wings on lantana

Oddly, with all that we have had blooming in this yard since we have moved here, the summer months have been a little bare. Too hot for anything to survive. A little strange for us since we are used to bountiful flower beds and plentiful vegetable gardens in the summer. (do you like that sentence?) The one plant that has been constantly blooming is this lantana. We have this one in orange and one in purple.

The flower blossoms are two toned, yellow and orange. Quite pretty. It seems to be a very hardy plant and it also seems that they attract a lot of...
...butterflies. A whole flock of these butterflies were getting their fill of nectar. (do butterflies fly in flocks?)I spent a little time capturing these with my zoom lens. I couldn't narrow this post down to just a few photos, so grab a cool beverage and enjoy.

Double the flutter.
Notice the bodies have the little white dots too.

There were about twenty of the ones above. Sorry, I didn't research to see what kind they were. They were all fluttering around in a group together. And then over on a different plant I saw something else. Does any one remember that Sesame Street song "One of these things is different from the others?"
This guy. He was bigger than the others. Stuck to himself. And posed nicely for my camera.
While the other butterflies would flap their wings to fly and keep them really still as they were gathering their snack, this one constantly flapped it's upper section of wings.
As you can see here, he was kind enough to demonstrate this for you.
And off he went.

Like most of the creatures, large and small, that have visited this yard they stay for a little while and then move on. We have occasionally seen these butterflies off and on, but this was the first time I saw them in a large group.

I hope these are the only thing we see in a large group.

dear arizona,

This is the first morning in a long time that I woke up and your temperature was below eighty degrees. I opened all the doors and windows and am enjoying a "coolish" breeze.

Is this a hint of autumn... or are you just teasing me?

If so, keep on teasing!

fondly,

Norma

p.s. could you do something about the constant chirping of the elusive cricket that is in my living room? I would appreciate it.

hallway makeover

There are a lot of things around the house that are still exactly the way they were when we unpacked. Admittedly, I've had a hard time arranging our things in a different house. We lived in our old blue house for a long time. It was our first real house and most of our furniture was acquired for a certain spot in that house. The decorations and "stuff" that I had sitting around were sort of eclectic but "farmy", to fit in with the old farmhouse.It was filled with lots of things and lots of memories. I've had a hard time with something that used to be in the living room is now in the family room, or something that was in the kitchen is now in the living room. It has been confusing to my being to walk by something and feel it doesn't belong there.

Being a stay-at-home Mom, with a few stay-at-home jobs over all those years gave me the opportunity to be at home. A lot. I've enjoyed that and have always been very thank full. But, I think, I became part of my house. My house was part of me. And being in a different one has made me feel a little off kilter. My world tipped off it's axis.

So, yesterday, I decided this hallway needed a little something. It leads to our bedroom and was very empty. We thought it would be a great place for some photographs.

And so I added a few. And a little piece of furniture because I think it helps to ground the pictures on the wall. And then I found a few other things to add. The little wooden shelf sconces. The plates. The smoke alarm. (that was already there but now it has some company). A few little glass bottles. An old box camera. Stuff.
Pictures of my kids.
It seems like a good addition to the empty hallway. I think I should have painted the walls first. But, I can do that another day. Maybe it will help to tip my world.

In a different direction.

a cute little bird

When baby birds fall from the nest early more than likely they don't make it. They still need their mothers help with nourishment and her guidance on learning to fly. Their wings are underdeveloped and their little eyes haven't been open long enough to see the dangers around them. Who knows how they fall from the nest...do they get too close to the edge? Did the wind blow too hard that day? Are they sick? Or do they just want to try it on their own?

We spotted one such baby bird this summer. It was hopping around the yard and making little bird noises. Rachel thought we should put it in a safer spot, since this area of the yard is where the bobcats hung out. Cats and birds usually don't get along too well. So, with just a little quick action on Rachel's part, she scooped the little guy up. I will mention here that normally I suggest we leave little things like this be so as not to "mess with nature". However, after watching the little bird for awhile, we could tell it was injured and didn't look so good.

So, with a glove to protect the bird and keep her hands clean, she held the little thing for a bit.
It seemed content to take a little rest on her gloved hand. Hello baby birdy. Was it wondering...where is my Momma?
It took one last little jump and landed on her knee. See it sitting there?
And then it hopped to the ground, flittered across the grass and ducked under some brush. Maybe the Momma bird was close by and would stay by her baby just a little longer.

We Mommas are like that. We like to nourish and guide our little birdies as long as we can.

hugs

The week went by fast. The college boy is back in Colorado for his senior year. We have a senior year goin' on here too. And a junior year. Since school here started while it is still summer, the girls had to juggle class time, sports and homework in order to spend time with the big brother. Mostly he rested and relaxed. And... spent a little time in the pool. There were plenty of hugs to send him on his way.

