Dry Days.....Wet Days

June and July have given us dry days...

that bring the bugs out...

~

and wet days that keep us in...

and Magnolia blossoms wet...

~

Saturday was a wet day for us...



so when Alivia came down to visit...
out came her favorite book...and
behind it she hid!




just ignoring me and...
even trying not to smile for the camera...




but actually, I later got what I wanted....
one of her...deeply engrossed in her book!



Later she was off to draw...but what would it be...



After giving it some serious thought...


she made up her mind...and created some art...
that's how I enjoyed yesterday.


~
Today...being a dry day...
Herhusband walked down the drive to
retrieve the trailer from the barn...



while I waited at the gazebo...

which yesterday...being a wet day...

the swing wore a raincoat ready for rain.

So after Herhusband left to help grandson

Dustin move some things...

I went into the field...with camera...

pass the windmill...

and pass the bench in the field....

to the hillside just beyond the wire fence,

where the blackberries are....

it is quite steep here in places...

with ragged old trees...

and areas of plants with tall white blooms.

It's thick with tall straight trees...

and dense with low growing fern...

On a walk here last week I discovered...

a Hawk feather...a small snail...

then an even smaller snail...

and an old empty shell...

on the ground just beneath.

Also on that walk I placed something...

at the base of this middle tree to see

how it might change in a week's time.

This was it a week ago...a little green walnut

on a stack of rocks...even had a smiley face.

Today it looked like this...

green turned to gray... the leaf pulled away...

and the pebble fell off...

but he's still smiling.

~

In a week I will return to see what I find.

On my way home this Box Turtle crossed my path..

with dark leathery skin...

and glowing pink eyes...which I just learned means

it's a male...females have yellowish brown irises.!

I found this slight heart shaped rock near him...

so I thought I'd take it home...

Eventually...I reached an entrance to field...

walked pass the pear tree...

then pass the Magnolia tree which has

a dry bloom today.

Oh, remember Alivia's artwork yesterday?

Well, she drew appropriate pictures...

One dry day.....One wet day!

Note which one includes a smile

and which one a frown!

The Allusive Wood Thrush

First thing I hear when going out my door...

is the singing of birds.

While I'm sitting on my front porch...

I can hear.....the song of the Wood Thrush,

or

while walking in the garden I can always

hear.....the song of the Wood Thrush.

~

I can capture photos of most birds rather easily...

like this Chipping Sparrow in the clover...

~

or this House Finch at the fountain...

checking it out...



but this is the one and only photo I have of
a Wood Thrush....You can barely see him.
I want a better one!

~
-photos enlarge-

~
Poem for Wednesday!
~
The Allusive Wood Thrush

Not quiet-but shy, the Wood Thrush may be,
he likes to "visit and comment"...just like me!
He lands and sings from the shadows above,
a beautiful sweet song, anyone would love.

Though he's never willing.....to just sit still,
get his perfect photo.....some day I will.
Just like me.....he prefers flitting about,
Always following me, when I venture out.

Carrying my camera, while on my way,
patience and persistence pays off they say,
very close attention.....I just need to pay,
cause the blog needs a post.....later today.

I'm just like a sleuth.....when outside now,
like a hunting dog with his nose to the ground,
like a storm chaser, when bad weather's found,
I go out looking, watching, and searching around.

Composing and posting takes up some time,
especially when......Marcy wants it to rhyme.
Have I written poems? Yes, back in my prime.
Right now though...only this comes to mind!


~ ~ ~


National Audubon Society Photo



The Wood Thrush's
melodic "Ee-oh-lay" song
alerts visitors to its presence;
this species is easier to hear than see.
The Wood Thrush is best known
for its hauntingly beautiful song.
A large and heavily spotted thrush,
it is a bird of the interior forest,
seldom
seen outside the deep woods.
Thrushes have a complicated
syrinx (song box) that allows them
to sing two notes at the same time
and harmonize with their own voice.

~ ~ ~


Almost everyday I try to get a better photo...
but here is a video of just the song.

Quietly Busy

It's been a quiet day...not much going on

outside this window...except for...

~

a Downy woodpecker that keeps drinking at

the hummingbird feeder.

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-click photos to enlarge-
~

and this Dove quietly sitting out back...
trying to figure out just
what happened to his fountain with the rocks...




that he and his friend use to sit on.



Besides changing the water fountain

which isn't quite finished...

I've just been picking some basil..

and deadheading the flowers when I can...

...between the alternating days of rain

and sunshine...some days I find the

coneflowers very wet.....

and some days dry...like this one with it's

straight level petals...

this one with it's droopy swirl of petals...

or this one with it's in between petals.

This morning as I went out for my walk...

I headed toward the field...

where my grandson Grant had camped out

the night before...Knowing he wasn't up yet

...I quietly took a photo and moved on...

A few days ago I found the field again to be...

quietly swarming with bees of all kinds.

There are over 10 bees in this photo alone.

Some made me think "Beeware"

while others were just beautiful and "Beebusy"

Today I found the field to be very wet

with a heavy early morning dew...

that even the blackberries could not escape.

At the other end of the field...down by the barn...

the hibiscus was wet and blooming...

with many buds yet to open...

I walked on to check a very old pear tree in

the woods at the beginning of the drive...

it's branches were loaded down with fruit.

Then I noticed a young robin

quietly sitting in the wet grass...just

sitting there...waiting...

not wanting to fly just yet.

Then ending my walk and heading back home...

guess who I saw...the two friendly fawns...

playing in my flower garden again...

but I also noticed someone

quietly watching over them...
The Mom...

so I cautiously turned into the field...

~

I've learned that these two friendly fawns are

actually 2 of 3 fawns I see sometimes...

the third fawn stays closer to the mom than

these two that roam on their own sometimes.

Anyway, since I was in the field...

I picked a handful of blackberries...

~

before going home back across the field...

but I did stop to take a photo of

this Balloon flower...

this soon to open Blackberry Lily and...

a video of...

Mom and her three fawns...

and I then...went quietly inside.