Wonderfully Chilly Evening

This is my favorite kind of evening. It 57 degrees F. I love cool evenings, especially at bed time. I want it to be chilly enough that I can snuggle under the covers. I can't stand it when it's so warm that I have to kick the covers off. I have never handled heat well, which makes me wonder why I stayed in Florida for 19 years! I hated the weather down there. You couldn't tell the different seasons unless you were looking at a calendar! lol

Now for the bad news. I found yet another dead sparrow today. I found it around 1:00 this afternoon. I picked him up in a plastic grocery bag and took him up to the Perdue Extension office. I talked to one of the girls there. She wasn't sure what did the killings, but the one conclusion she came to was a weasel. She called the University and left a message and told them to call me. They did call, but only after I had gone to work. So I will have to call them back tomorrow.

My raccoon just paid me a visit. It was eating the cat food I put out on the back step. I put it out for a couple of the neighborhood cats, but the raccoon is an added bonus. I believe it's a female. Not too terribly large. She was eating and I started talking to her through the screen of the computer room window. She stood up on her hind legs and looked right at me. She then wandered away. At least she didn't run off spooked! She is so cute!

I didn't go to the garden this morning, so I will have to go out there tomorrow morning, weather permitting. I had to work today, so that cut in on time. I am off until Sunday now!

I got a little bored while I was editing pics this evening. I went slightly overboard on the contrast of this geranium! Just slightly. lol I think it's kind of cool, but that's just me. I like weird things!

Gotta go for now. Everybody have a good evening/morning and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

Lisa

Windy Day

I tried to write a post last night, however, my internet decided to get disconnected somehow. Not sure what happened. I was too tired to try to go through shutting down and restarting, so I just shut down and went out to the living room and fell asleep watching TV with Chuck. Don't ask me what was on, because I have no clue. LOL
Chuck cut the grass yesterday, then when he finished, he went and helped Rick finish the empty lot next to us. It's a huge lot, belonging to the people that live on the other side of it. They allow us to use it, as long as nothing gets torn up. We don't really do anything to it. My squirrel feeder is on one of their trees and I put squirrel corn in a hollow stump for them to eat. Another neighbor, however, has a bad and irresponsible habit of waiting till the ground is really wet, then he runs his four-wheeler through it and tears up the grass and puts huge ruts in the ground. If the owner says anything to him, he tells her off, as if he has the right to destroy other people's property if he wants. Can you say "White Trash"! I hate people like that.
I found another dead sparrow under the pine tree yesterday. I found him about 3:30 in the afternoon. I have been going out there every so often looking for dead birds. I really hate no knowing what it is. Whatever it is, it is making a meal of the brain. (Sorry so graphic). None yet today, but haven't had a lot of birds as I need to fill the feeder. Only seed on the ground.
Chuck started his month of daytime runs today. For this, he goes back and forth to Cleveland. Only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday until production picks up. He sometimes gets local runs on the days he doesn't do his regular run. Usually to Muncie or somewhere local. Muncie is about 15 miles or so from here.
Gonna go for now. I will try to post again tonight, as this is technically Sunday night's post! lol
Everybody have a good day and hopefully I will see you tonight.
Reader Wil and Carla, thank you for your visits this morning.
Lisa

A Better Day

Good evening! We had quite a bit of rain this morning. I t didn't last very long, but it came down hard. Our back yard was under water for a few hours trying to give the ground time to soak up the water dumped on it.

Thank goodness, no dead birds today. I hope whatever it was just decided to move on. Before and after the rain, there were several birds out at the feeder. It had to be filled twice today. You would think they would be leary of what had happened, but they were all flocked out there. I'm glad. I love to watch my birds and to think that something was killing them agrivates me.

Abe, I know you suggested that they may have flown into a dark window after getting spooked by a large bird, but all the bodies were found at least ten to fifteen feet away from the house. And that was the closest. Others were into my next door neighbor's yard. A friend suggested that I contact somebody at the county agriculture office and ask them.

We were really busy at work today. You would have thought it was the beginning of the month and everybody got their foodstamps or their monthly government checks. It usually isn't that busy unless it's the beginning of the month. I picked up my schedule for next week. What a joke! Nine hours for the week! Gee, I hope they don't go broke! Still keep those fingers crossed that I get a call from the doctor's office I applied at. I really want to get back into that line of work. It's actually a challenge, as opposed to scanning food and putting it into the shopping cart. Don't get me wrong, I love talking to the customers. That's how I met Lori and I get to see old friends.

I took a few pictures today, while the weather permitted. Most were taken from inside the house, so I apologize if there is a slight glare to the pics!

