For the past two weeks, I’ve had a mother bird with babies on the back porch. This is the third year a bird has built a nest in this spot. Is it the same bird? Maybe, I don’t know.

I didn’t know they were barn swallows until I posted this picture last week. Someone who knows more than me told me what they were.

In that picture in that tiny nest, there are four baby birds that are absolutely huge. They are almost as large as their mother who loyally comes to feed them. I keep judging her….”your children will never fledge and be productive if you keep doing all the work for them!” She doesn’t listen.

Then…on Thursday, I went out and watered my hanging plants on the porch. While the birds were used to my doing so daily, apparently I startled one enough to shift a tiny bit and it tumbled out of the nest, caught itself by fluttering its wings, and it flew. It flew away. In the next 60 seconds, the other three did the same. They finally fledged.

I didn’t want to destroy the nest until I was sure they were through using it. So, I left it up until the following morning. Then, bright and early at 7:30 am, I cleaned the porch. The birds had made a very nasty mess. You can imagine.

It was so nice to have it clean. I went in the house and sat down for breakfast, and thought about my former houseguests, the barn swallows. I learned that they are very beneficial. They eat insects. I started feeling very bad for all the things I’d been thinking about them. Like…why didn’t I left the snake that almost got them…just get them? I had that thought many times.

Even though I was disliking the baby birds when I saw the snake getting ready to climb the post, I just could not watch this happen. This snake was getting very comfortable with us. When we were out in the garden, we’d watch it climb the fence looking for birds in bushes. But..on the back porch…this was too close to home! So, on that day when the snake lurked around the baby birds, I went in and read what would be a deterrent for a snake, and I came out and threw vinegar on the snake. I have not seen it since. I hate this as this is a beneficial snake.

But the porch is now clean. I want to show you something I’m very proud of. See this little table below? My grandfather that I never met made this table. Peter Livingston Barker.

It has the outline of a biscuit cutter so it was made for someone’s kitchen. Probably my grandmother’s kitchen. Martha Kaylor Barker. I never met him, nor did I meet her. You can read a little about him here.

So…the table is probably about 100 years old.

My sister had this table, and she gave it to me. I am so grateful. I am going to move it in the house, but for at least a few weeks, I’m going to enjoy it out here. I put a burlap sack on it for protection. When it moves inside, I’ll work on it a little bit, but I like the character that time and circumstances have given this table.

We had guests this weekend…family. I was happy the little table was at the door to greet them.

While admittedly, I did clean the house…at one time I would have worried myself sick on what to cook, etc. I am not a great cook. It’s so nice to be a little older and not fret over useless stuff. No one cares! I sat the table with what I had. We ate what we would have eaten that night anyway…just added a little more to it. And the time we spent was precious.

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage. It’s my blog about my life in Mendota, Virginia and nothing. Mostly nothing!