Gloomy Sunday

It's been a really hot week every day, and I haven't been out much to take many pictures. Every morning things outside though are covered with dew, and the spider webs do show up fairly nicely. We haven't had any rain to speak of even though it threatens quite often. This morning the skies are dark, and the wind is whipping around, but whether we get any precip or not remains to be seen.

There have been some noticeable changes that Fall is sneaking up on us too. The birds are gathering, the geese now have their new feathers and have begun flight training with their youngsters, I've heard crickets chirping, and the Golden Rod is beginning to bloom. I don't know about you, but I'm not ready for this yet :~(

Joe Pye weed usually attracts lots of Butterflies, but I haven't seen very many.

The corn in this area seems to be hanging in there. You can see it is starting to wither a bit from the lack of water, but compared to the remainder of the country, it looks pretty good.

This is Purple Loosestrife, a very invasive plant that grows freely in and around the ditches. Although it has beautiful flowers, it will choke out any native plants it is near, and even it is suffering from lack of rain this summer. Where it was once in great bunches, now it is difficult to find.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful rest of the weekend.

Sunday

Traveling around the home territory, the Amish were out and about. This first, a family at the local plaza doing a bit of shopping. The nearest Amish residence I know from this plaza is at least 9-10 miles away. That will be quite a ride for these folks.

Later that day, this buggy on a back road passed by us.

This Chippy so far has avoided Azrael. I can't believe she hasn't caught it, and each day it raids my birdfeeders. No matter they are so cute.

Checking on the bay on Presque Isle, Lake Erie finds a couple fisherfolks enjoying some nice weather. Lots of times huge freighters will tie up  on the left area dock.

We were treated to a beautiful sunset a few days ago after a short rain shower. However I can never get very good sunset photos from our home because there is a ski resort due West of our property and the mountains block the low setting sun.

Finally this is Maggie my elderly barn cat. She will be 25 years old this year. Quite a lady she is. Now deaf, she takes her position every evening in the front yard right on the "path" I will take to the barn where I will put all the chickens to bed. I usually will carry her over to the barn, and that's where she will spend the night up in our small hay loft.. She no longer hunts, and spends most days sleeping on the barn floor or maybe laying out in the sun. When she was around 5 years old, I suspect she suffered a stroke. She was missing for 4 days, and when she came home she was covered with pine pitch making me think she had been up in a tree. Anyway she walked leaning to one side and her back leg on one side just wasn't right for a long time, but over time she recovered, and is still hanging in there.
It's been a beautiful day, and more to come tomorrow, but really it's going to be hot.
Take care everyone..

Thursday

I got to walk the creek trail the other day, and it is going to need some Spring cleanup. Azreal loves to walk with me.

This shot of the creek was taken in the same spot as my header, but facing downstream.

Another early Spring beauty is this Skunk Cabbage. It's the first one I've seen, but there will be lots more to follow.

This poor little Purple finch isn't long for this world I'm afraid. He was at my feeders for 2 days, but today I didn't see him.

I took this shot of the moon at 7:30 this morning.
Have a good rest of the week. We are expecting lots more warm temps.

Gorgeous day!

It appears like it's going to be a beautiful day. Happy Sunday everyone.
The Goldfinches definately are getting the color change. I haven't had many birds this morning, but the air is filled with their wonderful songs.

Here is the Waning Gibbous moon around 7AM this morning. Last night it was orange for a while but I didn't get outside to photograph it.

The skies are already busy too. Lots of contrails throughout the day yesterday.

This is Tweetie. She was the one and only chick that survived 2 years ago from her Mom Snowflake. I'm not sure what happened with the rest of the eggs in that clutch, I don't think they were fertile, but Tweetie is a good girl. She gives us lots of tasty eggs, and I just love her feathered legs. Her Mom is a pure white Silkie hen and her Dad is a multi colored Silkie rooster.
Hope the weekend is going well for everyone.

It's Thursday Again

Just some shots from around home. With 12" of snow the past few days, we haven't been on the road very much.
The Mourning doves resting on the snow, and what they didn't know a Sharpie hawk was spying on them.

Frosty doing what she does best. Napping the whole day. Of course she has the night shift and keeps Tauqua company all night.

A few of the gang stopping in for lunch.

