Wordless Wednesday
Mini adventure
Last week a friend and I decided we needed an adventure, but neither of us had time for a long, fully planned and packed adventure.
But I have been feeling a keen need to find something amazing to photograph, something outside my own home and local parks. My friend had explored a colorful place, several weeks ago, just an hour north of us.
I asked her to take me there.
I mean — Saginaw Michigan just screams adventure. Right?
Of course right!
Saginaw is near the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge where you’ve all hiked with me to see pelicans and eagles and sandhill cranes.
Saginaw is not far from the Chippewa Nature Center where I’ve brought you along to find stunning color in the fall.
Saginaw isn’t even far from Midland Michigan and it’s Dow Gardens complete with a walk in the tree canopy. You’ve been with me there too, at least a couple times.
But this time we went to visit the Saginaw Shine Bright Mural Project.
And let me tell you, this place satisfied all my photography cravings in one big ole splat of gorgeous color.
Though I don’t know that it’s a location I’d want to explore alone, and certainly not at night, it was fun to spend a bit of time there with someone else who appreciated the art. It’s huge and it’s bright and it will definitely make you smile.
No matter the angle you view it from, whether you sit in your car and admire it from across the river or get all up close and personal, it’s well worth the visit.
And on the way home we stopped for a barn.
Of course.
Orange you glad…
Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!
So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.
I didn’t get a photo.
But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!
He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.
And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.
And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.
I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.
And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.
Katie speaks
I was driving to Kensington Easter Sunday morning. On the way I passed a place where Katie and I have walked together a few times. Every time I drive through this town I think of her.
“Oh Katie.” I said out loud.
“I love you mama,” she replied, also out loud.
Proof that it’s possible to continue driving, even when your eyes are leaking.
Lots to report
Shhhhhhhh! It’s me, Penny! I’m trying to give you an update on things I’ve been doing without letting the mom know. Cause as you can see, she’s not giving me nearly enough online exposure. So I’m doing what they call an ‘end run’ around her and getting on here myself.
She’s sharing lots of stuff about her silly birds, and hardly anything about me and my adventures. All you’ve seen of me is the Easter picture. And to be honest I did that under duress. I mean pink is not my color!
Anyway.
Since I last wrote to you all I’ve been very very busy. I had a play date with Levi at his dog park which is about an hour away from my house.
We had lots of fun and I made Levi chase me a few times.
Mostly we did our own thing, you know? He was into running and chasing his frisbee…
…and I was just into running.
Levi is a very handsome dude and of course the moms wanted a picture of the two of us together. And of course, as is stipulated in the sheltie bylaws, we made it very hard for the moms to get said picture.
Sit next to each other? No way. But maybe on our next play date we’ll be nicer to the moms. I guess it depends on the quality of treat being offered.
And I also did a Rally Trial where mom signed me up to do two runs. A run is where you and your mom or dad walk around in a ring doing a bunch of stuff at little signs. You’re supposed to take your cue from your mom or dad who is supposed to be able to read the signs correctly.
Frankly it’s a bit boring because they don’t let you have treats while you’re in the ring. And without treats, what’s the point anyway?
I did real good on the first run, I got 96 out of 100 points and second place in my group. But then mom rushed me right over to the other run without any breaks (and no treats!!) and we were all of the sudden in there walking around and I was sort of more interested in getting out of the ring, and also I forgot what the word “sit!” means.
I guess I just had a mental block. I don’t know what the big deal is, mom has those all the time! I still got a qualifying score, 80-something, but I didn’t place. Mom says that’s just fine. She says we have two legs of the three we need for a title in Novice Rally.
I’ve been taking her to doggie school every week to practice reading the signs. Between you and me, this past Tuesday afternoon she couldn’t read much of anything right and I got really frustrated with her. So I decided I didn’t know how to sit straight anymore. Or heel. Or wait. Waiting is my hardest thing anyway.
Mom says we’ll be in the basement working on that stuff this week.
In fact, talking about the basement, my friend Lance and his folks came over and Mom and I did some work in our new basement, teaching me the tricks of Beginner Novice Obedience! Mom say she has great plans for me. I say I’m all in as long as there’s cheese involved.
Oh – and on Friday evenings I’ve been going on group walks with another trainer and a bunch of other dogs and their people. We’re walking around small towns and getting used to traffic and other people and other dogs. Mom says it’s working. I don’t go as crazy now when we’re out and about as long as mom has treats on her. She’s pretty happy with me and we have a lot of fun on the walks!
I just know there’s more news to tell you, but mom’s almost done cleaning the kitchen so I better go inspect. Have I told you that the kitchen is my favorite room in my house? I call it the Food Room. You never know what will appear from hidden places there.
Talk later, your gal Pen.
It’s early, but we’re ready!
We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.
Everything seems early.
And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!
I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.
Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.
Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.
I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.
Spring has, indeed, sprung.
Love my goldfinches
I’m really enjoying the goldfinches this spring. Some years we don’t see many, but this years there’s an abundance of them.
I’ve watched as the males turn from an army green, similar to the color the females stay year round, into their exuberant and brilliant summer gold.
They sit in the beech tree not far from the finch feeder and sing for their supper. If there are a lot of them in the tree I know that the feeder is probably nearing empty.
They don’t tolerate it getting too low.
They’re used to me being out there and don’t leave their tree, if the feeder is empty, even if Penny and I are on the deck.
They are picky and only really like the finch food I buy from a specialty bird store in the town just north of us. The employees there know me.
The finches are so much fun to watch, though they are eating me out of house and finch food!
Soon they’ll be busy raising their families and we won’t see so much of them. But they’ve sure brightened my spring!
Happy Easter
Penny would like to wish everyone who celebrates a Happy Easter.
She’s hoping for ham, but I fear she will be sadly disappointed.
But I might take her on a walk in one of her parks. That’s better than ham.
Right?
Going earless
Once upon a time, a long, long, time ago (more than 35 years), my husband and I were dating. As Easter approached he bought me a solid chocolate rabbit as a gift. We left it, in it’s box, on an end table in the living room when we went out for the evening.
When we got home the rabbit was partially out of the box, but still in place on the end table, and it’s long chocolatey ears had been bitten off.
The cat immediately pointed a paw at the dog who looked slightly, but not completely, guilty.
Long before we knew anything about dogs and chocolate we laughed at how Daisy the Sheltie managed to nibble the ears off while leaving most of the rabbit still in the box on the table. And to this day when it’s chocolate bunny season we remember Daisy and what a delicate and polite girl she was
No dogs were injured in the making of this post. A hollow chocolate rabbit was, sadly, sacrificed.
Change Is Hard 