Do you know what this is?

Three or four years ago, I noticed a new plant growing on the north side of our row of lilac bushes (probably "planted" there by a bird as it... well... you know). At first I thought it was wild raspberries, and I was delighted. But it didn't turn out to be that, and I've continued to wonder what it is. This year as I mowed past it one time, I noticed that it was very full of blossoms... little insignificant-looking white blossoms, hanging down.

It suddenly dawned on me a few days ago that I should take pictures of it and try to figure out what it is. Thanks to all the rains, the mosquitoes are terribly thick this year, and the north side of the lilacs is one of their favorite spots, so I went out in full sun, thinking they wouldn't be so bad. Wrong. They were awful! It was like a Deep Woods Off commercial! I had to take pics really fast or get eaten alive, so the photos aren't the best. But here's what the bush looks like now. Maybe someone can help me identify it (Grace?).

A cropped close-up of the leaves:

And the berries as they look now:

I did lots of Googling. Finally, in the process of writing this post and searching some more, the closest I could come was a wild black currant, as shown here. Whaddya think? Is that it? Anybody else have bushes like this?

Look what came today!

The kitties are certainly curious! Annabelle's even reading the label to see if she can get a clue.

Now YOU have to remain curious for a while, too, 'cause I can't show you what's in the box (yet). And I'm going to have to disappear on you as I get busy working on it. I'll update when I can......... !!

The mystery continues... BUT, a clue!

(If you haven't read my previous post, you should do that before you read this one, so you'll know what I'm talking about.)

This morning when I went out to feed the cats, I thought about bringing an extra Cool Whip bowl along, just in case. But I thought nah, nothing would take a Cool Whip bowl.

WRONG!! It was gone. Nowhere in sight. And it was so cold (minus 2° and minus 20-something wind chill) that I hated to have to run back to the house for another one. So I decided to hunt a bit. Lo and behold, I found it! Way back in a dark corner of the shed, next to the combine's corn head. Hurray, now I won't have to run back to the house! 

WRONG!! I got a little closer, and this is what I found... just look at it!!

That certainly wasn't a tongue-stuck-on-the-bowl problem! And Mark, I don't think Grandpa could do that work with his teeth. A nail, maybe, but...... Heheh. I don't think so.

Okay, I think we actually have two clues here: #1) Look how dirty it is. When I put that out there yesterday, it was brand spankin' clean. And cats don't make it dirty. They just drink.  #2) Since it was back by the corn head, I strongly suspect that's where I'll find my 2 missing stainless steel bowls. If only I could lift up that head. Will I actually have to wait till next fall when the corn's ready to combine in order to get my bowls back? *sigh*

Question #1:  Is it a 'coon?
Question #2:  How do I prevent this from happening again???  I do have a pretty good supply of Cool Whip bowls, but they won't last long at this rate!

Update!:  Grandpa found one of the stainless steel bowls tonight... as suspected, under the corn head.  Unfortunately, he left it by the food pans (where it belongs, but.... ). It remains to be seen whether it'll still be there in the morning. It's really cold out, though... maybe the 'coons will be hibernating... I HOPE!

Okay, whodunnit???

When I looked out the window this morning, I noticed this:

I actually took that picture last, so ignore my tracks in the frosty grass.  But notice below how it looks like something has scraped up grass and dragged it onto the snow on the left.

A closer look:

Then there's the grassy path to the culvert, also:

And a nice little pile on the snow:

(Click any photo to enlarge for a better look.)

Soooo.... what kind of a critter would be doing that, do you think? The snow is frozen too hard to see any tracks.

And a second mystery! I've been using a stainless steel water bowl for my cats outside. (I used to use Cool Whip bowls, but they tend to crack if there's quite a bit of water left and it freezes.) A few weeks ago, I went out to feed them one morning, and the water bowl was gone. Totally GONE. I looked everywhere, but found nothing. I happened to have another ss bowl, so I put that out. A few days later, I found it about 20 feet or so from where it was supposed to be. Now this morning, it too was GONE. Nowhere to be seen. Grrrr!

