A Stroll in the Garden

Normally, when I take you on a stroll in my garden, I show you a variety of blooms.

I decided to focus on a few critters in the garden for this post.

I shared a photo of where I live in a previous post. I want to point out that I live on 6 acres in the woods. My home is bordered by state land.

In other words, I have lots of critters, from mice to bears (for bear photos, click here and here).

I tell you this because I want to preface this post by pointing out that I do not feed the critters. There is plenty for them to eat.

I do, however, have one bird feeder. It is suspended from an oak tree several feet from the ground. The feeder used to be on a metal shepherd’s hook, but a bear bent that in half to get to the bird seed.

Live and learn.

Feeding wildlife is a controversial issue, and not what I want to get into here. This is how it is at my house.

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

There are two families of quail that live here. These are photos of the younger family. This family has nine babies.

The turkeys are daily year round residents. I have no idea how many teenagers are currently here.

They are diggers, so I spend considerable time shooing them out of the garden.

They don’t care what I think.

The positive thing here, is that they kill snakes, including rattlers. So having turkeys around can be a good thing.

The chipmunks are curious little hyper bunches of joy!

Did you know that they can release their tail as a defense mechanism? It will grow back!

I found that out the hard way.

Oh yes, I grabbed one by the tail because it had gotten into the house, and I was trying to catch it to put it outside. I was devastated! But then I did the research.

That little stinker was returned alive and well to the great outdoors!

Stay healthy.

Stay safe.

Keep smiling.

See the world around you!

Saltar’s Point Park

We had a beautiful afternoon on the last day of our visit with our son and his family, so they took Hubby and I to Salter’s Point Park to enjoy the beach.

I loved it all…the sun, the ocean, the smells, the sounds, the colors, the textures, the critters, the train and the family time!

* Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.” -Isaac Newton

“To find a seashell is to discover a world of imagination.” -Michelle Held

“Don’t let the waves of others drown out your own ocean song. Hold your heart as though it was a seashell. And listen to it. Listen to its music. To the whispers of your ocean within. And then swim.” -S. C. Lourie

“Can I be as serene and simple as this bleached shell, rubbed smooth by wind and water, receiving and releasing, filling and emptying and filling again, eternally receptive to the currents of life?” -Katrina Kenison

“A beach is not only a sweep of sand, but shells of sea creatures, the sea glass, the seaweed, the incongruous objects washed up by the ocean.” -Henry Grunwald

Thanks Fam!

Stay healthy.

Stay safe.

Keep smiling.

See the world around you!

Marcus Island

My Mama keeps asking for an air conditioner cover, and I keep hoping she will forget.  

She never forgets…must be part elephant.

So I finally chose a pretty pink rose print (to complement her sofa) and made a cover for her air conditioner.  

I don’t have a photo.  Mama doesn’t have the cover yet, either.  I was hoping to be able to bring it to her by her birthday, but…you know, COVID and all that.

Soon, Mom!  (Yes…she reads my posts!)

Since I don’t have sewing related photos (I have done some quilting), I am giving you a photo heavy post of a walk I took earlier this week.

I am super blessed to have Marcus Island across the street from me…I love to visit here!

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”
― Jim Bishop

“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
– George Eliot

“THERE is something in the autumn that is native to my blood—
Touch of manner, hint of mood;
And my heart is like a rhyme,
With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time.”
― Bliss Carman

“If a year was tucked inside of a clock, then autumn would be the magic hour.”
– Victoria Erickson

“Come, little leaves,” said the Wind one day, “Come to the meadows with me and play. Put on your dresses of red and gold; For Summer is past, and the days grow cold.”
― George Cooper

“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.”
― Samuel Butler

“Let whoever wants to, relax in the south,
And bask in the garden of paradise.
Here is the essence of north and it’s autumn
I’ve chosen as this year’s friend.”
― Anna Akhmatova, The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

Stay healthy!  Stay safe! 

A Stroll in the Garden

I thought I would share a few of my garden neighbors with you.

*Clicking on a photo will give you a closer look!

There is the common and beneficial garter snake.

“Well, then, let it go, let it go, if you’re so bull-headed about it. We can get you
some garter-snakes, and you can tie some buttons on their tails, and let on
they’re rattlesnakes, and I reckon that ‘ll have to do.” Tom to Jim in The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

This is a discovery that my Hubby made when he noticed grass sticking out of the old abandoned barbeque and opened the lid to investigate.

Turns out Mrs. Squirrel has a rather comfy home here.  We could not determine if there were babies by looking through the front door, and this nest is deep.  So we left well enough alone and closed the lid of the barbeque.

On another day, Hubby decided to take a second look.  Turns out that Mrs. Squirrel turns into a hell cat when the lid is lifted while she is at home.  Hubby is a good ducker, and we will leave the family in peace.

I wish I could get Mrs. Squirrel to pose for you, but she is in perpetual motion when I see her out and about, and I don’t seem to have the time to stalk her for a photo.

It’s easy to smile when you have a squirrel’s intellect. -Dylan Moran

Mr. and Mrs. Flycatcher moved to the neighborhood back in 2013.  I have shared their family in several posts, which can be found under the Home and Garden Galleries 2013 tab ,  2015 tab , and the 2016 tab at the top of this blog.

One year, the resident bully hawks (Cooper Hawks, I think) destroyed the family, so Hubby built a bird house for them to reside in.  It seems that Mr. and Mrs. Flycatcher prefer to nest in the open (perhaps they are claustrophobic).  The barn swallows, however, love to reside in the bird house, and the two seem to make good neighbors.

Both residences are right there by the porch light…next to the front door to my residence.

“Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.” -Henry Van Dyke

I do not know where the residence of the Hawks is, but I do know that it is nearby.  They have left the flycatchers unmolested since the birdhouse was put there.  Hopefully, it shields them.

That seems to be the way of life…the bigger and more powerful preying on the small but courageous.

Stay healthy!  Stay safe! 

A Stroll in the Garden

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

 

“A garden isn’t meant to be useful. It’s for joy.
Rumer Godden found in Power of Simple Living by Ellyn Sanna”
― Rumer Godden