Love Birds for Julie

The Love Birds finally got their tails in gear.  I would like to show you each one, but they will not stop smooching long enough for me to get a pic!

I can't tell the difference between them, which is male or which is female.  They might be same sex birds, I don't know.

I do know they lack a chest divot.  Hmmmm.

This is the mess they left behind when they flew off.   I cannot believe they wouldn't clean up behind themselves, but they didn't.

I just don't know how they expect  me to find two more birds in there.

Sigh........

These guys bring the count to 16.

 Then the Hawk flew in!

He was magnificent in his patriotic plumage.  He reflects our Grand Ole Flag and the freedoms we have here in America.

With him he had the Patriotic Pigeons by his side.  The three of them were caucusing on the ironing board before they headed to the design wall.

The design wall is getting very crowded over there.  I am going to have to move something.  Either I need to work on that green piece or i need to make a new nesting area for the birds.

The birds also need some more HSTs as well.  I am not sure exactly how many HSTs I will need, but the tiny package of 2 1/2 inch squares I had (appropriately named Early Bird) is all gone.  I will need to supplement with my scraps and strips from my stash.

Lord knows I have enough to make a million or seven more!

Total bird count:  19

Statue of Liberty - A French and American Statement of Freedom

I was looking around for a photo to use in the heading.  (I can't for the life of me make the photos smaller.)  And I came across this one.  The Statue of Liberty embodies the pride I feel as an American. 

We have taken several cruises to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  Once we left from Boston MA (birthplace of American Freedom) and the other time we left from New York, NY.  I took this photo as we were sailing past the glorious lady given to us by France, and thought it was fitting tribute to both liberty and freedom in the light of what is happening in France right now.

Many years ago in France, Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to create a gift to the US following the close of the War Between the States in 1865.  Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel created the internal steel structure inside the statue that allowed the copper sheeting skin to shift in the harbor winds.  Bartholdi modeled the face after his own mother.  In 1885 our Lady Liberty was completed in France, disassembled and packed in over 200 crates, shipped to the US on the French frigate Isere and reassembled on an island in New York's harbor.

This was one of the first sights my grandfather saw as he arrived as a legal immigrant from Sicily with his parents early in the 1900's.  My grandmothers also sailed into the harbor in New York from their home countries of Denmark and Germany somewhat earlier in the late 1890s. Well, the Danish grandmother was the only one born here, but she was born in 1897 shortly after her parents arrived here in America.

They all wanted to be part of the great country of America and immediately began to embrace the customs and language as their own.  All of my grandparents grew up speaking only English and worked hard all their lives to give their children the American dream as well.

They BUILT America, not tore it down.  They were too busy working to protest.

We need a strong President who will acknowledge the threat to our great country now, and work  to keep American Freedoms strong.

Homeland Security already has me on their list because we have been involved with the Tea Party for the last 8 years.  And there was that Colorado airport thing. So, if they are monitoring me, will you come visit  me in Federal prison?