After Brenham and a quick trip to Livingston, all covered by other posts I was poking around in the Dead Sea Files to find a new location to take you to that might be of interest. I kept ending up in my own back yard. So welcome to my home, pull up a chair, help yourself to what we serve: hot coffee, cold beer, and warm hugs.
Did I mention spectacular sunrises?
Sometimes it just takes a camera lens to make you realize you don't have to drive out of your gate to appreciate nature and its inhabitants.
Clarence has been our longtime Roadrunner pal. He is unafraid of us, while respectful. It isn't unusual for him to come up on the deck looking for lunch. He has occasionally held family reunions on our property, at one time I counted 5 having a conversation beside the house. The next day we were back to one or two, usually two, running around.
Last year we were blessed with a little Clarence, aptly named "Clarence Jr.". He was sitting on the column by the gate as we pulled out, and posed for me for a couple of minutes, totally unafraid as I took several pictures. I love my roadrunners.
Another familiar bird in our extended family is Howie. For those of you that watch the TV show "Big Brother" you might remember Howie, the loud mouth that was a contestant. That is where our scrub jay, Howie, got his name. He demands peanuts, has figured out that if he sees me in the window and hollers I will put peanuts in his dish. Howie is a loud mouth, a handsome gent, and a clown.
"Dear Lord, for this sunflower seed I am about to eat, I thank you."
Mr. and Mrs. C hung around for two or three years. I'm not sure about Mrs. C, but Mr. C, aka Big Red, didn't come back one year. He was easily picked out from the rest because of his size. He was half again as large as the rest of the male cardinals.
Don't think this is Mrs. C, she's too young, but like I said the females were not distinguishable other than when they hung out with their mates.
This easily could be Mrs. C. who was exhibiting very bad table manners.
Osker the Mocker, came to the feeder one November and stuck around to become one of the regular breakfast crowd.
Winter didn't seem to bother Thaddeus, the Titmouse or one of the multitude of sparrows that eat up all the food before you can get the feeders refilled.
We were lucky one year when Picasso, the Painted Bunting stayed for an extended visit. (do you get the idea that I name things that normally do not have names?)
A friend made me a birdhouse for my birthday a couple of years ago. I hung it on a shepherd's hook until I could decide where to put it. My mind was made up for me within an hour and it still hangs on that shepherd's hook.
A couple more that wandered through...or whatever a bird that just passes through it called (I think my Shutterbug friends call them JPT's)
One of the thrills living here happened one year when my grandson and his friend were diving off the diving board and started waving their arms and hollering. They thought they were being attacked by a giant wasp....when we realized what the "wasp" was Trish and I grabbed cameras and tripods and hurried to the pool.
This was the "wasp", protecting her nest from the human predators. One egg hatched. I saw the baby laying with its head draped over the nest, all icky, and thought how sad it didn't make it. A couple of days later I realized what I had seen was actually a newly hatched hummingbird baby very much alive. Out of respect for the "dead" baby I didn't take a photo...darn darn darn!
CARMIE - STOP HERE!!!!
Not all of nature is beautiful here. We have seen about 5 "legless lizards" but you won't see a picture of them. Those terrify me. The spiders and other bugs are happy here. Most are welcome - some not so much.
I used to be quite frightened of spiders, almost as bad as legless lizards, but have really gotten over that as long as they don't jump on me.
What I do love are the lizards (as long as they have legs!). When we moved in there were four big ole lizards that lived under the air conditioner units. Since there were four of them, and since I name everything, I called them The Four Lads. There is still many of them living in the same location, how many I don't know, but they are all sizes, so one of them at least must have been a Laddette.
Annoying but not frightening (well to one granddaughter they are), are the various types of grasshoppers we have in the spring time.
This one was VERY rude....as I was taking his picture he MOONED me!!!!
That is some of Mother Nature's gifts to me on this land I am fortunate enough to call mine. The rest of the critters and the flowers of my little part of the world will be in a few days.
Listen for those whispers, they may be closer than you think.
Goodnight.....
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