New to the birdbath

Actually, I should say new IN the birdbath!

What a silly kitty you are, Purrl!!

Now REALLY... was that necessary?!

This was the view of my sewing room window on Sunday morning (down at the bottom):

Lovely, huh? Granted, it was dirty already, but not THAT bad!

Those were certainly no kitten tracks!

No doubt it was a raccoon.

It sure did a job of making a mess!

I wonder what the point was of all that smearing??? Maybe it was a whole family peering in the window?

All the wild critters around here have not been making me very happy lately.

First of the season

My tomato plants have not been doing the best this year, due to all the wet weather we had a few weeks ago. They got blight (or septoria leaf spot, or whatever it is) early on, and as you can see below, the disease is progressing, although it's slowed down some. I've picked off lots of affected branches, which is why the plants look so bare near the bottom.

At least there are still some tomatoes that are looking quite good. There was even one beginning to ripen when I took these pics on Friday.

I picked it Sunday morning, and by yesterday it was looking like this:

It wasn't very big, though, as you can see below.

Grandpa and I shared it for supper last night. We each got a couple small bites.

Yesterday morning I also picked this lovely GREEN tomato.....

..... off the ground! There were also a few deer tracks around, and apparently a deer had tried to bite into it.

It must've been too hard, since the skin was barely broken, so the tomato was just mostly bruised. But I guess it'll get tossed, because it probably will spoil before it'd get ripe.

I also chased the 3 hen turkeys and their dozen or so young out of the garden one day. So far they haven't done any damage. Just wait till more tomatoes start to ripen.....

Ever try tasting a toad?

Bert found a new toy! It was ugly, but sooo much fun!

It did all sorts of funny things...

... when you batted at it.

Let's see how it tastes.

A bit weird, if you ask Bert.

He shared his new toy. (Take note of his exiting. Remember it.) Purrl liked it, too.

Betty gave it a... "love pat?"

And a push...

And a flip...

Georgie got into the act, too.

He sniffed... but he didn't taste.

At that point I took pity on the poor toad and carried him to safety. (So far I haven't acquired any warts on my hand.)

Now... remember Bert's exit? He went under the deck. It seems that ol' toad didn't taste so good.

Notice his little foamy "beard"?

Poor little guy foamed and drooled for about 5 minutes. I think he learned a lesson. Hopefully he won't ever try tasting a toad again. At least he was the only one dumb brave enough to bite it. :)

Crafting with Courtney

Gosh, it's been a long time since we've done any "crafting with Courtney"! I think we've been too busy "kittying with Courtney". :) But this week she brought along a sewing kit that Grandpa and I had given her for her birthday, so we began a project from that.

The kit contained several projects, and everything she needed for each one was included, like fabric, needles, embroidery floss, scissors, pins and pin cushion, etc. She decided to make a stuffed kitty (ha - more kittying!). It was all hand sewing, so it gave her some good practice with her stitches.

She was very careful and really concentrated on what she was doing.

There was a little manual with instructions for each project (in 4 languages, no less!). Let me just say that the instructions left a lot to be desired, and it's a good thing they included pictures!

We managed to figure out how it was supposed to go together, and Courtney sewed. And smiled as she did so.

Her skills have improved a lot since she sewed with me the last time (whenever that was). I'm sure it's because her other grandma has been teaching her to embroider. She does a lovely job at that!

She didn't have time to finish the kitty before she went home, so this post MAY be continued.....

Turkeys are good for 'something'!

I've been seeing the turkeys quite often lately. Last week one day, I looked out the kitchen window and noticed some of them resting right in the backyard:

Did you notice the mom in the background? The chicks were in the sun, but she preferred the shade (which made it hard to get good photos). Here's a little better pic of her:

I guess you could say she was lurking. Does that make her a lurky turkey? Ha. Ha.

Since seeing those, I've seen more every once in a while. In fact, there are three hens, and the chicks total around a dozen or so, all of which I found in the machine shed the other evening. I guess the moms were teaching the chicks where to find the cat food. Ugh. When I went in there, the moms flew (literally) out the door, and the chicks flew up into the rafters. There was a riot of clucking and peeping after that. And lots of the chicks quite stupidly flew into the walls instead of out the wide-open huge doors. They have lots to learn, I guess.

I often find turkey feathers around the yard. One day I picked up a few and brought into the garage to see if the kittens would like to play with them. Oh, they were a big hit! Since I'd only found 4, I had to go out and get one more, because one kitten was feeling quite left out as his siblings played. After that, they each played alone, having a blast. I went in the house and came out 20 minutes later, and they were still going at it, although the feathers were looking a bit worse for wear by then. Such fun!

Enjoy this little video, and be sure to turn up the volume to hear a few growls!

So the turkeys provide great entertainment, if nothing else!

Just pretty

Cantaloupe blossom:

Day lilies:

Plains coreopsis:

Bachelor buttons:

Moss roses:

Good news/sad news

Yes, the kittens are still nursing. Poor Rainbow! ;)

What? You couldn't see her? Look again... there's her head:

Such big babies!

The good news is that they'll be going to a new home in a few weeks! They'll get to live on a different farm, in a barn. One of them might even get to live in the house there. I'll miss them a lot, but I have a hunch I can go visit them any time I want. :) And I'll be able to get my car in and out of the garage a LOT more easily to do so. To say the least. :)

The sad news is that I found my little Aggie. Or rather, her remains. I was mowing and spotted her under the branches of an evergreen tree out beyond the garden. The kittens never went that far from the house, so I'm sure some kind of predator came near the house and got her. Kind of strange. And so sad. But at least now I don't have to wonder if she's lost somewhere and starving to death.

Sun or moon?

We had a most unusual view of the sun on Thursday evening. These photos don't do it justice at all, because my camera just wouldn't capture the bright orange color, so you'll have to use your imagination. They'll also look more impressive enlarged, so click on them to do so.

There was a lot of hazy cloudiness in the sky, just enough to obscure the sun and make it look more like a full moon. It was simply a huge, orange ball. Too bad you can't see it as I did. It actually made me gasp when I first saw it.