Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Coffee And Thoughts For Thursday. #1
Good morning on this very bright and beautiful day! Time for a nice cup of coffee and relax for a few minutes before continuing our day. I would say “beginning” our day, but most of you are already at least half way through your day, so it just would not sound right. So this way it works out nicely no matter where we are in our day. But here the day has begun with a sunny, warm morning.
The birds are definitely fewer in number now as they have spread out to begin nesting, then they will start to return again later in the summer. But some will stay with us right through summer. There are still about a dozen evening grosbeaks that come each day, but they come and go throughout the day now, instead of staying all day. There are a few chickadees and nuthatches.
The blue jays, Baxter and Betty, with their family of 3 are here most of the day now. There are still some grackles and blackbirds around. There are 2 pairs of chipping sparrows and a pair of white-throated sparrows here as well. There is a pair of goldfinches and a pair of pine siskins. Plus a male hairy woodpecker stops in sometimes for some peanuts.
For chipmunks we still have Pocket, Choco, Skamper, Crunchy and Scooter. The others have disappeared, perhaps too scared to come because of the dog and cat that now live in the house, and are outside here a lot. Jasper, Jasmine and Chase are here a lot now, Slim and Freddy have disappeared. Chase seems to be the new boss. Jasmine has babies now, and she is starting to get a lot more friendly now.
Actually all the squirrels are getting very friendly again. Jasper still gets along well with the chipmunks. They were out here yesterday eating side by side. I was just going to take a picture of them when someone came along and scared them, though not deliberately. But they are not used to other people and so will run if anyone else comes around. Hopefully I will get another chance. Today I am showing pics of critters looking right at me.
Then at the end our “Nature’s Beauty” photo of the week. I enjoyed our coffee and chat today, I hope you did as well. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Coffee On Wednesday. #1
Good morning to everyone on this beautiful spring day! Time for a nice hot cup of coffee with Muffin and I. It is so nice to see all the greens beginning to show up now that spring is here once more. There are dark greens, light greens, very bright greens, quite an array of different shades of this one color. And it all looks so nice. Small leaves are showing on most trees now, though it will be a while yet before they grow to a mature leaf size.
But everything is moving along so nicely now. There was a solitary vireo singing nicely out here this morning, they are one of our last birds to arrive from the south. I keep hoping to get a picture of one but they like to keep themselves well hidden among bushes and trees. Our nighthawks arrived a couple nights ago, they are one of those summer sounds birds that I so much enjoy. It is a simple buzzing sound that they make as they fly around in the evening and at night looking for insects to eat.
They eat a lot of mosquitoes, so they are nice to have around just for that reason. They are not hawks, but insect eating birds. Yesterday was very nice so I decided to go walking to the river. It was beautiful all along the way. There are still a couple of very wet areas along the path but it is possible to almost totally walk by them now without getting wet feet.
The river is very high right now, a record high actually, the highest water level recorded since records began in 1907. There is even some flooding happening in some low lying areas along the river and some smaller lakes. And the river is expected to rise another 4 to 5 inches (10 to 13cm) by the weekend. Then we are supposed to get another 4 days with some rain. Part of the path is underwater at the river now.
The lower path is under about 4 feet of water while the upper path is only under about 2 inches of water. I am showing a pic of that part. It would be possible to walk across that area, but, there are tree roots and moss in that section, and when they are wet it would be very slippery and dangerous to walk along. I am not quite that crazy, so I decided to stay off that part of the path.
Another part of the path goes along an embankment of gravel and mud and it is quite far from the edge where it drops into the river. But part of it has collapsed into the river now so the path is quite close to the edge. I decided it would be better to walk further back, there is only a few small bushes to walk around and it is much safer. Down where I usually sit someone had a campfire not long ago. That is right under two big pine trees.
I guess they figured the ground was wet enough it would be safe. The ground, however, is covered with pine needles that are dry now and there is also dry grass nearby, plus the branches of the trees overhead. Hard to believe that people could be so stupid to do such a thing. If that fire had gotten away from them it could have devastated our whole town. Hmm, anyone ready for more coffee? There is always lots available here, just help yourself. I hope that you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 