And a tear or two.

rockies fans in arizona

We went to our first real baseball game in Arizona. I guess the spring training game we saw at the practice stadium doesn't count towards a real season game. So tonight, we did. It wasn't Coors Field. But it was the good ol' Colorado Rockies vs. the Arizona Diamond Backs. We were in a sea of red proudly wearing our black and purple. Sticking out like...Rockies fans should.

It was certainly different watching baseball in an indoor stadium. But, I guess in Arizona, if you aren't inside an air conditioned stadium you wouldn't be watching baseball. Outdoors anyway. The walk from the parking lot to the stadium was enough to cause our foreheads to glisten.
These three were the cutest Rockies fans. Notice the lady behind Austin doing her best to ignore us. We did have some guys in the deck behind us that were from Colorado too. Nice to have a little support.

The Rockies made it on the scoreboard first and it stayed one to zip for a couple of innings.

Then the D'backs hit a two run home run. That's when the guy down in front of us turned around and heckled us. He stood up, turned towards us and yelled... "how do you like THAT Rockies fans?" We laughed. And the next time they played the rally song, we shouted, "let's go Rockies" just a little louder. Besides, we knew the guy behind us would stick up for us.

The Rockies, looking a little bleak later in the game had a little team meeting on the mound. Chuck said it was a "group hug."
It didn't help. In the end they lost. But we still enjoyed the game and we still love our Rockies.
Cuz' we're from Colorado. And people from Colorado don't purposefully heckle the other fans.

Really, we don't.

"Let's go Rockies!"

so flippin' great

A whole bunch of this is goin' on right now...

while the college boy is home for a week!

Hooray!!

Happy Wednesday!

fruits of summer

There are a lot of great things about grandparents. To make a list featuring all of those great things would be really long. Besides loving our kids, which is top on the list, all three of the grandparents in our lives do special things.

My mom taught Leah how to make that yummy blueberry pie. My mother-in-law is the best when it comes to cooking pasta. (I think we might need to have a ravioli post here soon, Nana!) And Grandpa Johnny, besides being a constant source of entertainment...

he makes melon heads. One for each. See...there are two "girls" and one "boy" melon face. One for each of them. Their very own likeness on a watermelon! It can't get any sweeter than that. And, it has been extra fun spending time with the grandparents. Sharing the fruits of summer.

It's hard to be meloncholy when grandparents are around.

odd & weird

There are plenty of adjectives to describe all the creatures that we are finding around here. But nothing will describe this one except just plain weird. I don't know... could you add cute to it?

We see these outside on the windows and I guess now we can add "in the house" to this one.

The Reptile Wrangler spotted it in the hallway and scooped it up. Without opening his hand he put it in to Leah's hand. Brave girl that she is, she kept her hand closed and giggled while she felt it moving around.

When she opened her hand she was surprised in a couple of different ways. First, it was a little bitty lizard. I know these picture's are not very clear. But, it was dark, She was moving around. And...the little lizard was trying to get away.

But, the odd part of this is the fact that apparently lizards have this defense mechanism when they feel threatened or are in danger. To confuse their prey, they separate their bodies from their tails. If the picture was clear you could see that there are actually two pieces in her hand. The head and body and the tail. And both of them were still moving. The head half quickly jumped off her hand and landed on the patio tiles. She lost her composure and dropped the tail.

Look closely and you can see the tail.
And here is the head and body. Sneaking away.
Odd & weird. Weird & odd.

Oddly weird.

A little cute?

on making pie

While Grandma was here she took the opportunity to help Leah learn to make a pie. We all love pie and Grandma is really good at making them. The trick is perfecting the crust, learning to work it just enough without over doing it. If done right the result is a flaky, tasty, circle of goodness. As in general baking, the key is accurate measuring of the ingredients and a little bit of practice. And, an experienced coach guiding you through the steps. Choosing the filling is the hard part because, really, there are so many good things to put into a pie crust. In-season fruit is the best. In this particular pie, plump, sweet blueberries were the choice.

They measured and mixed and let the dough chill. Then they rolled and fit the dough in the pie pan. She was taught that working the ball of dough as little as possible is best. They filled it with blueberry goodness and laid the second layer of dough over the top. Experienced hands showed her the proper way to flute the edges, sealing it and insuring that it looked good too. Then into the oven for just the right amount of time to make it golden brown and lightly crispy. The finished product was delicious and she was very proud to have made her first pie. We are hoping she wants to practice a little more.

It is great to have people to teach and guide you through things that only time and experience can perfect. Grandma has made many pie's over the years and now Leah will keep close what was taught to her by skilled hands.

