest daughter witnessed how one parent blue tit was feeding the hungry fledgling, and she remarked,"Awww, they are very caring creatures!"

As we always do, we shared our mommy & daughter  "awww moment" with our"awww faces" to each other, shared a big silly wide smile, quick happy  peck & hugs.

The blue tit family, afforded me and my own family the chance to pause, and witness a simple beauty of what life & nature is truly about. A strong, vibrant reminder, yet again, of what is most important.

I wish the quality of the images would be better, but somehow the images we did take and shared here, translate "enough" how we feel about the privilege of being a part of something that is older than all of us, what should actually be "private, but oh so beautiful to witness:

Life, how it is created and nurtured.  Life could be - if we allow it - so basic, so simple and oh, so wonderful.

We love, we nurture, and we repeat the process, every year, throughout the seasons. - lesson learned this Spring, from our blue tits fledgling & their parents.

As Summer approaches, I aim to focus even more on the beauty of what is just right in front of me, and  nurture my connections deeper, with those I hold most dear: my family, my friends, & those who share the dream of being a positive change in the world.

What have you learned this Spring? And what do you look forward this Summer?