Happy Birthday Mia!

I often write about all the outdoor creature activity around our place. We have quite a bit of creature activity going on inside our home also.

At the moment, we share our home with our dogs, Gracie and Mia, our cat, Kitty, a peach-faced lovebird named Hubert, and a budgie named Budy. Kitty and Hubert were a stray and a gift, respectively, both arriving on the same day no less.

Throughout the years we have had numerous fish, hermit crabs, betas, a hamster, a snake-for-a-day, and previous beloved dogs. (There were also peking ducks and bantam chickens, but they were outside pets.)

I mention all this because today, April 30, is Mia’s 5^th birthday. We adopted her when she was four months old. She’s a schnoodle – her mom is a schnauzer and her dad is a poodle.

She doesn’t know it’s her birthday. But as a member of our family, we’re still wishing her a Happy Birthday!

Deer Visitors

Seeing deer in our yard is pretty much a daily occurrence throughout the year. Sometimes it’s just a few, and sometimes it’s a herd of eleven or so.

We enjoy observing these lanky, nimble creatures. They don’t let us get too close, and our dogs have certainly learned not to chase them (they will get their little butts whooped if they do). They are very protective of their young, as most mommas are.

Each spring we have the privilege of seeing new fawns. Often there are twins. We are patiently waiting for this year’s fawns to arrive. Like newborn lambs, the newborn fawns run around and bounce like crazy. Imagine if our babies were born at the toddler stage!

For now though, here’s a picture of three adults grazing their way across our backyard (or their yard, depending on how one looks at it).

Empanadas

When it was just the two of us, before children ruled our lives, I would spend oodles of time trying new recipes. Those were the days when I would cook up stuffed onions or bake baklava. Read cookbooks. Lots of fun and I enjoyed it.

With three boys to raise, cooking became a speedier and simpler endeavor. It still is, although the quantities have definitely increased.

I promised one of our sons that I would make homemade empanadas one day. He’s only had the store-bought frozen empanadas up to this point.

So here they are. These wonderful, spicy, ground beef filled meat pies. Hope he likes them.

Easter's On Its Way...

Getting ready for Easter. Here’s a sampling of some of our Easter breakfast – bunny-shaped cream scones, and colored hard-cooked eggs. I like to use brown eggs for coloring since they have more of an old-fashioned look to them.

I’m not done yet. There is a rhubarb-strawberry dessert to be made, baskets to be filled, and chocolate eggs to be hidden.

Happy Easter!

Window Box

We have a long way to go to spruce up our outside spaces, but here is a start.

We have this one window box outside of our kitchen, which I periodically change out – dependent on the season. I recently planted these lovely rosy-red and pale pink nemesia. They not only are beautiful, but they have a wonderful scent too. I’m hoping the hummingbirds will like them.

Speaking of which (or in this case writing), I saw a ruby-throated hummingbird yesterday for the first time this season. Our ringed-neck pigeons have made an appearance too. They always come in pairs. The ringed-neck pigeon is about 12 inches in length and has a thin white line around its neck.

We derive so much pleasure out of seeing our returning feathered friends. Add to that the new growth, the comeback of flowers, color, sunshine, and longer days, and all seems well in the world.

Kitty's Gift

One thing about having a cat for a pet is that you are bound to receive a gift from time to time. Such was the case yesterday.

Kitty, our cat (I know, not an original name), brought us a tiny mouse – or shrew, possibly, mid-afternoon. It wasn’t dead. And I wasn’t about to stand there and watch our cat kill and eat it. No, no, no.

I was able to shoo Kitty inside and watch as the tiny creature ran for cover, which was a nearby potted Japanese maple raised up on blocks. I checked on it a couple of times, and eventually it had fled to a safer place I assumed.

Moving on with life, all was well until just after dinner when Kitty presented us with another “gift.” I’m not one hundred percent positive, but I think this was the exact same “gift” that we received earlier. And, again, this tiny creature was alive.

Same scenario. Get the cat inside, tiny creature runs off, only this time it went over the side of the upper deck and fell onto the lower deck – at least a ten-foot drop.

I peered over the deck to see the mouse/shrew on its side appearing quite dead. Poor thing. Rough day, for sure.

Then one of my sons informed me the tiny one was still alive. He was thinking of putting it out of its misery (how I didn’t ask), but I would have none of that. He carefully placed it into a grassy spot, and we thought that would be it. Surely it would die.

Wouldn’t you know that this morning there is no sign of our tiny creature, and the cat hasn’t been out yet. Did something else get it? Maybe. But if not, then I hope this tiny creature has finally found a safe place to be.