When the first bowl disappeared, I thought perhaps since it had just turned to some really cold temps, that an unknowing cat (or 'coon?) licked the bottom of the bowl and got its tongue stuck and ended up dragging the bowl off somewhere. But now I'm tending to not think that. Grandpa thinks a 'coon simply TOOK it. I think he might be right. What they plan to do with it, I have no clue. It just makes me mad.

Okay.... help me out here! What do YOU think happened in each of my mysteries? I need some expert opinions (or not so expert, too) here. Even a crazy wild guess would do. ;)  Let's hear from you. Mark? (Okay, I know you're really busy... you're off the hook.) Dale? Bart? (Yeah, I know you're out there lurking... it's time we hear from you!) Anybody else? Comments, please!!!! :)

Mysterious hole

Back between the garden and the evergreens to the north, I found this hole.

I have no idea what made it. It seems a bit too big for a striped gopher hole, and I've never seen any gopher... or any other animal, for that matter... around there.

It's about 3 inches across. There's no fur to be seen at all, but the hole seems to be freshly used, as there are no spider webs over it or anything. Take a closer look.

If you look really closely by enlarging the photo, you can see that there are bits of green grass down in the hole.

I have no clue what lives down there. What do you think? Courtney's daddy says it must be a cobra. Hmmm.....

Update (read previous post - "A messy morning" - first)

[I had to do a new post for this, because if I added pics to the previous one, it'd screw up all the formatting, and I don't have the time (or patience) to fix it right now.]

I just checked the bubble globs on the grass. Here's what I found.

Each one had at least one of these little critters in it.

They must really mature FAST, because I found nothing but a tiny 'something' that was indistinguishable in any of the bubble globs this morning. Now they all have these larvae in them. This last one had three!

I still don't know what they are.

The answer: Grandpa called his crop consultant, and he said they are Meadow Spittlebugs. How aptly named, huh? Now we all know.

A photo of a mature one can be found here, and there's some information about them here.

A messy morning

Remember the million bells I had last year? And the incident I had with them right after I'd planted them? Well, guess what. It's happened again! Only this time it was worse. This is what I saw on our deck first thing this morning.

Yeah... ON THE DECK! Would a skunk come up the steps and onto the deck? Or would a raccoon do that? Or a woodchuck? Anyway, I'm mad! The poor little plants were just beginning to look pretty nice. I'm sure they'll survive... they're like a petunia, and they're pretty tough. But there was a LOT of root damage, so they won't look nice and full for a while.

I often take the planter off the deck railing and set it on the floor overnight, in case the wind comes up or something. I guess from now on I'll be putting it in the garage overnight. Always something to contend with when growing anything outside, but this is ridiculous. I hope whatever it was gets sick and dies from all the plant food, etc., in the potting soil.

While I was out on the deck, I checked the birdbath. This is how it looked.

YUCK! And it had looked like that last night, too, so I'd rinsed it and refilled it then. Sure didn't stay clean very long... had lots of mud and blades of dried grass. I rinsed and refilled it again, and after I went back in the house, I kept an eye out to see who the culprit was. Didn't take long. It was a very dirty ROBIN. Apparently they're doing some nest building, and I think I know where. I'd seen a pair building in an ash tree nearby a few weeks ago, but the nest was abandoned. Today I looked up there after seeing the robin fly to that tree, and sure enough, it looks like they've been doing some renovating. The nest has gotten much bigger. I think they've added a complete story. ;-)

So that explained that mess. Then as I finished up taking some other interesting photos (fodder for future blog posts... stay tuned), I happened to look at the long grass in the ditch across our driveway. Here's what I saw.

Everywhere were these little white globs! Have a little closer look.

Okay... have a REALLY CLOSE look!

