Tiny Dancer

My friend Yvonne at the Country Gardener recently put out this post on her beautiful wild flowers. She is an expert gardener and it would be worth your while to explore her blog and her website Flower Gardening Made Easy if you have any interest in gardening. So where is this leading you ask...her post "Floral Magic-Tiny Dancer" was more nostalgia than gardening. She commented that the 'tiny dancer' in her garden brought back memories of an Elton John song and album Madman Across the Water which was one of my favorites as a teen. Well, possibly The favorite as I embroidered the exact copy of the album on the back of an old jean jacket and wore it all through high school! My 30th reunion is next weekend....I still have the coat....should I wear it???

Hey!!! Part II

Thought I would finish up this story, which sadly ended too soon....

I stitched three pictures together to get this whole scene. Here comes the trailer...
That's some heavy lifting...

There are 8 bales on the bottom......and three on top...

and away we go! Now it's just a big empty field...:-(

Guinea Video

Well all it's not very good quality but it's the only way I could load it! Enjoy...

HEY! What a Day....

First they cut...Then they fluff... next they pile... Then the big dog comes...

and poops them out.

That's the technical term!

It's a big job. Then evening comes... and the job is done.

And they are all still here in the morning.I love looking out my front porch this time of year!

Real Summer Days....

Sunday our farmer came and mowed the field. He always waits until late in the season, which I like. I think (I hope) the birds have fledged and left their nests. This one's for you Roy! This morning there were hundreds of tree swallows lining the wires out front. They always seem to enjoy my fields and wires....must be I have tasty bugs here.

Today is SO beautiful....lots of sun and although there is a breeze it's not too hard to photograph or fly for that matter.

I was so excited to see a Clearwing moth!I photographed my first Painted Lady. It's somewhat faded but I'll take it! A Black Swallowtail joined the gang! And then I heard one of my favorite sounds the humming of wings!

HI Buddy!! And my sweet kids were enjoying the whole thing from the balcony! They are having such fun!

Something Different...

I was recently visited by Denise at "An English Girl Rambles" http://anenglishgirlrambles.blogspot.com/

so of course went to visit her blog. What I found was a magical blog with beautiful photography, memories, wonderful poetry from the world's best poets and so much more.

In 2005 while in my Creative Writing college class I created a calender of bird poetry which was my final for that class.

The poems were written with children in mind but I've found that adults get quite a kick out of them as well.

So with Denise in mind, (this one's for you Denise), I thought I would post a poem every now and then.

Mallard

There's a drake in my pond

He's all by himself,

Why is he here everyday?

He paddles alone

for hours on end

and sometimes he flies away.

But he always returns

to my small little pond

the reason

I'm sure I don't know.

Until one day

he reveals to me

The reason that he didn't go.

His duck waddles out

from the thickest of weeds

with her nine little ducklings
in tow,

and my drake is so proud

and his duck quacks so loud,

so happy her family

to show!

By Eve Sweatman

Just a few pictures...

Another one of my lilies...A Canadian Swallowtail in my garden. This was taken about three days ago and it's still out there today. It actually let me pick him up from behind. Sat right on my hand until he realized I wasn't a flower...
but my guinea kids think I'm sweet!!!

Chaumont Beach

Wow super-slow internet today...I'm having flashbacks of my dial-up days!!! Not a good thing for me!!

So Morgan and I went to our local beach which is quite nice and somewhat unknown. It's free, and had a lifeguard and the locals are feathered and friendly...

It's just such a peaceful place...with the excitment of a Caspian Tern... ...doing his thing!!

Foggy Morn...

Where do you suppose the spiders go when it's a foggy morn?

Garden Lily

My lilies are in full bloom and all of a sudden I've noticed that I have quite a few beautiful varieties! I just don't know all their names. It's time I started a system for remembering. Lilies are so easy to grow and they multiply quite nicely. The Guineas are just starting to explore the outdoors and I'm still working on getting a video of that on my blog. I'll post one soon.