Speaking of Spring Cleaning

Admittedly, this has absolutely nothing to do with weddings, I was just so impressed by mother nature today that I had to share!  Today it's more than 70 degrees out, so I decided to uncover the patio furniture, clean the patios and put out the cushions again... someplace to sit with a glass of wine later!  Last year I purchased heavy duty covers for our wicker furniture and they survived the winter in great shape.  Well this year, the winter was significantly harsher, and apparently someone figured out that hiding in our chair, under a waterproof cover, was the perfect place to hibernate!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not at all psyched at the new hole in the seat of our chair.  But look at the construction of this nest-- and you can't even see the part that fell out but it used to look even more impressive.  Think of how many hours it must have taken our friend the squirrel to get all those twigs in there... this is a second floor balcony that is only accessible by climbing a gutter. It's really quite a brilliant feat when you think about it.  My friend C. thinks they must have known it was my house and used the Martha Stewart book of nest building to aid in their work.

And of course I'm 100% sure J. will strongly disagree with me on this, but, since the damage is done, I have to say that as an animal lover I'm kind of glad we were able to offer a little creature a warm place to hide for the winter.  I just wish she or he would have lived there without eating all the wicker.  At least it's in a place we normally cover with pillows, but these were a gift to J. from his parents, so I'm still bummed that it happened.  And you'd better believe next winter we'll be investing in some moth balls for under the patio furniture covers!!

Oh and do you know what the best part is?  When I cleaned off the upstairs patio, I found ANOTHER nest in our GRILL!  That one's getting tossed :)