They were little globs of bubbles! It looked like someone had tossed some dishwater suds into the air and the wind scattered it all over. No, it wasn't me! It's gotta be some kind of bug or something, doesn't it? Like inside those bubbles are eggs or something? So someday soon are there going to be some nasty bugs all over the place??? ACK! I have no clue. Does anybody know what makes this? Dale, do you know???

It rained lightly for quite awhile today. I'll have to take a look soon and see if anything's left.

But now I must sew again. Our Etsy shop got restocked today with the 5 new bags I sent Jess. We'll see how long they last (I just checked and saw that one has sold already!). And now people are asking for more of the smaller book covers, so those are next on my agenda. At least I already have a few cut out, and they're pretty quick to make. Last week the postcard packs were selling strangely fast. We don't know if somebody's blogging about our stuff and causing the extra sales or what, but it's nice. Does keep me busy, though, so I guess I'm glad for the rainy weather. Grandpa's not so happy, though, since the hay was almost dry. :-(

Another mystery!!

This is even weirder than the mystery I blogged about a couple months ago!

On Wednesday I went down to the computer in the basement for an email check before going into town for groceries. I closed the door behind me to keep the cats from following me down. I no more than sat down here when I heard Willow scratching at the door, wanting to come down. I ignored her and did a few things on the computer. (Who can do "just an email check" once they sit down in front of the computer?) The next thing I knew, here was Willow down by my feet, begging to get in my lap! I was shocked! I KNOW I left both cats upstairs! I checked the door, and it was indeed still closed and latched. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW SHE GOT DOWN HERE!!!! There is no other way to get down here!!

Can a full-grown, 3-year-old cat flatten herself enough to get under a door that is less than an inch off the floor?!

I think the person who left the mud on the floor in the other mystery was back and very quietly opened the door, let Willow through, and closed it again without my hearing it.

Or maybe I'm losing my mind... or my memory... or blacking out part of my life entirely (though I haven't been drinking lately!) Once again, I am totally baffled. And yes, it bugs me... but not as much as the other mystery.

What do you think?

HELP!!!!

Very mysterious!!!

This is so strange. Last evening about 6:30 I went out to the machine shed to feed my cats... had the oven heating for pizza so didn't even take the time to pet any of them... was away from the house for less than 5 minutes (and even only that long because it was slow picking my way around the muddy heifer tracks). When I came back in, I noticed tracks of still-wet packed mud on the floor going into the kitchen. I assumed Hubby had stepped into the house for something, since he was in the yard when I went out. But when he came in a bit later and I pointed out "his" muddy tracks, he claimed innocence!

Then I thought perhaps our son had stopped in for a quick visit to show off his new "toy", and finding me not in the house, had just left again. However, a quick phone call to him came up with another claim of innocence!

A closer look at the driveway showed what looked like fresh vehicle tracks turned up toward the garage, so apparently someone HAD indeed been there and left again. But WHO???

The really strange thing was that whoever it was either didn't bother to ring the doorbell, or did and the doorbell didn't work, because neither of my cats seemed spooked when I came in. And Willow ALWAYS shoots immediately for under the bed when the doorbell rings. And since neither of them seemed alarmed, it seemed as if WHOEVER it was possibly didn't even say anything, because an unknown voice would have also scared them. Or else it was someone they know!

Hubby thought perhaps it was the neighbor across the field, because he'd noticed their garage door open at one point. So curiosity got the best of me, and I called over there this morning to find out, although I couldn't imagine him having stepped clear into the kitchen like that unless it was an emergency of some kind. Well, his wife is quite sure he's innocent, too, although she's going to double-check when he gets home tonight.

So now I have no idea WHO or WHY. I am totally baffled. And yes, it really BUGS ME! If you have any clues or ideas, do let me know!

??? WHODUNNIT ???

P.S. I suppose in keeping with the theme of this blog, I should have taken pics of the evidence, but unfortunately I wasn't thinking of blogging about it at the time. So picture in your mind about 3 steps worth of packed mud, and fresh vehicle tracks in the gravel. ;-)