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| The view of my porch on a sunny day |
When I cook, I use real food - onions, carrots, celery, asparagus, oranges. And instead of throwing the food scraps into the trash, to add to the landfill, I re-purpose them. The onion skin, carrot peels, and celery bottoms I put into a plastic bag labeled "Mirepoix" which lives in the freezer until I have enough raw material to make vegetable stock (Thank you, Marie Donadio, from PCC Cooks for telling me that I can use scraps instead of whole vegetables to make stock!). The other veggie and fruit non-edibles I usually compost, placing them temporarily in a small bowl in the kitchen to take out later.
The last time I went to put the vegetable scraps in the compost, I was greeted by a petrified Mourning Dove.
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| Ready to fly away if I got any closer, but obviously not wanting to leave the nest! |
Mourning Doves build flimsy platform nests of twigs. They usually lay two white eggs,which hatch in 14-16 days. Both parents take turns keeping the eggs warm, the male sits on the nest during the day and the female usually incubates at night. Once hatched, the baby mourning doves fledge (develop wing feathers that are large enough for flight) in about 12-14 days. The parents continue to care for the fledglings until they are 25 to 27 days old.
It looks like I won't be able to add my food waste to the compost bin for about a month. I also have very little hope for the two rosemary plants that are far enough under the eaves that rain will not reach them. Such is life. My garden held hostage by a family of mourning doves!