They're Back!

Today I spotted the evening grosbeaks for the first time this spring. They are back!

During this past week, we have seen the return of all of our spring birds: evening grosbeaks, goldfinches, pine siskins, house finches, and swallows. All of these are in addition to our regular chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches, juncos, stellar jays, and everything else that frequent our feeders.

At this time of year I’m visiting the feed store almost every week to purchase a fifty pound bag of sunflower seed. No kidding. And this is only the beginning – for a few months anyway.

One year I counted 24 evening grosbeaks sitting atop of our deck railing, taking turns at the feeder. Many times we have spread a line of seed along the railing top in addition to filling the feeders – just because there are so many birds.

This year will be no exception.

It’s all worth it though. One step outside and we hear the melodic cheeps throughout each spring day.  Plus, as you can see here, the evening grosbeaks are beautiful birds.

Birds & Photographs

It’s April and we’re starting to see some of our spring birds return. We spotted the pine siskins at our feeders this week. Then today I was excited to see the return of a goldfinch.

Mind you, it’s a cooler day – we had frost on the grass this morning. And I haven’t seen a single evening grosbeak return yet. Sometimes we’ve spotted the evening grosbeaks as early as February 28! But our temperatures have been cooler this time around.

Which is why I’m very excited to see a goldfinch today. I love how their bright yellow bodies stand out against all the greenery around us. I haven’t been able to get a photo of it yet, but I will eventually. (When I open the door to step outside to take a picture, it flies off and does not return for a very long time.)

What I do have to show you is a different bird – a great gray owl – one of Mark’s recent creations. He’s caught the essence of this small but majestic bird in flight; with its spectacular feathered wings and expressive eyes.

I have to admit, this one was definitely easier to photograph.

A Spring Offering and ...

Sometimes nature offers us something exceptional.

Today I captured this three-headed mini daffodil in a photograph to share with you. I can see it from my kitchen window. It is a beauty.

And while I’m writing, I need to clarify something I wrote in the previous post. My husband does not actually want to rid the earth of mice. He does set traps in certain areas of the house where we’d prefer the mice not to inhabit – areas like the kitchen – yuck!

In all fairness, those cute little mice have chewed through our telephone wiring, nested (and died) in our walls, pooped in my rice cooker (double-yuck!), and made a fair mess in our crawl space. Hence, the mouse traps.

He has nothing against mice, really.

Enjoy this spring offering.

Country Mouse

Just when you think you’re alone…

I went into the garage to fill up the white pail (the one with no lid now because The Squirrel chewed a huge hole in it) with sunflower seeds, so that I could fill our empty bird feeders this morning. Grabbing the pail, thinking it was empty, there was a – gasp – mouse in it!

“Aaaah,” I cried, just a tad bit startled. Although I can imagine the mouse was a lot more scared of giant me than I was of its wee little self.

Unlike my husband, I’m not trying to rid the earth of mice. No. I was not about to harm this adorable tiny brown-with-dark-eyes-pleading creature. After all, it has a right to dwell somewhere in the countryside as we do. It has enough to worry about – cats, hawks, snakes, etc.

I was ready to release it outdoors when (it must have sensed the cold, and the aforementioned dangers) it jumped out of the white pail and scooted right under the small pile of firewood inside the garage.

Oh well.

This all happened so fast that there was no time for pictures, posing, any of that frivolity. Just imagine back to your childhood ideas of the cute country mouse, and you will see it perfectly.

And I still have company.

Bird Trauma

Another week of work completed, I’m home catching up and not yet thinking of what to write for my blog, when an incident happened.

This (my favorite bird) little chestnut-backed chickadee hit one of our windows.

We’ve been living here almost 12 years now and thus have had many birds hit our windows over these years. I have found that if I can upright the bird as soon as possible, it has a great chance of surviving. Usually I put on gloves quickly or grab a towel, but this time there wasn’t time to do that.

If the bird is on its back or even its side, more than likely it will die. My little guy here was on his side, so I very gently got a hold of him from around the top of his wings and his back and placed him atop of the deck railing. Even better is a tree branch, but there wasn’t one close by and I try to handle the bird as little as possible.

He is a tiny bird – the size of a small egg – yet lighter.

Crazy as this may seem, I talk to the bird for a little bit. Then I step back and silently pray that he will be okay. Keeping my eye on this little guy, he sat there for about 10 minutes and then flew off. I quietly took this picture as he was recovering.

Happy ending.