Weekend views

This weekend was beautiful!

One NOT to be wasted indoors.  At least Saturday anyway.  It rained all day Sunday.  But the temps were great!  It felt like summer was saying a slow goodbye.

Within walking distance of our home are some trails The Professor and I like to hike occasionally.  So we headed on down there but were greeted with this sign.

BEWARE ... archery hunters!  

What!?!

The Professor and I spent a few minutes contemplating if we should enter or not.

We thought if their aim was as bad as their spelling, we were safe.

It was a beautiful peaceful walk and gave me a great excuse to use my 18-55mm lens......

..... and take other photos besides the critters in my back yard.  (Speaking of critters, I've got a treat for you at the end.)

The neat thing about these wooded acres is that about 20 minutes into the walk you happen upon ....

.....  a large bamboo forest!  It's the coolest thing.  Something I didn't expect the first time I happened on it.

On our way back, we noticed some tree carvings.  Tree graffiti .... not good Dirk!

I couldn't help but notice a fair number of fallen yellow leaves.   Summer postcards to fall.

After our hike, we didn't feel like heading home just yet and drove over to one of our local farmer's markets.  I love wandering amongst all that color and I was not disappointed.

But what WAS disappointing upon returning home, was that our freezer seemed to be on the fritz.

Ugh!  We had to haul everything out and put it in our other fridge.  And it had been such a great day.  Guess the universe thought I had too much joy for one day and needed to even things out.

I say phooey on that.  Anyway, guess I'll be entertaining a repairman on Monday.

And now, for that special treat!

Remember that mama squirrel?

Well, I had not seen her for two weeks while she was taking care of her new brood.  Well, today, was MOVING day!

She apparently didn't like our old cherry tree and was moving her babies from our backyard to an oak tree across the street on the golf course.  I mean, really!  As if our view wasn't good enough!

This was the best picture I could get of her ... she was moving pretty fast and far away.  She did this three times.  And each time, I held my breath as she crossed the street.  One time, she STOPPED in the middle of the road!  aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!  Golfers don't care about any ole squirrel when they have  a Tee time to make!

Now I'm just going to worry about her all the time crossing the road.  But wait! 

Amazon to the rescue!

So ...  which one do you think I should get?

                      

I'll rest a lot better once I get my new sign.

Hope your weekend was this much fun!  

(Except for the freezer part.)

~ sharing with ~

Creative Exchange

Mosaic Monday
Jillsy Girl Studio "Weekend Exposure" 

New critter in town ...

 

It's another hot one today.  But that didn't keep me from venturing outside to take a few photos today.  My hydrangeas are quite sad and droopy.  Just too hot for them.  But I thought they would serve well for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.  I don't do many textures ... there are so many of you out there who do them so beautifully.  But it's still fun to play around with texture.  I also added a phrase from one of Mary Oliver's poems "Morning Poem".   I so love her work.

While I was outside, I checked on our tomato plants.  This is our first year to carve out a little space for a very very small garden.  Primarily a tomato garden!  They're looking fine.  What do you think?

And last, but not least ... we have a new critter in town!  Caught Mr. Groundhog running around the yard the last few days.   The cast just keeps growing and growing! 

I'm not sure about Mr. Groundhog.  The critters are getting a bit big!  I wonder if he knows Punxsutawney Phil.  Or maybe if he just stays around, I could be like Bill Murray in the Groundhog Day movie ... living the same day over and over again.

But if that's the case, let's wait for cooler days!

Sweetie Pie

Sweetie Pie lives with my sister-and-brother-in-law along with four other rescue canines.  I have grown an attachment to this girl to the point of going James Bond and stealing her away.   She has the most incredible velvety coat and alert eyes, yet cat-like in her indifference towards you.  Kind of the 'take ya or leave ya' attitude.  Guess that explains my attraction.

I think she was a cat in a previous life.

Yours truly,
missing the mom gene

SpayDay for Love

I'm such a sucker when it comes to kitties.  Or dogs.

It might be because loving animals is a lot less complex than loving humans.  That's because my kitty provides me lots of free entertainment, doesn't talk back and never asks for money. 

So when my sister-in-law sent me this site from the Humane Society ....

I couldn't resist perusing through the photos of all kinds of rescue pets, reading about their quirky behaviors and how much their owners loved them.

We rescued Kramer and his sister, Zoey, from an Indianapolis shelter 14 years ago.  My then 10 year old pleaded for me to stop by and just go in to visit.  I was absolutely firm with her that we were not taking any cats home.

Absolutely NOT!

NOT, NOT, NOT!

An hour later, we were walking out, not with just one cat, but TWO!

See what I mean.  I'm such a sucker when it comes to kitties.

must not go to shelters
must not go to shelters
must not go to shelters

But back to the main message.

What is Spay Day?  It's an annual event of The Humane Society to inspire folks to save animals' lives.  Here's what they have to say:

"To support Spay Day, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International host the Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest, presented by Zazzle—a great opportunity to celebrate our pets, raise funds for spaying and neutering, and win great prizes! "


If you are a kitty, dog, hamster, or whatever animal lover, check out their website:
 http://photocontest.humanesociety.org/contest.html?contestId=3&utm_source=haslota020211&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spayday

And enter your pet!  Like I did.

And when you can,
support your local animal shelter.

And maybe ...

stop by one ...

and fall in love.


Yours truly,
missing the mom gene

R.I.P. Frankie Frog

My watch is over.

Bye Frankie.

Hope you're swimming out there in the big waters! 

Death Watch

I have been assigned to be on a death watch today. 

Frankie Frog, my daughter’s 4 year old froggy, was found floating upside down this morning in his tank that he shares with a couple of other fish.

I’m not quite sure what I should do to comfort Frankie.  As  you can see from the photo, we set him up in a smaller container and placed him under my desk lamp hoping to keep him warm.  I tilt the water off of him occasionally thinking he needs some oxygen.  That part, I’m unsure about, since he is under water most of the time and rarely comes to surface to breathe.

Earlier, before my daughter left for work, (I know, she’s 23 and still living at home and that’s a story for another time.) she googled to find out what may be wrong with him and what to do.  The suspect may be the other young froggy she brought home several weeks ago in hopes of giving him a buddy.  But it seems that froggies carry lots of disease and perhaps the new froggy, himself, was diseased, because he turned up dead last night. 

So, Frankie Frog’s outcome is looking very bleak.

I sit here watching him ... occasionally there is a solitary kick.  What is he trying to tell me.  Does he need more oxygen?  Need more heat or is there too much heat.  Does he want to be out of the water, in the water, WHAT!!!!?

Argggghhhhhh!

Frankie Frog came to reside in our home shortly after we moved.  Our daughter decided to start a fish tank and then went off to college.  And you know who was left responsible for taking care of the little critters. 

So I set up my reminders to feed Frankie his bloodworms every two days.  And worried over him.  I was always relieved when the daughter came home over breaks to check him out, make sure I was being a good caretaker.  Oh, ye have so little faith in me!

Frankie has had his share of trauma though and each time he survived triumphantly.

He has endured attacks by other fish, crippling his left arm.

He lost of one of his foot flippers when my daughter accidentally pinched it off while trying to catch him when cleaning the tank.

And early on he became emaciated before we figured out that he was starving because he didn’t seem to be able to find his food.  We figured he must be blind.

But he kept kicking, swimming, hiding in his little castle.

Until this morning.

I do not like this assignment I have been given.

missing the mom gene