Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Fantastical Friday #8.
Good morning on this fantastic Friday and the last Friday of the month of June! I am switching providers for my internet service today so I will likely be without internet service for a while. Therefore I won’t be around for a bit today, but hopefully it won’t be too long and the switch will go smoothly without any problems. I finally made this decision since I was having too many problems with my internet not working much of the day, every day. That made it hard to answer comments, write posts and even keep up with reading. Oh well.
This is a beautiful summer morning, a nice mild temperature, great for sitting outside enjoying my coffee while feeding my chipmunks. Something has been around the last couple of days that has been after the chipmunks and squirrels, but I’m not sure what it is yet. Possibly a cat is roaming the area again. People are not supposed to let their cats and dogs roam around loose like that, but they still do it anyway. Muffin is an indoor cat. With all the dangers outside I would never think of letting her go out.
There is the wildlife danger, foxes, coyotes, wolves, large hawks and eagles. The worst danger in that group is the wolves. They come into town frequently and have been on my deck numerous times. But I think the worst danger of all is people. There is one bunch who have been caught doing some horrible things to cats. I love Muffin too much to put her out into such dangerous conditions. The red-eyed vireo is sure busy singing this morning. The chipping sparrows are out hunting for insects to feed their babies. A robin is also singing in the neighbors yard.
A loon just flew overhead laughing as he went. Looked like he might have been going down to the river. In the one picture today with Pocket on my lap, you can see the boxes in the background that I keep mentioning. They are upside down so that the handles make good doorways for the chipmunks and squirrels. Some of them are too small for the squirrels however, like Jasmine discovered 2 days ago and got stuck half way, so she had to back out. It’s a beautiful, sunny, summer morning. Muffin and I hope you all have a truly fantastical Friday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve And Muffin’s Wildflowers #33.
Hi everyone! Today’s wildflower is a somewhat confusing one, the “common yarrow”. Some books list this species as ‘alien’, which means it was introduced and is not native. Others consider it native. Seems it was native at one time but varieties were introduced which the native species hybridized with so that it is now hard to tell the difference. That’s why the change to ‘alien’. This wildflower, which I will consider native, is found throughout Canada and the US. There is another species, the Siberian yarrow, which we also have here in Canada and has been found in ND and MN as well. That is a native species found around the world in northern latitudes. The common yarrow can be found in sunny to part shade areas such as roadsides, fields, open clearings in forests, basically most anywhere. It is loved by bees and butterflies which I think makes it an important wildflower. It can also grow in very dry conditions, blooms from June to September and grows from 1 to 3 feet (30 to 90cm) tall. The individual flowers are only 1/4 inch (6mm) across forming a cluster up to 4 inches (10cm) across. Have a wonderful day and weekend. We will see you again next week and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 