May 23, 2009

I’m a Bird Watcher…

Over the last few months I’ve had the pleasure of seeing several birds outside my dining room window. I wanted to post these photos ages ago, but I was too lazy to upload to flickr. I’m blaming pregnancy for that, too. Heck, I’m blaming pregnancy for a lot of things. Truth be told, bird watching sort of calms me. There’s just something about these delicate creatures that makes me happy. Here are a few of my favorite photos:

Every morning, since late March, this little bird comes to visit us. She flies into our dining room window several times (lightly so she doesn’t hurt herself) and then perches on the windowsill outside, peeking into our home. It’s so darn funny. Dawson and I get such a kick out of her when she plays peek-a-boo. She never lets me get close enough to get a good photo of her.

Cute little bird, isn’t she?  (Or he?  I think it’s a she…) When she’s not flying into my window, she’s playing peek-a-boo when she sits on the windowsill.

Playing Peek-a-Boo.  I see you, Little Bird. When she’s not playing peek-a-boo, she flies to the other side of the house and craps on my car.  I think she’s ticked that I won’t let her in the house.

Mr. Cardinal stays at a distance.  He’s quite handsome, yes?  I happened to get this shot while waiting for my Little Bird Friend to perch herself on the windowsill so I could get a close-up.  Dawson ran to the window and scared the bird poop out of her.

After taking these photos we headed to the store for bird seed and hummingbird nectar.  My in-laws told me the hummingbirds should be migrating soon, and I’ve been watching that feeder daily.  So far I haven’t seen any hummingbirds, but I know they must be around because the nectar is half full.  I’ll have to pay closer attention I think.

Any readers out there that are bird watchers, too?

November 11, 2008

What I Woke Up to Saturday Morning

Last Friday at work, my co-worker said the naughty ‘S’ word.  It seems our local television meteorologist forecasted a misting of that fluffy white stuff.

That’s right.  Snow.

I’m not ready for winter yet.  I miss summer very much.  Hell, I miss fall very much.  I didn’t get to take as many fall foliage photos as I wanted because I was so busy with all my commitments at work and at home.

Anyway, I had this clever idea to use “Reverse Snowology.”  Don’t steal that phrase my friends, I’m trade-marking it.

Reverse Snowology is when you say aloud, “Oh, gee!  I’d really love it if it would SNOW!”  The idea is that  saying those words will trick Mother Nature and then it will not snow.

It seems that whenever I say I DO NOT want snow, it always manages to cover my front lawn.  I thought my Reverse Snowolgy thing was clever, and that it would, you know, WORK.

But alas, it snowed.  Thankfully it melted less than an hour later.

April 20, 2008

Spring, Glorious Spring!

Just about a week ago I woke up to snow outside my bedroom window. It was a fluke. I mean, really. Snow? In April? So depressing.

After a long, extremely cold winter, I prayed for Spring every day. Dawson felt my pain. Every morning since January, he has been asking me when he could go outside to ride his bike. I kept telling him once the snow melted and the weather was warmer. He got his wish this weekend.

It was so warm and wonderful that we spent most of our weekend outdoors. I ignored the housework nagging at me, I tried not to worry about all the things I should be doing and instead decided to play outside with Dawson.

We went to three different parks and playgrounds. We took two bike rides. We took a long walk (3 miles) this afternoon. The temperatures averaged about 65 to 70 degrees and we took advantage of the first real days of Spring.

Dawson got to ride his bike, he was so excited to petal all by himself with no pushes from Mommy, not counting the part where he went off the sidewalk (we’re chalking it up to being the first bike ride of the season).

Murphy (our dog) was in heaven. He’s been dreaming about warm weather and a leash for months.

As for me, I was just happy to spend some time outdoors with my boys. (Okay! Okay! And to take many awesome photos with my new camera.)

It’s a brilliant camera. Here’s the proof:

Enjoying Spring at Mead Park

Snowbank in January, Duck Puddle in April

The Doodlebug

For the Love of Mother Earth

The Pensive Child

Thankful for Days in the Park

My Beautiful Boys

Petal to the Metal

July 21, 2006

Turtle Trouble

On Sunday evening, Doug and I were in the garden. He was weeding. I was taking pictures of all the fruits of our his labor. I had just snapped a picture of our tomato plants when Doug started laughing.

“Holy Crap!” he said through his laughter. “Murphy! How did you get over there?”

I turned around to see our dog, Murphy, on the other side of our fence. He was gallivanting in the neighbor’s yard. I called his name and he came right up to the fence and laid on the grass, taunting me to come over and get him. He knows how to play the “chase me all over the neighborhood” game very well.

While Doug went around to capture our rebellious canine, I proceeded to walk the fence line to see if Murphy had dug any holes under the fence to escape. It’s just a cheap little fence to keep the dog and Dawson away from the road behind our house. As I was perusing the fence line, I shrieked! There in the grass, running the fence line, was a turtle. A TURTLE!

“Doug! Come here!” I yelled.

“What? Did you find a hole in the fence?”

“Ummm. No….but I did find THAT!” I pointed.

“It’s just a turtle. Are you really this girly? Here, hold him!” he said. He picked up the slimy looking thing and proceeded to hand him to me. I freaked out and said there was no way I was holding that turtle. He taunted me by dangling the little thing in my face.

“Chicken!” he said. “I wonder where he came from.”

“I’m not getting my finger bitten off. No thank you. He probably wandered over from the river.”

Little Plover River was a 1/4 mile away from our house. We always walk the path to the park and we figure our little pal walked a long way to get into our backyard. But we have no clue how he got into the fence!

“Awww. C’mon. He won’t bite.”

I declined again and Dawson toddled over to see what we were talking about. He immediately clang to my leg when he saw his daddy put “Terry the Turtle” on the ground. The little amphibian sure moved fast. Suddenly, Murphy caught wind of Terry and decided to poke and prod at the poor thing.

“Doug, we need to get him back to the river.”

After playing with Terry and giving him a dip in our rain barrel, we grabbed an old pail and put Terry in it. I called it the Turtle Taxi. We packed Dawson in his stroller and attached Murphy to his leash and the four of us went to release Terry in his natural habitat. Such good little environmentalists we are. We found a low clearing by the river and let Terry into the water.

“Buh-bye, turd!” Dawson said, his little fist opening and closing into a wave. “Buh-bye.”

When we got home, Dawson seemed a little sad.

“What’s the matter, bug?”

“No mo turd, Mumma.”

“Oh!” I laughed. “Yes, no more turtle. He went home.”