My sweet sister-in-law, Susanne, gave me this wonderful coffee mug at the reunion last week. I love it! It makes me smile every morning.
Category: Nature
Fungus amungus.
We spent last week driving to Florida and back to attend the best-reunion-evah. 🙂 I have so many pictures, my eyes are glazing over. I kind of like this one. The old gives life to the new. Bloom where you are planted, my friends.
Family time in the garden.
We are spending the weekend at a family reunion this weekend. Our hostess, Susanne’s, garden is the perfect setting. Everywhere you look there’s a lovely surprise. We are missing those that can’t be here.
Bird on a wire.
We spent a fun weekend on the lake. Sunday morning, I was greeted by 7 or 8 little barn swallows grooming themselves on the lifelines and jib sheets of the boat next to us. I stole this shot of one in the morning sun. It’s hard to get a good photo of these little ones because they usually dart around and never light on anything close by.
The birds and the bees.
The hummingbird feeders are getting quite a lot of traffic these days. Between the bees, the hummers and the finches, they’ll empty one of these in a day. I had just refilled this feeder and by the time I got back into the house, these two had already stopped for a drink.
Hummingbird Nectar
1 part sugar : 4 parts H2O
Bring to a boil for several minutes.
Let cool completely. You can refrigerate any extra for a week or so.
Probably shouldn’t leave in the feeder for more than a day or two.
Jacob’s Well.
I joined Doray for a trip to the Wimberly area. We stopped by their new home site to check out progress. Then we visited Jacob’s Well Natural Area. Jacob’s Well is a narrow (10-20′ in diameter), but deep (up to 100′) hole in the limestone of the springfed Trinity Aquifer. Young and old jump from the rocks into the waters of the well to cool off. We were only hiking but I enjoyed watching the divers.
Watch your step! That first one can be a doozy.
(Image manipulated using iPhone app brushstroke)
Cool, clear water.
I went for a hike yesterday that took me down by Bull Creek.
June flurries.
High above the trees, I watched this flurry of cottonwood fluff blow off the tree tops, reflecting in the sun.
The cottonwood is on the right. On the left, a pecan, I believe.
Factoid of the day: “alamo” is the spanish word for cottonwood.
Summer.
A male (red) & female (yellow) summer tanager couple:
Sunny.
We have some giant sunflowers growing out back. Seriously. They are at least 8 feet tall.
One of the blooms:
More Bewicks.
I have shared my excitement throughout this entire Spring for our nesting Bewick’s wrens. The same pair have nested in two different houses on the patio. Their first brood was four babies. A second brood fledged Thursday; three more! The birdhouse is about 5 feet from where I sit while drinking my coffee each morning outside. The little wren parents were used to me and would fly back and forth to feed the babies while I was sitting there. So sweet.
This is the second of the three that fledged.
Kite spotting.
While hiking at Pedernales Falls this week, I brought my camera along. I wasn’t really birding, but I was keeping an eye out for them. We saw a number of species of birds. This one was a lifer for me – a mississippi kite. I am really surprised this turned out, the bird was at least 200 feet away, way atop a dead, scraggly tree. The sky was very overcast and the light was flat. After severely cropping and adjusting the exposure, I like how this one turned out. The kite is a cool looking bird.
Happy trails.
I went to Pedernales Falls State Park today to hike with a couple friends. They had never been, so it was fun to show them the different sights and trails.
We walked a bunch. After six hours or so, my Fitbit had logged almost nine miles. Whew!
Cuties.
We have birds nesting in a number of places in our yard. You’ve already heard a lot about the Bewick’s Wrens. A Carolina Wren also nested – in one of the aloe plants out back. The babies are out of the nest today, and I got a picture of mom/dad feeding one of the fledglings. I counted four babies at one point. You can see another one on the left edge of the bench in this shot. I hung the bark butter up again nearby and the parent bird is going to it every few minutes to feed the little ones. Such cuties. Their tails are so stubby right now, I don’t know how they get around.
Sheila365 