A Snowbird in Paradise

If there is an excuse to do business in another town, especially one an hour or so away, we turn it into a road trip. Monday we headed out by expressway and turnpike to do a bit of business South of home. On the way back we avoided the "fast way" stopping at one of our favorite haunts...a Tiki bar on the water at a city marina.

I hve never really taken a photo of a pelican I liked. Although the distance to The Indian River Lagoon is less than a half-a-mile, it is rare for a Pelican to come to our little inland lake. Last year one decided it liked the neighbor's porch, a work-in-progress, in spite of the music he played as he worked. Silly old bird.

Here are some pelicans at the marina we visited.



Here is what we REALLY went for...Sweet Potato Fries!!! I never had them until a couple of years ago when we first visited this place. Now I can't wait for them to make their way North in popularity. I have had bad ones elsewhere, though, so be careful.

On a scrapbooking site where I am on the Creative Team, I put out a challenge called, "12 on the 12th". I heard about this challenge on Scrapbook Memories, a TV show from Brigham Young University TV. The challenge is to take your camera everywhere with you on the 12th of each month, take 12 photos to scrap. They should be photos of your everyday activities on that day. Maybe you will be lucky enough to be going to a wedding and dressing all up, or maybe you will have to take your camera to work, or with you as you scrub floors...whatever. Here is my embarrassing day on January 12. I can hardly wait to see what February 12 brings.

I really think this is the same fellow we have seen in other years. In fact, my first photo with the Canon Digital Rebel, last February, was of him. He has a route all around our lake begging from the soft-hearted ladies. He comes right up to the screening of our pool and peeks into the doorwall. If it weren't for the screenhouse, I am sure he would peck on the door. When I go out the screen door at the side he prances right around to greet me.

He eats about anything, but prefers canned tuna. When I am finished he will follow me until he is SURE there won't be any more treats. He knows a "mark" when he finds one.

We arrived in Florida again on the 10th. Of course, in my head I had told myself that, after 5 years, nothing would be new. We have seen all of the birds and animals we are going to see, especially after the family of Sandhill Cranes last year.

"OH," said our neighbor, "We have an owl. Up there in the tree. Hear it?"

Well, I certainly could hear the soft "Hoo Hoo".

Tonight I was looking across the bay at a large bird in a tree branch that sticks up way above the rest of the trees. Through binoculars I could clearly see the "horns" of feathers that screams, Great-Horned Owl.

I watched for a moment then a noise sent the owl to the cell-phone tower. It is half a mile away but I dragged out the camera and tripod and tried, in the twilight, to get a photo. I have the rest of the 4 months to try and get better photos but, for what they are worth, here is the best shot.

Cool Facts

• The Great Horned Owl is the only animal that regularly eats skunks.
• The Great Horned Owl will take large prey, even other raptorial birds. It regularly kills and eats other owls, and is an important predator on nestling Ospreys. The reintroduction of Peregrine Falcons has been hampered in some areas by owls killing both adult and nestling falcons.
• The Great Horned Owl is a regular victim of harassment from flocks of American Crows. Crows congregate from long distances to mob owls, and may continue yelling at them for hours. The enmity of the crows is well earned, however, as the owl is probably the most important predator on adult crows and nestlings.
• Even though the female Great Horned Owl is larger than her mate, the male has a deeper voice. Pairs often call together, with audible differences in pitch.

Can you see both of them?

There is only one here.

As I was staring aimlessly out the den window into my flower garden, I noticed a little disturbance in the lavender. I looked closer and discovered a wee mouse feasting on spilled thistle seed from the bird feeder. Soon he/she was joined by another tiny gray field mouse. "Ok", I said, "Enjoy yourselves because before fall you HAVE to go one way or another. I cannot go to Florida and risk mice getting into my house.

It became a morning/evening ritual to watch the little fellas, but part of me wanted the mice to be gone. Meanwhile I showed them to my 4 year old granddaughter. Big mistake! She named them...Tiny and Sam. Now what was I going to do?

Another day, after an all-day-rain, the two mice AND a dove were all trying to eat the spilled thistle seed. The mice, considerable smaller than the dove, nonetheless, were PUSHING the dove with their heads. I wish I had a digital video cam. It was more than funny!

Along comes my friend's two little dogs. The larger of the two is a terrier. I am taking care of the sweet little dogs while she is in the hospital. The very first thing the terrier did was dive into the garden to root out the mice. Last I saw of Tiny and Sam they were headed into my neighbor's yard. The dogs will be here for a while so the mice may just make home in another place...I hope.

In Progress and finished. It has taken about a week since my son suggested planting vegetables in the space left by the lemon-mint. Now there's a plant that, though wonderful for tea, will take over your life! It took a lot of weed-killer but it finally didn't come up this spring. But the grass did. More weed killer and my son's hard work cultivating it. How could I say no to veggies?

Way back in the late 70s and the 80s I grew all sorts of things in Square-Foot gardens back at the old house. One year the children and I grew all miniature crops; cantaloupes the size of golf balls, single-serving watermelons, cherry tomatoes, little corn (cute shocks for Halloween that year), little cabbages and bib lettuce, cucumbers. Another year it was all cutting garden flowers, but, thanks to the PBS-TV show at the time, this was how I learned to make a vegetable garden.

So, since my books were long gone, loaned out and never returned, I checked the internet to find Mel Bartholomew had a new book out. Thanks to Amazon.com's special speedy delivery, we were buying supplies the next day. My son constructed the frames and grids, poured in the 12 bags of garden mix soil, and I planted the veggie plants. The seeds I will plant with my granddaughter later this week.

I put down 7-10 layers of newspapers my son got from the recycling center, and covered that over with several inches of mulch. I didn't skimp because I don't want to fight weeds again next year.

We have in the garden:
5 kinds of tomato plants
yellow and green long squash
cucumbers
cantaloupe
sweet peppers
hot peppers
and seeds for
lettuce
green peppers.

I want to get carrots and raddishes also. Maybe some corn.

We have another open area where I eventually want to plant more roses. There may be a third garden after all. That would be good for the root crops into the late fall.

A couple of days ago the Baltimore Oriole stopped by again. Before I could grab the camera he was off again. I had just enough time to set the camera back on the tripod and get it ready and in a flash of orange and black he was in the birdbath, splashing away.

This isn't the best photo but at least he is in the yard, now. If he will just pose nicely on a feeding station I would be happier. I read that Orioles like oranges so I will try that.