Saturday’s Solitude #13.

Posted on July 24, 2021 by

139 Comments

Good morning and Happy Saturday everyone! It is a beautiful, sunny summer morning. A bit on the cooler side with a temp of 66F (19C) and a light wind. The wind is supposed to be quite strong today however, so that could be bad for forest fires. The rain we have had this week has been helpful to put out many of the smaller fires and help to slow the growth of the other fires. There are 138 fires burning this morning, down from 167 fires earlier in the week, and 103 are not under control, 8 are being held and 27 are under control. The largest fire is now 344,000 acres, the second largest is 300,000 acres. There is still a little smoke in the air, but it’s not that bad, still gives a bit of color to the sunshine though.

There are so many different colors for these Hollyhocks.

Sir Henry, Sir Charles and Ricky have been here for their breakfast. Slim and the chipmunks have been busy too. Slim has been busy chasing the chipmunks again. One chipmunk went into a box with smaller handles, which was fine for him. However, since Slim is bigger he kind of hit hard and had to flatten himself to get through. That gave the chipmunk lots of time to get away. Then Skamper went through another box with Slim right after him, but Slim didn’t calculate his turn too well and he sort of missed the door and bonked his head on the side of the box. I wonder if he will learn? Perhaps with time. I was out sitting among the flowers yesterday trying to get pictures of bees and other insects. It was hot yesterday, so I was sweating a bit. That attracts some bees, like the sweat bee, which is very appropriately named.

Some beautiful lilies.

Anyway, while I was trying to get a picture of this one bee, I felt something on my arm, which turned out to be another bee crawling around. That’s why I don’t automatically swat at something. But he left before I could get a picture of him. Then I was trying to get a picture of another insect and once more feel something crawling on my arm. I look, there’s one of those insects crawling on me. Amazing really. I will start showing these insects, hopefully soon, but I’m trying to identify them first, a rather difficult task considering how many thousands of species there are in this area. I really haven’t paid much attention to insects over the years, but there are many fascinating insects out there. And some of them can really bite! I haven’t been able to get down to the river all week, hopefully I will do better this coming week. Have a wonderful Saturday everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2021 Steve McLeod.

Category: Beauty, Country Pleasures, Flowers, Forest Fire, Friends, Fun, Happiness, Nature, Photos, Positive, Summer, UncategorizedTags: , , , , , , , , ,

139 Comments on “Saturday’s Solitude #13.”

  2. Beautiful hollyhock and lilies ❤️❤️ The wind is going to make the forest fires worse 🤯 Hope the fire doesn’t get worse. Slim and Skamper that must have been a lovely chase to watch 😍 post the insect pictures☺️find the names soon 🤓 Have a Lovely weekend 💐

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    • Thanks so much Simon! The wind was quite strong today, and the smoke is very bad again. This won’t be good for those fires, but they won’t have any updates now until Monday. Yes, I am going to start working on the insect identification soon. Have a nice Sunday Simon! Do some relaxing under a shady tree, with Nisha of course. Maybe make her a real nice dinner!😋🍟🍕🍞🥗🍠🥩🌮🧀🥐🧇🥞

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  4. Lovely pics Steve ! Very cheery ! …watch out for those insects…they may not be good for your health ! Sleep well ! 🙂😻🤔😴

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    • Thanks so much! I know, I’ve been stung 3 times already.😳 One of the risks involved in getting some pics I guess. Have a good night!😁🌙😴

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  5. I’m glad your fires are less 🙌🙏🙏🙏

    We are hot here – hot and dry.

    Beautiful flower 😮❤️

    Eeww insects 🐜 🐞 🕷

    I have long hair … sometimes it freaks me out thinking a bug is on me when it brushes my arm unusually 😄✌️

    I do not really like most bugs lol … there are a few I love …

    I love praying Mantis ❤️
    I love Roly Poly’s ❤️
    I love Love bugs (they are in Florida and attach with their butts to each other lol ) they are love bugs because they do not come apart once they attach ❤️
    I love fire flies ❤️
    I love butterflies 🦋

    And I’m thinking that’s about it lol ✌️😄😘

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    • Hi Trisha! Yes, getting less fires, but the big ones keep getting bigger.😲🙀🔥🔥
      Not so hot here, though we did hit 99 on Friday which was a surprise since it had been cool all week. Only 83 yesterday and so far it’s 80 today and windy which is bad for the fires.😬🔥🔥🌲🔥🔥
      Insects are nice,😁 some of them anyway,😳 like butterflies, fire flies, dragonflies, some moths (not all). Have never seen Love bugs before, not likely we have those.🤔
      Hope you are having a nice relaxing Sunday!😀😺😻🌞☕☕

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      • We still hot 🥵

        We just always hot in summer 🥵

        I’ll give you dragonflies but not moths 😄😄😮 they are too crazy!!

        No you would not have love bugs … I have only seen them in Florida ❤️

        Yes enjoying the Sunday ❤️thank you … I hope you are enjoying yours as well 😊

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      • We had a nice day, sunny and 80, perfect weather.😎 Well, maybe a little warmer would still be perfect,🤔 but I’m happy.😀
        Lots of smoke again today, but it has been worse so I won’t complain.😁
        I definitely enjoyed my day!😀😺🌞🤸‍♂️

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      • We were 100… still hot and dry. No changes lol ☀️

        Knock on wood, beautiful day, no smoke here.

        Hopefully they get a good grip on your fires 🙏 stay safe with that!

        I enjoyed my day too ❤️✌️

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      • We still have 142 fires burning, most are not under control. We have only had half the rain we normally would get for this time in July. June, which is normally our wettest month, we only had about 1/3 the rain we should have had.😬 For our area that’s bad. We really don’t have much soil for those huge forests,🌲🌲🌳🌳 so we need a lot of rain.
        There is over 900 firefighters now,🙂 but that’s not enough for all the fires,😕🔥🔥 so some they are just letting burn since they are not close to communities.😬🔥🔥
        No fires close to us now, the 2 closest are now declared out because of our recent rain. That’s nice.😁
        Hope you have a great week Trisha!😀😺🌞☕☕

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      • Wow!! That’s still ALOT… there is a Monsoon hitting Arizona … we have the clouds and overcast – is beautiful … we won’t get that rain though – it only teases us lol ✌️

        Beautiful breeze happening and everything 🙌 omg what a beautiful night ❤️

        I’m glad the fires close to you are out. But yikes on letting some burn – however that is nature’s eco system

        Oh is gonna be a week alright 😮😳 lol

        Friday is doomsday 😮😮

        Yikes 😳 yeah we see lol

        You have a great week yourself.

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      • They found more fires today,🔥😬 some were more than 2,000 acres already, so there is now 158 fires burning.😳🔥🔥 It’s sometimes hard to find these new fires because there is so much smoke around, they can’t see them.😬
        Arizona gets rain?🤔 Here I thought that was desert country.🙄🌵
        Lots of smoke around today and a cold front moved through dropping our temp from 80 to 67!😳
        Thanks Trisha!😀😺🌞

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      • In summer they have Monsoon season where the sky opens up Buckets 🪣 like you have never seen!! 😮😮

        Yeah Arizona has monsoons lol …their monsoon season is from like June to September ?

        Not California – only them. Lol maybe so cal gets some?! Not sure … I am around Sacramento area

        We hot and dry and only the sky teases rain but never gives it lol ✌️

        They are a different eco system than where I am located – the entire USA has just about every eco system!! Lol

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