Finally winter.
Wordless Wednesday
Tag Archives: yard
I had to forgive her
Katie here.
I suppose you’ve all been enjoying my mama’s photos from her trip way up north. Might I remind you that she was gone for two weeks and she left me and my daddy behind! I don’t know what she was thinking.
This is my back yard!
And do you know what is worse? When she came home she smelled like another animal! Not me! Something smaller and…dare I say it…more like a….a…squirrel! Whatever it was it had been all over her!
When she first came home I was all excited. I couldn’t control my wriggle-butt, it just kept moving! Then I smelled the evil on her. I still couldn’t keep my tail from wagging…and I had to give her a couple of kisses. But then it hit me….she had cheated on me!
This is my park!
Well, I backed right up and sat down and barked at her! And you know what she did then? She laughed at me! How could she!?
I thought about it long and hard, (OK…for about 3 minutes) and decided I was going to have to be the bigger doggie and forgive her. After all, she took me to my park the very next day.
And she’s been giving me tummy and ear rubs. And she feeds me. And gets up in the middle of the night to take me outside if I ask.
I couldn’t stop smiling!
So I guess I should let it go, right? I shouldn’t feel all jealous and cranky. I mean she did come home to me and daddy. I don’t know where she went or who she hung out with, but she came home to me. And that’s what matters.
That and treats. Of course.
Wordless Wednesday
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Hiding up against the garage.
We’ve been junco’d
There are these little birds that show up around here when winter is upon us. They’re cute, but I’m never happy to see them.
Hello hello! I’m HERE!
I’m always sad when they show up because they are definitive proof that summer is gone and that we’re facing the long dark months of winter. Yesterday the juncos arrived.
Right here under your nose!
I’m just not ready.
web photo
Wordless Wednesday
(You can click on an image and view them all larger)
Another shot missed
Sunshine, crisp golden light, maple leaves turning red and gold…how could I resist grabbing the camera and the dog and heading out over the frost covered lawn to the pond across the street. The trees in my neighbor’s yard were stunning in the sunshine.
Morning glow
And those across their pond were beautiful as well. Katie and I moved along the road looking for a spot to capture them.
Morning calm.
I was focused on catching the light and the water while standing on the dog’s leash and listening for cars when I heard a soft, short grunt off to my right. I didn’t look right then, didn’t look until there was a rush of wings and a loud squawk.
A blue heron was lifting off of a submerged tree limb about 10 yards away. He’d probably been sitting there as Katie and I got closer and closer. He gave me a warning grunt and I didn’t listen.
So this is all I got:
Flying away.
I’ve been trying to get a great shot of a blue heron for years. Years. And there he was standing there next to me and I never even noticed. If I had glanced over at the first grunt I think there would have been an amazing shot. But I’ll never know.
Back at home moments after Katie and I came in four young deer crossed the road we had just been standing on. I don’t have a picture of them in the morning glow either. I was too busy trying to keep Katie from flinging herself against the windows to grab the camera.
Silly us.
Missed another one Mama!
Wordless Wednesday – arch nemesis
Weeding peace
How does your garden grow?
I weeded tall grass out of our wildflower garden this morning. It’s such an easy garden to maintain; this is the first weeding I’ve done, and with the grass as tall as I am it was easy to figure out which was weed and which was not. Plus I got to weed standing up, always a plus.
Pretty in pink.
In the cool shade with a little breeze weeding was actually enjoyable. The only noises were the birds at the feeders and the bees buzzing around the flowers. I hummed along with them as I worked.
Bzzzzzzzzz….
At one point, carefully standing in the middle of the garden I looked up and thought – – I should go get the camera. This is so pretty Mom would like to see it, I’ll email her some photos.
Does anyone know what this is? About 3 feet tall.
And then, for a split second I remembered and waited for the sad to come rolling over me. But it didn’t.
Royal colors.
Instead I felt sure she was already seeing it, even before I took the first shot. And I was also sure she thought it was just as beautiful as I do.
Crazy beautiful.
I remember as a little girl picking her flowers from the fields and woods around the house. She put them in a juice glass and set them up on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. So when I accidentally broke a pretty pink zinnia I tucked it in my shirt right next to my heart. And when I got inside I put it in a juice glass.
And I smiled.
For my mom.
Busy day at the bath
I was doing dishes and noticed a flash of dark grey wing in a shrub beside the deck. I immediately felt alarm. The wing color looked like a junco, and those are only around here in the winter. Surely they were not already descending on my summer! I stopped doing dishes and watched intently.
Turns out this is what I saw:
Visit from a catbird
I saw catbirds when Katie and I were camping a few weeks ago. I know they are also in our yard, but they stay out by the road in the jungle of grapevine covered bushes. I’ve only seen them, even there, a couple of times in the twenty plus years we’ve lived here. I was surprised to see two catbirds in the honeysuckle bush, chasing each other around. And I was stunned to see one hop up on the birdbath.
Turns out there was more fun coming.
A nice cool bath is just the thing!
She (I’m deciding it’s a she) jumped in the bird bath and began to enjoy herself. But then she had an unwanted visitor.
Stay away! This is MY bath!
Then her mate showed up to guard her while she continued to bath.
I’ll keep watch for you.
She enjoyed her bath for a long time.
Shake it mama bird!
But once the mate flew back into the shrub she got even more visitors!
Look! She’s hogging the bath!
Eventually it was all just too much for her.
That’s it! There’s no privacy here!
And the visitors were left on their own.
Was it something we said?
Always an adventure. And to think if I was working I’d have missed it all.
Internet photo of Junco. Not here yet. Thank goodness.
There’s a Christmas card on our bird feeders
I have often thought, as I watch the birds visit our feeders, that it looks like a familiar Christmas card. You know the one…where a different kind of colorful bird peeks out from behind all the letters in “Happy Holidays!’ on the front? Just a few minutes ago I was reminded of that card again and went to get the camera, moving slowly, carefully, quietly.
If I had gotten the shot this is what you would have seen:
A huge bright red male cardinal lording over the flat feeder, the feeder I had just moments ago filled with black oiler seed. A female, or perhaps a juvenile cardinal, a chickadee, a house finch and a titmouse were all sitting on the feeder with him, some grabbing a seed and flying up to a branch to eat before coming back for more. He didn’t move from his spot. A juvenile oriole and another female cardinal sat on the top of Katie’s kennel a few feet away waiting their turn. A small black and white woodpecker slips in, grabs a seed and departs. The bright orange male oriole swoops down from the trees to the oriole feeder. There is no grape jelly left. He hops to the top of the pole and stares into the window, voicing his displeasure with a quick burst of machine gun chirps. The male cardinal, impatient with all the activity on his feeder systematically chases all the smaller birds away. Most go to sit in a line on Katie’s pen. Waiting. When he’s done gorging himself and flies off the activity on the flat feeder picks up again. Bright yellow goldfinches have stuck to the thistle feeder throughout all the antics. They are pigs. And a female hummingbird zig zags nervously around her own private feeder.
Can you imagine all of that? I hope so because I didn’t have a chance to get the shot.
As soon as I moved to the kitchen and picked up the camera, turning slowly back around to head to the living room Katie woke from her spot in the dining room, raced to my reading chair next to the window, leaped up and commenced to barking. Because if mama is grabbing the camera and heading toward the windows there must be something out there!
So you’ll have to be satisfied with a picture of the princess instead. After all, she says, nothing else is as beautiful.
Who;s the prettiest one of all?
Sigh.
Change Is Hard 