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Quick NoteJust want to let any of you who stop by that this space is due for a serious re-do. I'm sick to death of looking at the same ol' stuff when I come here & I'll bet those of you who come by fairly often are too. So be patient with me because it will probably take several days & I can only sit in this position for limited amounts of time. Plus I have to make up my mind exactly what parts I want to change or delete as well as whatever I may want to add.
So if you drop in and things look stranger than usual, it's probably still "under construction" because I have serious doubts about getting it all done at once! Birds & Bees, Cacti & Trees - And A ShotgunTexas is in the midst of its rainy spring and I've been sitting here with door wide open (hey, it's a small change from my usual view) while the weather is cool. So, it's just me and my flyswatter for the time being. The sickly mesquite tree that makes up most of my view is drooping, either from all the rain or because of that dang cactus that grows in a four foot radius all around it. The cactus itself look like a dog or something of that size took several dives into the middle. They're squished back from the surrounding leaves (?). I don't know what the individual limbs on a cactus are actually called. At any rate, it could have been one of 4 roaming dogs from some of the "way over there" houses, or a wolf, fox, or bobcat since we have all of those. Geez, I'm STILL a city girl. I've been enjoying what view God gave me which also includes little clumps of wild flowers because when my landlord mows the refuses to mow down any time of flower. There must be at least 10 acres out here and all over the place one can see clumps of dead grass (because he was gone 2 weeks and it needed mowing before he left) and little clumps of flowers. I have yet to see any of the hummingbirds drinking from said flowers, but yesterday one kept trying to drink out of a large painted ceramic flower. Poor little guy, but no, I am not hanging up a feeder for the little critters.
We have a family of bunnies in that huge cactus too. Four new baby bunnies this year. I see them come out just before dusk and frolic back and forth in front of the cactus. At first the white on their tails was just a tiny spot but now their little bunny tails are white as snow. I never see Mama nor Papa Rabbit, just the playful little bunnies.
Sometimes I get a glimpse of one of the many mocking birds, some sort of scissortail, lots of sparrows, and today there was even a cardinal. Oh how I miss the days Mama and I sat out on the deck with our bird book and binoculars. We had mocking birds, starlings, wrens, sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, wax wings, pairs of robins, dove, crows, hummingbirds, and even some little colored finches. I miss those days so much this time of the year that it's almost impossible not to tear up from remembering. Yesterday my landlords discovered a bird had built a nest on my right front tire. Little sparrow going back and forth collecting his little bundles. She wanted to get a picture of it but Ken wiped it all off before she could get the camera. My first thought was, "Oh, I can't wait to tell Mama." Such is life.
Of course, once the cool, cloudy weather leaves, out come the yellowjackets we fight all summer. Last year I hung a couple of those traps for wasps, yellowjackets, hornets, etc. It helped some but I still didn't go outside without my handy can of Raid. Got an email today that said using Bounce Dryer Sheets will (among all the other uses) deter yellowjacks if you just stick it out of your pocket. I'm considering the creation of an entire outfit made from them, but lazy as I am these days will probably just carry a couple in my hands. Or maybe I'll nail them up around my door (know the landlords would appreciate that).
They've been gone for the past two weeks in the RV and are supposed to leave again today and stay gone till the weekend. Kenneth always tells me to "keep an eye on the place" but he flatly refuses to leave me his shotgun. So if I see a bobcat chewing his precious bushes or a wolf nosing around the door, I'm supposed to do.....what, exactly? Throw myself on top of the critter and go for its throat? Burglars could completely strip their house clean (and it's a BIG house), but all I could do would be to call the Sheriff's Dept. all the while knowing how few deputies patrol this county. Perhaps I could slither out far enough to take a picture of their U-Haul, but then I haven't slithered in years so I'm not sure how much good that would do. So what else am I supposed to look out for? A tornado? Ha! If a tornado came near, this little room would blow clear to Oz before it blew a shingle off their house.
Guess it'll be just me and our friendly (albeit somewhat scary) hoot owl with the nearest neighbor out of yelling distance. When it's dark I usually don't step a foot out there. Am I scared to be way out here all alone? Ha! I spit in the face of Fear! (Right before I run for cover).
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