blowing in the wind

Half an inch in about 10 minutes and 20 degrees cooler.  Blew one of my hummer feeders down but did not break it.

Joy, joy, joy....

School Clothes

I bought the babies a few school clothes.  This is Hannah's new stuff.  The shoes sparkle.  Mama may not like them much but Grandma knew Hannah would love them.  She got 3 shirts, 2 pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans.  She likes new clothes. She does not need any clothes, but Grandma thinks she needs new things for the start of school.  I will give them to her next week end.  I think School starts Aug 15.

Shoes, close up.  You can not tell it from the photo, but they have glitter on the sides and laces.

This is Roberts stuff.  One pair of jeans, 1 pair of shorts, 2 shirts and new underware.  Robert will not care.  He wants toys, not clothes.

Birds and a few blooms

This is my 2 birdbaths.  The birds do not like the black one but they love the other one.  George said they did not like the one because it was too close to the deck where we sit.  I said if that was the case, they would come to it when we were in the house and they did not, but  I moved it anyway.  They still do not like it.  Greg said they were afraid of the bird on top.  I did not think so but I covered the bird and they still did not like it.  I think they do not like it because the water is too deep.  The other one is much better for drinking, bathing and just cooling off in general.

I also have this one that is just a stoneware catch pan for a flower pot.  They really like it but it is too close to the deck.  The birds use it a lot when we are not sitting on the deck.  

Helen asked about the number of humming birds.  I have counted 8 or 9 at a time but I know sometimes we have upwards of a dozen.  It is really hard to count them.  They are nearly all females coming to the feeders now with one or two males.  Early in the season, they are nearly all males.  George says the males have already gone south.  I doubt that.

This was Wednesday around 4 pm when it was 114 degrees in the shade here. The birds were really in distress from the heat.

Betty was talking about her bird having its mouth open.  I think they do that to help cool off, like a dog with its  tongue hanging out and panting.

I know at times we have a dozen birds on this fountain Wednesday. Usually we only get 1, 2 or 3 at a time.

This is my dill weed and the little marigolds at the edge of my garden.  I have not watered these plants since June and they still look pretty good.  This year I am only gathering seeds from these marigolds and not the big plants.  I will try to plant more of these around the garden next year.

Bully Bird

I had 2 humming bird feeders until last week.  The hummers were suffering so much wanting food that I bought another feeder so now I have three.  However, mostly they only eat out of 2 feeders because there is one little Bully Bird that chases all the birds off this feeder.  She is so busy guarding her territory she rarely even gets to eat herself.

Turn up the sound and hear the bugs sing.

This is the feeder I have had for several years.

This one I bought about 2 years ago.  And the one in the video is the one I bought last week.  They are all glass globes with plastic bottoms.

This is the shows all three feeders with the pole George made me to hang the two on.  

Junior drilled down in Newton.  He said about 4 this morning there was a big fire at the apartments on the hill above dog patch.  The news says it was a total loss.

I am taking the day off tomorrow for our vercity.  I told them at work today that Patsy always said Poor George on this day.

The twins

This mama and her two babies are around here everyday.  Some days we do not see her, but often we do.  We think she stays in the ditch at the corner between us and Dan's down from Clayton's where the dogwood tree is.  We often see here at the edge of the trees at the crest of the hill in that corner.

We haven't seen any of the deer as often since it has been so hot, but today George saw one, probably this mama down by the pond in the middle of the day.  Then about 5 he saw her and the babies walk across Dan's field going east down into the trees in the hallow.  Then, later we saw that one baby at the pond.  We did not see the mother of other baby then, but they were surely in the ditch below the pond.  Later, the two babies were at the salt block but no mama.  She was probably in the ditch out of sight.  Then, we saw her come up out of the ditch, but the babies were  not in sight.  Around 7:30 or so here was mama and both babies down by the fence.  At 8:30 I could just make out the shape of mama still there.  It was too dark to see the babies but they were there somewhere.  This is the most we have seen of them since it got so hot.  They have not even been coming for salt very often.  I  think they may come out more at night, but now it is not that much cooler until early morning.  

It was 110 today.

View from my window

Akins

Rick and Crystal Akins....

Joy, Joy, Joy!!!!!!!!