Busy as a bee

Yep, I've been busy lately... but probably not as busy as this little guy on my sedum:

More flyers

It's that time of year again......

Not the best shots, really. Boy, is it hard to focus when there's nothing there and then suddenly there is but it's not staying long enough focus on!

Dragonflies galore!

For several evenings, we've had hundreds of dragonflies in our yard during the early evening. They were just thick everywhere. When I saw how the sun was glinting on them, I decided to see if I could get any decent photos. Ha - it wasn't easy - they moved so FAST! Here are a few shots, though. Those tiny dots must be some other kinds of bugs.

I love how the sun shining on them made them somewhat irridescent!

(Click to enlarge.)

After dark, I went outside to get rid of some garbage, and I happened to notice a dragonfly on its back on the doorstep outside the garage. I flipped it over to see if it could still fly, and wouldn't you know, I managed (unintentionally) to get it to fly into the garage (toward the lights, of course). Here it is on the ceiling:

I chased it around a bit, trying to get it back outside. I turned off the garage lights and turned on the outside light, but it didn't help. Finally I managed to get it onto the broom and back outside.

It stayed on the broom, not willing to fly in the dark, so I worked it onto my finger for some better photos.

It was quite colorful!

And big! These were about the biggest dragonflies I've ever seen.

Pretty or ugly???

Rainbow's kittens visited

On Tuesday Courtney and I went to visit Rainbow's kittens (a.k.a. the garage kittens) at their new home. As expected, we found them to be doing very well. They were still being confined some of the time until they're used to the place enough that there would be no fear of them getting lost. So getting outside occasionally was a special treat for them.

We let them all out, and they got busy re-exploring whatever they explored the last time they were out. :) They checked out everything... all the scents...

... all the holes...

... all the future places to sneak through.

There was plenty of grass to lounge in...

... or to play ball in...

... or to go bonkers in...

... or to "fight" in...

... and to just plain RUN in!

There were flowers to hide in and poles to climb!

The freedom to run was so 'moving' that I couldn't keep up with the camera. :)

There was a bit of time for snuggling and relaxing, too. Just a wee bit.

It was a good day, and Courtney and I were happy to see the kittens so happy.

But I still miss them.

Crafting with Courtney (a.k.a. Little Miss Funny Face)

Tuesday was Courtney's second-to-last full day with Grandma before school starts. After next week, we'll have only after-school Tuesdays together. So she wanted to do a craft project, since we had plenty of time. We did some searching online and found a pretty neat project. Here's how it started out:

Here are the finished projects... and some funny faces. :)

We found the project at Danielle's Place, which has TONS of fun stuff for kids to do. This one was listed on the 'C' page under, of course, "Cat Crafts".

We printed the frame and paw print templates on cardstock, and Courtney did the cutting and coloring. We also printed the photos of all the kitties. I think they turned out super cute! Here's a closer look:

Rainbow's kittens

Courtney's cats, Zoey and Izzy

(We forgot to edit the title on the second one until after I'd taken the close-ups. :) )

Newbie

I bet you thought you were done seeing so many cat/kitten photos since my garage babies are gone, right? Ha! No such luck!

I noticed this little scene on the driveway awhile back, before the garage kittens were gone, actually.

It was Patches and one of her three remaining kittens. This is the only female of the three. Patches decided to bring her up to the house, and I was inside the garage door, so the kitten didn't see me. How sweet is this next pic, huh?

They kept coming...

... and suddenly the baby noticed Rainbow's kittens by the garage!

Look at that bottle brush tail!

She was okay with getting checked out. I'm not so sure about Patches, though. ;)

She is soooo pretty!

I just love her markings!

She's pretty skittish yet. She took off in a hurry when she finally saw me that day.

I'm working on taming her. She's the only female kitten remaining of this year's litters, and I want to make sure she survives if I can. And I want to be able to cuddle her! I'm able to get closer and closer to her when she's eating now, and she no longer immediately runs when I make eye contact with her, so that's progress. I haven't named her yet, although I did think of a name I kinda liked the other day... and then I forgot it! Ha!

The only other kitten I can hold is one of Dash's two little white guys. He was wandering around lost in the machine shed with his eyes stuck shut one day, so I've caught him and treated his eyes a few times, and he's not afraid of me anymore. So at least I have one I can snuggle.

There are only six kittens left of all the litters that were born. I don't know what's happened to most of them. Mama kitty had hers at the neighbor's again. I know she's still nursing some, so I hope she'll bring them over for a visit someday soon, although I'm sure they'll be very wild.