Yesterday, hard work and a lot of practice resulted in Leah having good luck with another kind of ball. The experience and support of another skilled teacher and coach(from Colorado) made an imprint on her that helped her through the process of volleyball try-outs at this new school. Having the ingredients to concentrate and play with confidence resulted in her making the team. In this case, working the ball hard got better results. She made the team and we are very happy for her.

Another sweet victory.

a nice visit

My Mom was here this past week. She drove here from Colorado, her car loaded with two of my big house plants that she has been babysitting and a cooler full of Olathe Sweet corn. We ate corn almost every evening and enjoyed every bite. My plants look right at home in front of our big windows and it is nice to see them again.

While she was here we relaxed a bit, swam a bit (gotta love those floating rafts) and got out and did some exploring. We toured a museum, did some shopping, ate a few lunches out and even got our fill of frozen yogurt. We drove around and got a good look at Scottsdale, Carefree and Cavecreek. And, we drove over to Fountain Hills to see... the fountain.

The sign says it is World famous and I believe it was the tallest shooting fountain in the world at one time. It shoots over 300 feet for 15 minutes at the top of every hour. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake and fountain. Pizza and salad. Tasty.

We all enjoyed her visit and I think she went home with a little tan.

Thanks for the visit and all the corn, Mom.

back to school

Every year, on the first day of school, we take a picture before jumping in the car and heading out to start a new school year. When Austin started kindergarten, we took his picture in front of the old ice house in the backyard. It started the tradition of always taking the back-to-school picture in the same spot. When Rachel had her kindergarten picture taken, backpack on her back, Leah cried and cried because she didn't want her sister to go without her. She would miss her too much. (She is already teary eyed thinking of this time next school year).

With each of them, on the first day, we would take a group shot and their individual pictures. As they got older, there were some anxious complaints about taking the time for the traditional photo. I remember saying, "someday you will be glad we did this." So, without fail, I would get those pictures in front of the old blue ice house.

When we were flooded with all kinds of thoughts and losses with our big move, one of them was the end of the school picture in the traditional spot. Everyone grew to love the tradition after all. Kindergarten through twelve by the ice house, would not be complete with the girls. Rachel only missing one year, Leah two.

When we were there at the beginning of summer visiting the house one last time, we took the time to get a couple of group shots in front of the ice house. It wasn't a cool crisp August morning. They didn't have on their new shoes or their new backpacks, and the butterflies in their stomach's were for a different reason. But they did give each other a big hug and remembered all those other time's that they stood there before... anticipating a new school year.

This morning, anticipating a new school year, we found a new spot for the picture. One that will show where we are now. No longer in the country living in a farm house, but in the desert surrounded by cactus. We did a small group shot and a couple of individual pictures. They didn't have their backpacks over their shoulders, but I am pretty certain the butterflies were in their stomachs.
I hope this school year will go smoothly for them. I hope that they will meet more new friends and have more new experiences. I hope that they will always think back on the yard with the ice house with fond memories, but be able to look at this experience with excitement and someday have fond memories of this time in their lives.

To them...I hope the butterflies are gone by lunchtime.

To the college boy and to Rachel, SENIOR years baby!

saturday extra

I uploaded some pictures off of my little camera last night. I forgot that I had this one of the Momma. She was laying down in the plants right under the window where I stand to take their pictures. She was sleeping. When I gently tapped the window she looked up. I had the camera up against the glass as closely as I could. No zoom on the lens at all. I think this time, even though I was behind glass, I was a little too close(or perhaps she's the one who was a little too close). She got up and slowly sauntered away. I think she might have been there before because the rocks are brushed away, leaving a little impression of where she had been.

Quite an impression, really.

bobcat week finale

Here we are at the end of the week. Although technically, bobcat week for us has been a little more like bobcat summer, because that is how long they have been visiting us off and on. Oh ya, and that one time in February when one of them surprised me on that early rainy morning. The first time the Momma sauntered across our patio this summer, while Leah and I were in the pool, sure gave us a bit of a fright. It was so shocking to see how perfectly calm she was to pass right by and not run off as we made a little noise. It is hard to tell the size of these cats from my pictures, but really they are rather small. I think that is what makes them feel a little less "scary" to us because Momma is not much bigger than our favorite yellow cat Fidgit.

My sister and her family adopted Fidgit and our dog Jackson when we left Colorado. Fidgit would not have fared well against these neighborhood cats. But, because we miss him, I think the cuteness of the bobcat babies remind us of the time the two stray cats found our house and decided tuna was tasty and they would make our family theirs. This is where I stress that we only think these wild cats are a bit cute and fun to watch at times, but we do not in any way want them to call our yard their home. We do try to scare them off when they are around and we are not feeding them(not even tuna). They have brought their own meals and help themselves (much to our dismay) to the pool water. It has been interesting to watch them and photograph them, which is usually done behind the safety of the windows. We are now in the habit of looking around to see if they are close by before we venture into the yard. So, even though my pictures and stories make it sound like they are welcome visitors, we would prefer them to move on. I think the babies have gotten old enough now and that is what has happened. We are seeing less and less of them and I think we have thrown enough ice, pool splash balls, and the occasional grill scraper, that they are visiting our yard less and less. In fact, we saw them one day in the front of the house this week and that has been it.