Thank you to my new visitors. I was worried that nobody would visit my blog, especially since I'm new at it.

Everybody have a good evening, day, rest of weekend. Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

Lisa

Quiet Day

As usual, not much happened today. Chuck got into Montpelier about 9:30 this morning, but had a lot of running to do between dropping part of his truckload at the warehouse where he works, taking some to GripCo, which is directly behind the company he works for. Then running back and forth between his company and Indiana Veneer. So he didn't get home til around 1:00 this afternoon. We had planned on going for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, but getting home so late, we had late breakfast here, then had dinner at Cracker Barrel. That is my all-time favorite restaurant. We used to go all the time when we lived in Orlando. There was one close to the house near the airport.

I had to take Michael to get his hair cut today. When we got home, we found 2 more dead birds in the yard. I mistakenly said that the birds I found yesterday were sparrows. I don't know why I said that. I knew they weren't sparrows. They were black, possibly juvenile Grackles? But they were about the size of sparrows. The 2 I found today were sparrows. Same method of death. My neighbor told me he has found a couple of dead birds in his yard as well. He also told me that there is a Red-tail hawk living nearby. I haven't seen a hawk around the house this year. He also said that when he was clearing the weeded area behind the other neighbor's house, he found a couple of squirrel carcasses as well. I don't know if the hawk is the culprit or not. I always thought they swooped down and carried their prey away to the nest.

Again, sorry, no pictures taken today. Not a lot of animal activity in the yard today, and didn't go anywhere to take the camera. So you get more archive pics today.

Gonna get off here. I fell asleep on the couch last night watching TV. Woke back up around 2:00 this morning.

Everybody take care, have a good weekend and I'll hopefully see you tomorrow.

Lisa

Not Too Good

Today turned out to be not so good. Early this afternoon, I went out to fill the bird feeder. When I got out there, I found a dead sparrow, I believe juvenile, on the ground under the feeder. It had severe trauma to the back of the head. Not the work of a cat, in my opinion. I went to work, and when I got home, I found three more dead juvenile sparrows, all near the bird feeder. They too had severe trauma to the back of the head. One had only the beak left. It really upset me to find all these precious babies dead. The only thing I can think of is larger birds killed them. I'm not sure why. I've never had birds killed in my yard before. I don't know what kind of bird would do something like this, but I'm sure it was over food. Didn't take any pictures again today.This, unfortunately, is a picture of a picture. I actually took it to email it to Lori. This was my back yard in Apopka, Florida. The dock was in my next door neighbor's yard, but you couldn't get out onto it because a big section from the land to about 15 or 20 feet into the water, had been burned. But it made for great pictures. I don't have the original picture or negative any more. This is a 20x30 hanging in my dining room. It was taken with a 35mm Vivitar about 17 years ago.

Same location, but with very large birds(not sure what kind) and a sea plane that had just taken off. The bad thing about living out here was the alligators! You could always hear them bellowing. They are very loud.

This is the Mississinewa River. I was standing under the Cumberland Bridge to take it. This river has really gotten very high with all this excessive rain we've had. In 1913 a flood washed the bridge away. They had to pull it back up in place with horses and raise the foundation. It's a beautiful bridge. Recently refurbished. Here is a link to a website showing the bridge.

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/indiana_covered_bridge_14_27_01.htm

This Swallowtail butterfly literally fell on the ground in front of me one day while we were cleaning out the garage. I was carrying flower pots full of soil up to my flower bed to dump. Something yellow dropped to the ground in front of me, just like a dead leaf. I stopped and looked at it. I watched it for a while to see if it would fly away or not. It never moved, so I went in to get the camera and got a few shots. Then I put my hand down by it. It crawled up onto my hand, then up my arm, up my throat, my face, and finally into my hair. It was the strangest feeling having that butterfly walk on my face. We moved it to the tree and it eventually flew away. It apparently had just recently hatched from it's coccoon. It's wings weren't completely dry.

Grandpa's apple blossoms are at the top of the page. I think that tree only had maybe a dozen apples on it last year because of the wacky weather. This year, so far, it has tons of "baby" apples on it. I can't remember how they taste, or what type they are.

If anybody has any idea about the bird attacks, please let me know. It driving me nuts not knowing.

Gonna get off here for tonight. Everybody have a good night and hopefully I'll see you tomorrow.

Lisa

Hum Drum!

