Baby (bluebird) photos

Is it morning already????









more about "Little Bug" soon.


baby bluebird

I can't hula hoop either, but

at least I've never been photographed trying. But what's the point of having a teenage nephew living with you if you can't post humiliating photos of him on your blog?














The rear view - it didn't look any better...





hula hoop

The new turtle pad - fancy!

Last fall my husband built a "turtle pad" after our "turtle life ring" floated away.





We never did see a turtle climb aboard, but the ducks enjoyed it...






I have a very creative & talented sister who built this new & improved turtle pad. I'm anxious to see if the turtles appreciate as much as I do.






turtles

The haircut

My husband & I had been begging my nephew for weeks to get a haircut. He finally gave in & decided to save $10 by letting Aunt Sue do the job. Here he is pre-haircut - his "chia pet" look as his Mom calls it...





Post hair cut - much better I thought, but he doesn't look happy here...





This is how he dressed for work the next day. Was it that bad???

My day

It took me a few years of North Carolina living to remember that strawberry picking season here is April/May, and not late June as it was in upstate NY. It's worth remembering. 18 lbs. of yummy....





all cleaned & bagged for freezing...





the reward ...(the big one is hubby's - really!)






and the mess...






strawberries

the Nest

We recently converted a guest bedroom into a little office for me. This means that guests now have to sleep on a blow-up mattress, but I'm enjoying my little office. I toyed with the idea of making it a pet-free zone (gasp!), but that was just a fleeting thought. Pup1 is usually on my lap when I'm at my desk & I moved a flight cage in so that my tame society finches, Honeycomb and Taffy can spend time with me in here.





Honeycomb has two favorite activities - hanging out with me and nest building. He has learned to combine the two by perching on my head and trying to yank nesting material (a.k.a. my hair) out of my head. I really have no hair to spare, so I've taken to wearing a baseball cap to dissuade him. He's not happy about that, so as a peace offering I cut up strips of tissues and placed them in the bottom of the cage. I thought he might like to use them for his nest & I guess I was right...











society finches

Carry a big stick

These are my brother's two goldens, Lily & Daisy, sharing a little stick...





until Daisy found a great big stick of her own.





golden retrievers

Looking for shade

I took these photos a week ago. It was one of our first warm days after a very cold early April. I was enjoying the heat, but I noticed that these gosslings were staying in their mother's shadow.





When she decided to take a little rest, her shadow shrunk, leaving them partially exposed to the sun.





But not for long...








canadian geese

First dip

I took these photos about 10 days ago. The water temp of Lake Gaston was 61F. My husband and I are cold water wimps & we don't usually jump in until the water temp approaches 80. But my teenage nephew had other ideas...













After he swam back to the dock, he tried to tell me that it wasn't too bad. I didn't believe him for a second. Just take a look at his face when he popped back up to the surface....





Lake Gaston

Ready for action

Hey! Could somebody play with me????

Breakfast for bluebirds

We have really enjoyed watching this pair of bluebirds the past couple of weeks. They are trained to come for breakfast or dinner when we ring a bell. The titmice and Carolina wrens haven't caught on to the bell signal yet, so sometimes the meal worms are gone by the time they show up.


Ready...





Dig in!





Usually both of them eat a dozen or so worms, then the female steps aside and the male picks up 4 or 5 worms at a time and feeds the female. Very cute - one of these days I'll get a photo of him feeding her.



bluebirds

More cute kid photos

I've been transferring photos, thousands of them, from my old computer to my new one. I came across these photos of Monkey, the orphaned squirrel that I raised last spring. He was brought to me on Easter Sunday. I released him just before Memorial Day and he came back to visit & eat from my hand most days during the summer. Around Labor Day he started to get more skittish around me, so I just started leaving him a few peanuts on our deck each day. I don't know if he's still around, but I hope so. So cute...











squirrel rehabilitation

Because I don't have enough cute kid photos in my blog...

My friend's granddaughter came to visit her for Easter. She forgot her pretty Easter shoes & had to wear silver sneakers to church. Still beautiful!




Here she is with her brothers...

Moving in???

We've never had chickadees nest in one of our bird houses. Maybe this will be the year...





chickadee

Great horned owls

I took these photos last month while visiting my parents in Sebring, Florida. These owls were nesting in a tree on a golf course. Papa (I assume) was standing guard. Camouflaged very well, but we saw him.





And he saw us...





We walked around to the other side of the tree and could see Mama's head as she sat on her nest.





great horned owl

Guilt-free kidnapping

We'll be leaving our Florida winter home soon to migrate back to North Carolina, which means moving the finches into their travel cages for the trip home. Victor & Pearl had been doing a great job raising their 3 little ones, but I figured there was no way that they would handle the disruption of moving to a different cage for a 2 day trip and continue to feed the little ones. So my plan has always been that I would take over as Mommy and hand feed the babies as soon as I move Victor and Pearl to a travel cage.





I felt bad about the fact that I would need to "kidnap" the little ones, but Victor and Pearl made it easy for me two days ago when they abandoned the nest box. We had the carpets cleaned and I moved their cage into another room for a few hours, and that's all it took - no more baby feeding. Even after I moved the cage back to the original location, they wouldn't return to the nest. I fed the babies every couple of hours, but left them in the nest until evening hoping that the parents would resume their duties. But they didn't, so they are mine now. Step-mom and babies are doing fine.


gouldian finches

Mockingbirds

We've been putting mealworms out on our back patio every morning and evening. A palm warbler occasionally stops by for a worm or two. And our resident pair of mockingbirds will take all that they can get.





A mouthful...




They are parents, but their nest is too high in the tree for us to view the babies.






mockingbird

Seven layer jello

This dessert that I made for a party tonight was such a hit that I thought I would post a photo and the recipe:





You will need: 4 (3 oz) jellos - lime, orange, lemon, strawberry, 2 cups of sour cream, 1 cup of sugar & 2 packets of plain Knox gelatin. You will also need about 7 hours because each layer needs to firm up before you add the next layer.


1. start with Lime jello - dissolve the contents of the pkg into 1 cup boiling water. Then add 1/2 cup cold water. Pour into 9x13 pan & put in fridge until firm


2. white layer next: mix 2/3 cup of milk with 1/3 cup of sugar and bring to a boil. mix 2/3 packet of plain Knox gelatin with a 2 T of water, then add it to the milk/sugar mixture. Add 2/3 cup of sour cream and whip until creamy. Let it cool a little, then pour on top of the firm jello layer & refrigerate until firm.


3. Repeat step 1 except use Orange jello.


4. Repeat step 2.


5. Repeat step 1 with Lemon jello


4. Repeat step 2.


7. Repeat step 1 with Strawberry jello.

And now there are three

I gave Victor a couple of gentle pokes & he hopped out of the nest for a minute so I could check on the babies. There are 3 now and I'm pretty sure that's all there's going to be. The remaining eggs don't look like they are fertile.





gouldian finches