Aww shucks!

You guys are making me blush!

Thanks for all the sweet comments about the shawl and even sweeter ones about the model. :) It's nice to have a little confidence boost because I had a tough time the day before yesterday. You see, I finally cleared out my closet and got rid of the clothes that no longer fit me. For "doesn't fit" read "too small". Yep, I finally faced up to the fact that I'm never going to fit into those clothes again. I had easily managed to get back to my original size after baby number one but after baby number two...well, things are just not in the same place anymore! It's not just a matter of losing weight either. (Although I could stand to shave off some pounds!) No - I'm talking about structural changes. These baby bearing hips are just never going to be a size six again - no matter how much weight I lose. And I thought that breast feeding was supposed to make the old chest smaller - nope, opposite reaction for me. :( So it was nice to get some encouraging compliments about my appearance.

But I do have some exciting eggs news: we have nest number two in progress!! Today when I did my daily flock maintenance I noticed Rowena inside the other nestbox with Sirius on the outside perch as if he was guarding her. I was really excited about this because up until now the Gouldians hadn't shown any interest in the second nest. In fact, all four Society Finches cram themselves in there every night to sleep - so I pretty much thought that the Gouldians wouldn't be able to use the nest even if they wanted to.

But on Sunday I tried something new. I replaced the pre-fab nest (like the one Minerva and Godric are using) with some loose sisal I had bought. I thought that it would provide the birds with some fun nest building activities and might possibly get the other Gouldians at least thinking about using the second nestbox. It must have worked!

Of course I had to get a peek in there so I hung up some spray millet to tempt Rowena out and as soon as she left I lifted up the lid and - bingo! - one little egg!!! I'm really excited about this because Rowena and Sirius are an established pair. They have parented before so I have great hopes for their success. I just have to keep the Society Finches out of there now and that might mean putting them all into their own cage. Gouldians lay somewhere between 4 - 7 eggs at the rate of one per day. They begin to sit on the nest usually after the fourth egg is laid. So I have a few days to figure out what to do. If there is another egg tomorrow then I know this isn't a fluke and that Rowena and Sirius want to use that nest. I can hardly wait!