Good evening/morning. Not much of anything going on here today. The 4-H fair is in town, so naturally we are having crappy weather! They held it really early this year for some strange reason. It usually doesn't happen til late July to early to mid August. Not sure how the kids are supposed to display any of their gardening or canning achievements this early in the summer, but who am I to judge!
Only managed to take one picture today. Just before I left for work. A cute bunny rabbitt sitting outside my front door. I took the picture through the door window.

I received an e-mail yesterday alerting me of a job opening in a doctor's office. It is part of Cardinal Health System. The opening is in Upland, which is only about seven miles or so from here, near Taylor University. Everybody keep your fingers crossed that I at least get called for an interview! Working as a cashier may let me see people I haven't seen in years, but I have osteoarthritis in both hips and my weight isn't helping matters any. I'm in pain quite often, especially if I have to work a longer shift. I never realized how good I had it when I worked in the ob/gyn office in Orlando, until I started working at Save A Lot!

Well, since I didn't get to take any but one picture today, I'll have to dig into the archives!
Well, I really went into the archives for the picture above! That's me when I was sweet, innocent and cute. What in the world happened?! LOL! I ran across it while I was cleaning out my closet yesterday. The rose is from my neighbor's fence I took a couple of weeks ago.

I guess that's enough torture for one evening/morning! Sorry so boring! I'm trying to do better. I've never been much on conversation. I just love to take and display pictures!

See you tomorrow

Lisa

A Day With Cody

I finally got to have my grandson over for the day. Usually Ryan and Melissa bring him over and they visit for an hour or so then they leave. Yestarday, his Melissa's parents had a funeral to go to. They are the ones who keep Cody while the kids are working. Cody will be three in August. I was expecting him to be into absolutely everything! Surprisingly, he was very good. He did get, or try to get into a few things, but nothing big.

Just before 2:00, he passed out on Michael's bed watching TV with Michael. Papaw Chuck went and got him a new race car and a pack of flash cards. He had brought a big car to play with, and he has just a few toys here, but he always wants to play with Papaw's big race car. It's still in the original package and it's not coming out of the package.

All in all, it was a pretty good day.
Everybody take care. I'll try to do another post tonight when I get home from work. Ugh! There's that four-letter word again!

Talk to you later

Lisa

Finally!

Good morning! Once again, I should have been in bed a long time ago. I've been editing the pictures that I took on Monday. I was just sitting out in the yard taking the usual pictures of birds, squirrels and flowers. Lori called while I was sitting out there and asked me if I would like to go and help her do a photo shoot. She needed somebody's hands to to a "hay-twisting" shoot. I took my camera with me. I got a few shots of her four horses that are at a different pasture from Lori's house.

I came home and fixed dinner. Went and tried to take a few more pictures. When I finally got the computer away from Michael, it took me forever to edit. I took about 80 pics. While I was sitting here, I heard the sound of what I thought was a stray cat eating from the dish that I set out for one cat in particular. When I went to the back door and turned on the porch light, there to my delight was, not a cat, but a gorgeous raccoon! Unfortunately, I didn't get a very good shot. Still not used to doing a lot of things with this camera, but I still love it. I took the pictures through the window of the door, so they didn't turn out. I only kept the best, which isn't saying much.

Gotta go for now and get some sleep. I am babysitting my soon-to-be 3 year old grandson all day tomorrow(today). Everybody take care and I'll see you tonight.

Lisa

Domestic Goddess Day

Sorry there wasn't a post last night. I spent time with Chuck. Talking and watching T.V.
I didn't get to take any pictures today. I was busy playing domestic goddess. I had to do laundry here at the house, and take the comforters to the laundrymat to wash. Then I had to come home and get ready for work. That horrible four-letter word! lol
So, since I didn't get to take any pics today, I figured I would show you some of the structure manipulation photos I have done in the past. I hope it's not too terribly boring for you. The first is the original picture, then the coloring book, then the antiqued then the watercolor from Photoshop. I hope everybody has a good night. I think we're in for another rain. There is lightening to the north of us, although our sky is currently cloudless with tons of stars shining. My garden does need a drink, but not too much.

See you tomorrow.

Lisa

Another Beautiful Day

Good evening everybody. Okay, I know there are only a couple of people reading this, but, you never know.