So, this could be the end of our bobcat adventure. We do wonder if they are like some animals that come back to the place they were born to have their own babies. If that is the case...the Reptile Wrangler will be a busy guy.

I end bobcat week with a video that Rachel put together of some movie clips that I made of them playing in the yard. You will see the little one with the bum leg and Gus, Molly and the Momma having fun.

Cute. snarl. Fun.

gus and molly

Today I'm continuing bobcat week. But it comes with a warning. The cuteness factor of these little babies has been upped a notch on the wildlife cuteness scale. You might just forget (for a minute at least) that these are wild animals. I will tell you that I have called and inquired about them being in our yard. I did also look at an Arizona wildlife website that explained what kind of things in a yard attract bobcats. Did you know they have a picture of our yard as a "perfect" example of the finest luxury bobcat spa? Well, maybe not a picture but certainly a perfect description.

Mostly, I was told that they are non-threatening, comfortable around people and you can pay to have someone trap them and relocate them. Or, you can try to scare them off. We have found that they don't scare off very easily. I found that the best thing to use is that clump of ice that forms in your ice maker. Give it a big heave-ho towards them and hope that you hit a tree. The ice shatters and scatters in all different directions making it hard for them to decide which way to run. The babies do take off. The Momma sits and watches. Sometimes she gets up and follows the babies. The last time they were here, I watched these two youngsters for quite awhile. The first time we saw this little family, the girls named the feisty one Gus. He and his sibling tend to stick together. I shall name her Molly. The third one, who has the bum leg sticks close to the Momma. I haven't named it.

Gus and Molly.

We like to make our guests comfortable. Our old rocker on the courtyard by our bedroom is their ticket in and out of our yard. They have discovered plenty more ways in, this just happened to be the one for the day. The Momma was not around...these two seemed to be alone.

"I'll wait here while you go first, Gus", Molly exclaimed while patiently waiting her turn.
He scampered up the chair and pulled himself, with all his little baby bobcat might, up and on top of the brick wall.

"Come on Molly, follow me."
"phew, now lets take a little rest."

I was taking some of the pictures through the sliding glass door. The glass was putting a glare on the images, so very bravely, constantly looking behind me, I snuck the door open and stuck my head and camera out to snap a few photos. Gus was very comfortable to just let me snap away.
Molly was a little bit shy.
"Quick Molly, stick your tongue out at the lady." said Gus as he threw a little tongue raspberry my way.
After that Molly disappeared and only Gus was left. He posed quite nicely for me without a care in the world. He was relaxed. For me it went like this. Click. Click. Click. Look over my shoulder. Click. Click. Click. look over my shoulder.
By then, Gus got bored with me. Yawn. "I think I'll take a little nap."
Is that not the cutest little bobcat face ever?

comfortable cats

Our little bobcat friends became so comfortable in our yard. They had everything they needed for an evening picnic. They brought their own food, found a nice grassy area to lounge in, had plenty of shade and nice cool water to drink. Perfect for them. Great photo subjects for me. Not so exciting for the birds and bunnies who were becoming dinner. And a bit unnerving when we wanted to be out in the yard and were unsure of how they would share their new turf. After being around, off and on for a couple of months, it seems they don't mind at all. They are not one bit afraid of us and do not scare off too easily. We are still cautious of how close we are to the babies when the Momma is around. These pictures were from a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten around to writing about them and then we hadn't seen them for awhile. Until this week. They are around again. In fact, I had been hearing a little something on the roof once in awhile and thought it was the birds. However, we saw one of the babies climb the front tree and jump on to the roof and scamper to the other side. One big giant playground. I have gotten some good pictures of these little critters. Again, I will say, they are quite cute.

The momma.

The thirsty momma.
Momma again.

Momma with her three babies. I hadn't seen any of them ever nursing before. This little one is the runt and seemed to have a bum leg. I believe they loved the soft leaves of this plant. They spent a fair amount of time crawling in and around it.

The little one finished it's snack and stayed close to momma while the other two were off playing.

Cute huh?

I'm sure the grass is a big attraction as to why they love our yard so much. Better than the prickly desert ground. How cute are the spots on his belly? Look at the size of his paws.

And then they all just stretched out for a nice little nap.

I'm pretty sure I have a few more photos to share. So, lets just call this bobcat week and devote a few days to them.

If I can share my yard I guess I can share my blog too.