Anywhere visitors look in Nancy Gage's yard on Concord Avenue, they are likely to see a birdhouse perched nearby.
They are hidden in trees and not-so-hidden on stands in clearings. Some are on benches, tables and hand railings. Some are even made of tree trunks.
"I love birdhouses," she said. "Some people buy artwork. I buy birdhouses," she said.
A plain wooden one with an Ohio license plate for a roof hangs near a handrail leading to the yard from her back deck.
"I'm from Ohio," she explained as she walked past it. "But I've lived here for 30 years. This is home."
Her favorite birdhouse, made of unusual items, hangs crooked on the trunk of a tree in her front yard. The tall, narrow birdhouse has a glass doorknob for the top perch and an old spoon for the bottom one.
Gage estimated she has between 60 and 70 birdhouses scattered throughout the acre yard that she calls a work in progress.
"I love to be outdoors," she said. "A creative person has got to find an outlet. For me, this is it."
Her current project is to build a patio area at the side of the house. First, though, she has to figure out how to manage water drainage from the driveway, which washes over the area every time it rains.
Because her property sits lower than Observatory Avenue, she had problems with drainage from the road eroding her yard.
The city remedied the problem with a rocky drainage ditch that cuts through the center of the backyard.
Two white wooden bridges span the ditch, which is always full after a heavy rain.
"I think I made the best of it," she said. "The bridges I like."
Gage's vision for her finished yard includes a vegetable garden, walking trails and a faux graveyard, which will provide a quiet place to sit and meditate.
"When people come to your house and you take them on a tour of your estate, you need to have points of interest," she said.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