Today was gorgeous! No rain, and I was off work! lol Not a whole lot going on today. My aunt called me this morning to ask me if I wanted to borrow her roto tiller to weed my garden. The one that the weeds were a mile high! 'my bad! I would never make a good farmer, that's for sure. This is only my second year for having a garden and I have it at my grandfather's place because we don't have a big enough yard. I went out to her house and her neighbors were there loading the tiller into her pickup truck. She drove her truck and I drove mine to grandpa's place. My aunt and I both suffer a height deficit, or we are vertically challenged, or as Chuck says, "you're just short"! We couldn't figure out how to get the tiller down. Chuck called on my cell and asked if I wanted him to come out and help unload it. Needless to say, he got stuck doing the tilling. Not a happy camper! At least it looks like a garden again! I found several volunteer tomato plants coming up from last year. Good thing, because I didn't buy any this year to plant. I dug them up from where they were and replanted them in a better spot. I replanted 31 tomato plants! If they all take, I will have tomatoes coming out my ears! Good thing I know how to can! Still have a little more to do there in the morning, shouldn't take too long.

I took a couple of pictures on the way out there today. Not much, just a couple of flowers and what have you. I have learned to take the camera with me all the time. You never know when a photo op may present itself!

This thing is driving me crazy! It won't put pics where I want them. It dumps them all at the top of the page! When I move them, you can't see the larger version of the pic. Any ideas?

Last, but not least, my first picture of the day, my lazy, spazoid hairball, Salem.

Sorry, nothing exciting today, but this is Hartford City, Indiana! I figure you are tired of birds and squirrels.

Good evening, and I will see you tomorrow

Lisa

Good evening everybody.

Last night was so nice outside. Just a little on the chilly side, but that's the kind of weather I like. I hate the heat! lol I sat out on the patio for a while just watching the sky. I was hoping to see a shooting star or two, but saw nothing but a couple of planes flying over and a sattelite making it's orbit around the earth. I could see the moon shining pretty brightly through the neighbor's trees. I came inside and grabbed the camera and took a couple of shots. I prefer the moon pics with tree leaves or limbs or even slightly behind some clouds. I have taken several moon pics since my cousin gave me her camera. You can actually tell what it is in the picture, unlike my camera, all you see is a blurry white light. This was really the only one I liked from last night. I have better ones from previous nights that I will post on another day.

My favorite thing to do with photography is to take pics of structures, preferably old structures, then manipulate them. These bridge pictures were taken with my Kodak EasyShare CW330. It does well with structures, but not much else, I'm afraid. This old steel bridge is South of us in Delaware County, a little town called Granville. I don't know the name of the bridge, but it spans the Mississinewa River. I love the old steel and covered bridges. There just aren't enough of them left any more. Here is the original picture, then a "colored pencil" manipulation done on Photoshop, then a "coloring book" manipulation. The second "coloring book" manipulation, the one with reddish tint to it was actually a malfunction of my printer, but I actually like it better than the plain black and white one.

I also like to photograph old barns, especially the delapidated ones or the abandoned ones. They make great shots.

I had to go to work this evening after having 3 straight days off. I hate going back in after all that time off. I get so used to not working that I don't want to go in. I am a part-time cashier at the local Save A Lot store. Short hours and short pay! lol I guess that's appropriate for a short person!

Everybody have a good evening and I will see you here tomorrow.

Yard Safari

Good evening. Today was absolutely beautiful! It got into the 70's and a nice breeze. Chuck drives tractor-trailor for a living. He has a dedicated run, which means he always has the same trip. He drives at night and goes from Montpelier to Detroit. Sunday through Thursday nights. On Tuesday night, however, he doesn't have to go out because the company he picks up from in Montpelier is slow in orders, so he gets that night off. Today, he was so bored, not only did he mow our small yard, but then he went and got our neighbor's riding mower and mowed the empty lot next to us. Our neighbor is the one who usually mows it for the people on the other side of the lot, but he has been working a lot of overtime and simply doesn't have time to do it.

While he was doing that, I decided that I was going on safari. Didn't leave the yard. Just the local birds and squirrels and flowers.

You've heard of a wolf in sheep's clothing? Well I have a pig in squirrel's clothing. These guys seem to never stop eating! Hey, save some for the others! You'd think they were starving to death the way they take the food and run!

Last, but not least, I had the pleasant surprise of a close encounter. No, not aliens, a squirrel. I had gone out on the patio to take a picture of one of the squirrels sitting on top of the peanut feeder. The next thing I know, here comes another squirrel, very cautiously across the patio. He was only a couple of feet from me. How cool is that? He went very slowly all the way across, stopped under the patio table for a few seconds. I was afraid if I bent over to see where he was that I would scare him. He came on out, looked at me, went on across the patio, then high-tailed it to the nearest tree. I loved it!

I'm still trying to figure out how to coordinate the text with the pictures, so please bear with me.

Abraham, thanks for the words of encouragement. I love your blogs.

Everybody take care and hopefully will see you again tomorrow.

Lisa