Leaving their feet prints in the snow. They are so cute!

Just practicing my moon shots. We get so few clear skies in the winter, one must take the moment., and today was the day.
A Waxing Gibbous moon.
Have a wonderful rest of the week.

Sunday

I don't have much to add for today. Just some shots from around home.
Mrs. Cardinal paid my feeders a visit and she and the Mr. show up mostly at dusk. I've had a Sharp-shinned hawk spying on the birds this week. I'll post pictures on World Bird Wednesday.

One of my laying hens persists on trying to fly out of the pen, so now she has had her wings clipped, and will be staying home. All my chickens are free range, but pastured to keep them safe from predators. They don't need to be running around out of their pen. We have Raccoons, skunks, occasional loose dogs, eagles, hawks, and I even saw a mink one day a few years ago. All of these would love a nice chicken dinner!

Here is one of the girls hard at work. She is a Golden-laced Wyandotte. A truly beautiful hen. This is her first year to give us eggs, and she is doing a fine job. I have 3 of these hens.

I love red berries, and am always looking for any to photograph. I have no idea what these are.

Here are some interesting seeds from something I found on one of our nature trails. They are really fuzzy.
A beautiful day today, but cool. We are sneaking along through December, but there is that white stuff forecast for next week :~(

More Signs That Fall is Here

Don't forget to click to enlarge each picture.

This Amish couple loads some groceries in the parking lot at Wal-Mart.

Later we saw this Amish man driving his buggy towing a log splitter. It's that time again to be putting up firewood.

I picked out this beautiful Mum at the Amish greenhouse I posted a week ago. It will be in full bloom in a few days. They have so many gorgeous flowers for sale. You can't buy just one! LOL

We passed this field of Sunflowers, and did you know the flower heads will follow the sun. This was on a cloudy day and they were all hanging their heads. Of course they are nearly ready for harvest too.

The leaves are beginning to change color, and they don't look crisp and green any more..

Some wild Asters line the road by our house. There are hundreds of these this fall.

Here is the purple variety. Lots of these too.

Thursday

On our walk last Sunday evening I saw this cool sundog in the Western sky around about 6:30..

This is my barn and some corn stalks we're drying for Halloween. 

Here is my Silkie rooster with a couple of his girls. He is crowing to let everybody know he is the boss.

What a beautiful day. Fall can't be far away when you see scenes like this.
Tonight we had lots of thunder, lightning, and rain too.

Saturday

We have 3 apple trees, and the Northern Spy is going to give us lots of apples for pies this winter.

The little grape tomatoes have produced so many goodies this summer despite all the hot and dry weather. They are sooo good.

Even the ever bearing red raspberries and still going strong although the birds have stolen plenty.

The Milkweed Tiger caterpillars are out in full force now. Once again, I have seen very few butterflies this season. There were more early in the summer, but as the hot temperatures took it's toll on all the flowers, the butterflies disappeared.

I did see this Monarch just the other day, but maybe it was migrating through our area.

This is our llama trail, and you can see how overgrown it is. It  needs some help. So much rain now that things are growing really out of control.

Not far from home lives all these Belgian horses. They were kind enough to pose for me on a drive past their pasture.
We've had rain on and off all week, but nothing too bad. Even some sun to help dry everything out. We were predicted a frost a few days ago, and we picked all the remaining tomatoes just in case. The frost didn't happen, but I did can up half of the tomatoes today, and got 10 quarts.
My new chickens are going fine, and I'll try to get pictures tomorrow.

Busy Week

It's been a busy week. We've had many loads of firewood to stack, and we're almost finished. This is the first year that we have been done so early. Let's hope it doesn't mean a rough winter. Here are the county dump trucks as they "tared and chipped" our road earlier this week. It's creating so much dust, and then there was the earthquake on Tuesday! We did feel the tremor, the furniture was shaking and our dog was visibly upset. We didn't detect any damage though.

An early morning shot of the moon. This was around 7AM.

This is the 2nd of 3 Monarch caterpillars I have captured this season. I'll keep you all up-dated on the progress.

Goldenrod blooming at it's best. Fall is on the way for sure.

Finally the Wild cucumber. Right now they are about the size of a grape.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week. The weather here has been perfect!