Color me Spring Sandwich – with green pesto and ketchup

Winter has, grudgingly, given way to spring. There are some delightful things going on in my back yard. A mourning dove laid two tiny little eggs in a nest that it built on a hanging flower tub about a couple of weeks ago.

The nest is right next to the stairs down to the deck. Whenever I stepped out, I found a dove incubating the egg, its head cocked to figure out if the venturing homo sapien was of any danger to it or its precious eggs.

Possibly it decided that it was quite safe, because it continued incubating.  I have heard doves incubate in pairs, but I only saw one at any given time, so I am not sure if I was looking at one parent at a time, or if it was just one bird by itself. In any case, we were mightily excited that we would soon see two chicks.

However, seems like, my dogs were too much for the poor bird. Even a mere sighting of them had her scooting off to the nearest branch. Four days ago, it vanished from the nest. The eggs sat there, deprived of incubation, looking lonely and sad. Yesterday I found one egg on the floor of our deck, broken 🙁 The other one still sat in its nest.

One hour later, that egg was gone as well. I am hoping the dove has shifted its lone surviving egg somewhere else. At least I hope it was the dove that took the egg, and not some nasty little egg thief. So no new chicks for us to be excited about any more.

But wait…..

Yesterday evening, my most observant hubby spied something in a tree in our front yard.

So I went closer……

A little closer…..

Not, one, not two, but three!!

Three little chicks!!!! Yeah!!! Hungry all the time no doubt.

At first, I was not sure what bird they belonged to, but I was guessing Robin. There was a pair of Robin hovering protectively nearby (at least as protective as they can get from the highest branch of a 30 foot tall tree at least 12 feet away from the nest), twittering small, full chested tweets, hopping from branch to branch. Got to be the parents.

Can you spot it in the picture above?

The other one was more daring, and hopped around a bit closer. I will take a chance and say it’s the Mom 😀 Ladies prerogative and all that.

So I waited by a window inside my Formal Living room, from where I had a clear view of the nest, though at an awkward angle. It called for some serious body balancing postures on my part, but I had adrenalin on my side. I was sure one of them would soon hop by to check if the kiddos were doing OK…Finally,my patience got rewarded.

It is a Robin nest. The same Robins that were waging twitter war at me (sorry for the pun :D).

A while later, even a better picture….a very protective parent shielding its fragile ones from the rain….

Gets a bit irate when it spots me near its nest.

See the puffed up chest?

But you know what birdie, it’s my yard, I do get to enjoy the flowers, and the colors – at least while they last.

So you have to accommodate me 😀

Gorgeous colors, no? Makes me want to pack all the colors and bring them inside for all times. Also makes me want to eat food that compliments the burst of colors adorning my yard. Just like this sandwich does.

This is the first ever sandwich that I learnt to make in a cooking class long time ago. I don’t remember what it was called in that class, but I call it my spring sandwich. This is a great sandwich for lunch boxes too as it refrigerates very well. They might not look very even, though believe me, I have made better samples than the ones in this photograph – but honestly, they taste fabulous, every single time.

This is a fun sandwich to make, though the assembly takes a while by a sandwich standard. Best is to get everything together before starting on the assembly. This is more a note to self – I am notorious for making several trips to the refrigerator for one single dish.