My Everything Corner

I don't usually grab my camera when taking out the trash, and by doing so, I turned a 20 minute round trip into a 2 hour one.    I had fun playing around with these in Photoshop.  Enjoy. When we moved here, we looked at the property right next to this creek.  But, it was too far from town, and we worried about the length of the school bus trip. The same creek - opposite side of the road.  The small damn created several small waterfalls, making it sound very pretty. Usually crows are solitary creatures, or at least confined to very small groups, but not at migration time.  This murder was of an impressive size, but I only caught a small part. Another group of crows in a swathed wheat field. Who doesn't love an old log building tucked into the woods? A pretty sky shot, that creates the feeling of a meandering path below. I didn't explore this too closely.  My nerves got the better of me.  But, it was definite...

This post is for nothing more than 4 adorable photos of my newfound best friend.  This little guy is adapting beautifully to his new home, and our entire household is completely in love with him.  Some things are best kept short and sweet.

I really loved the name 'Batty' for our new kitten, but when I saw 'Sooty', I fell in love even more.  When I asked my daughter what she thought about 'Sooty', she almost yelled, "Yes! His name has to be Sooty!".  You see, when Kaitlynn was little, I read a book to her called 'Tinka' by Rainy Delhaney.  It is the sweetest children's story about a tiny sheep, and her friend 'Sooty' the crow.  This little crow is a really goofy little character, and back then, we fell in love with him.  Over time my daughter and I have developed a strong love for crows and their raven cousins. So when I brought up that name, it conjured up all sorts of wonderful memories and images, and so our kitten has been renamed 'Sooty'.    It took a lot of photos to get one that was clear.  He was zipping around the room so fast, even the videos I took are mostly of bare floor, that is, bare floor with the occasional black streak going across the ...

My blog is about to be taken over by kitten cuteness.  A third black cat has entered my life, and he couldn't have had better timing, what with all the pumpkins kicking around, and Halloween being just around the corner and all.  There will be so many photo opportunities!!! If to you he looks on the young side, you would not be wrong.  He was born on July 30th, making him only 6 weeks old.  He was weaned too young, as his poor old mama ran out of milk.  But have no fear, he is eating and drinking well, and using the litter box.  He is evening bathing himself, so I have no worries about his all around health. I have decided to call him Batty, with which most people agree is an adorable name.  The one person who doesn't, will have to suck it up.  You know who you are, and I love you anyway. I could go into the very long, very boring story of my life and how it has been centered around black cats, but to keep it short, I wi...

With the colder than usual Spring, and the flooding at the end of June, we lost a good portion of our growing season, no less than 3 weeks is my guess.  Most of my pumpkins and gourds are well behind schedule, several weeks before they can be picked and expected to ripen.  The only thing to do is to hope that Mother Nature is feeling generous with the warm weather this Fall, and that we don't get a killing frost until at least the end of the month.  That's not what the forecast is calling for, but I really can't remember a time when the forecast has been accurate, (crossing fingers). Out of the 9 varieties of pumpkins and gourds, only the sugar pumpkins and the gremlin gourds are mature enough to pick, so we plucked off 71 of them and lined them up on our deck to sit in the sun and ripen.  It usually doesn't take long for them to slip into their orange skins once they've been fully exposed. Here are some photos of a few of the patches with my...

It's really not funny.  We had a record breaking cold, and it felt, longer than ever winter.  Went into Spring with a huge smile on my face, only to be greeted with colder than usual temperatures, and then at the end of June, record breaking rainfalls.  Now don't get me wrong, I'm very grateful that not only were my house and outbuildings relatively unaffected, but I think the majority of my gardens will recover too.  That is, providing we don't get a foot of golf ball sized hail next week.  I should also mention, that this year was the first time in my entire life that I witnessed a funnel cloud.  Yes, I had someone with me who can verify my story. So, if I'm so grateful, why do I sound so whiny?  I really thought that after surviving a winter like that, and not jumping ship, that Mother Nature would remember to take her Valium and dish out some milder, more appropriate weather.  Weather that would allow us to forgive her the all out 5 month b...

I've been keeping my camera on the kitchen table, ready to go, for the last several days, trying to catch one of these rascals on 'film'.  I never get there in time.  I see them from the sink, move to the window, and by the time I'm in position, they flit off.  They move so fast, it's easy to think they are not wholly of this dimension. So, this morning, camera (and coffee) in hand, I pulled a chair up to the window, and waited.  Patience soon paid off, as before I could take 2 photos of one, a second little rascal showed up.  There was a bit of a tiff, but they settled on opposite sides, and had their fill.   I love the sciences, biology in particular.  I'm forever looking up names of plants and birds, interested in their biological classification.  Then doing further research into specifics concerning various feeding/growing habits, origin, etc.  I find it fascinating.  Why then, do you ask, am I not a biologist?  I considere...