Good morning to everyone on this beautiful sunny and warm July day and it is truly one of those days that is just beautiful and kind of a lazy type of day when you want to sit by the lake and enjoy the light breeze under the shade of some pine trees and looking at that sparkling blue water listening to all the sounds of summer such as the song sparrow singing joyfully from a small bush by the waters edge and the cry of the gulls flying overhead and of course the ever mournful call of the loon from some distant part of the lake then breaking out in their own way of laughing back and forth and it really does sound like that sometimes and then a family of ducks come along close to shore with the mother in the lead and nearly a dozen little ducklings following single file bobbing up and down in the small waves while a robin sits high in the pines singing his cheery tune and a family of chipping sparrows come flying in with the young ones constantly chasing the parents crying out for their next meal and they are continually rewarded with an assortment of bugs and seeds found amazingly quickly by the parents while I am trying hard to get a nice photo of these young chipping sparrows and they are not cooperating at all just flitting about here and there too fast for me to capture that perfect pic though I was able to at least get one of the likely tired parents but even that was not easy as these little birds do not sit in one place for very long and I don’t know if you have guessed it yet or not but I am not sitting by a lake but rather out on my little deck but thinking back of other times when I did indeed sit by a lake and watch all these happenings and now I am back indoors after a little break here in order to stop a little argument between two of my squirrel visitors one of which is friendly and comes readily to me for a peanut and the other is not so friendly though she will eventually find her way over to me and quickly grab a peanut from my fingers and of course there was also one of the baby squirrels and I am not sure which one of these adults was his mother but he would not come to get a peanut though he did come fairly close at one point and as for points I have not seen Whitey at all today which is odd since he is usually one of the first squirrels to show up in the morning but this morning it was Chipper that was first and she was here at 5 am which is early for her and the chipmunks arrived shortly after looking for their share of the peanuts but Sir George is always the first critter to show up and this morning was no different as he was here at 4:50 am and fortunately I was already up and got some food ready for him and his mate Lady Pearl and when they both land on the feeder together they kind of fill it up but they don’t seem to mind at all and right now Skamper and Chester are here for their evening fill of peanuts though they don’t normally make too many trips in the evening and both of these chipmunks have a long journey to make back to their respective homes and then back again for more peanuts and it amazes me that they even found out about the food here considering they live so far away not like Rusty who lives close by and he can usually make 3 trips to one for the others but he doesn’t usually show up in the evening for some reason but I guess they all have their own schedule and they stick to it and speaking of schedules Sir George just called looking for his evening snack and he certainly came down quickly so guess he must have been hungry and now Muffin is looking for her evening snack and feeding all these little friends of mine is starting to make me hungry so guess I better get myself a snack as well.  Sigh.  But it really was a beautiful day.  Except for maybe one little thing…but anyway we will leave that one for now.  Sigh.  I hope you all enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin and critters.

Good morning on this another beautiful day of another week of another month and…the days are definitely getting shorter.  Terrible thought.  That can only mean the other season of the year that I don’t like to talk about is already on the way.  And it’s only July.  But right now it is still nice and warm and sunny…just right.  And the birds and other critters are starting to bring their young ones around.  That part is nice.  They can be quite comical at times.  And a bit noisy at times.  Crows have 4 young this year.  There is at least 6 young squirrels.  Some are hard to tell apart, some are easy, like LB.  That’s short for little brat.  And he is.  Always chasing everyone else.  Except, of course, for Chipper and Mama Chip.  I thought he had learned his lesson.  Not so.  He attacked Mama Chip again this morning.  Not a smart move.  Mama Chip does not like that.  LB has not returned all day.  Another baby squirrel I call Whitey.  Not too original, but, this is why.

The rock doves have brought several young ones around.  Some of these rock doves are finally eating out of my hand.  That took awhile.  But it’s nice.  I’m back.  A chipmunk, Skamper, was here and wanted some peanuts.  That woke Muffin up from her nap.  So she is now looking out the door, waiting for something exciting to happen.  The exciting stuff happens in here.  To me.  Here is my day, a typical kind of day.  I had just filled my COFFEE cup with some nice fresh and hot COFFEE.  I then reached for something.  Naturally my COFFEE was underneath my arm.  Hit it with my elbow.  That COFFEE went everywhere.  All over the counter.  And the floor.  How it got on the floor I do not know.  The cup spilled the opposite direction.  And, of course, I stepped in it.  Soaked my socks.  Only 7 AM and already I have to change my socks.  Sigh.  For supper I managed to pour boiling water from a pot on to my foot.  Okay, it wasn’t actually boiling at that point.  But it wasn’t far from it.  It was hot.  Very hot.  So I was dancing around on one foot, not a good thing in itself, trying hard to get that wet sock off my foot.  That wasn’t so easy.  Finally it was off.  I then smothered my foot with aloe juice, or whatever it’s called.  I use it directly from the plant, better than the stuff sold at the store.  It works good.  Honestly. Change my socks again.  Then one of the squirrels was determined that my finger was a peanut.  And he dug in those sharp little teeth of his.  Blood everywhere.  Sigh.  That was one of the babies.  Not too bright.  Sigh.  I am at the store shopping and I go down this one aisle, and as I do several items just fall off the shelf and onto the floor.  No, I did not touch them.  They just fell off the shelf.  On their own.  Then I am down a different aisle.  The SAME thing happened.  I think that store has some kind of electric beam that is only activated by me and it then triggers something that pushed stuff off the shelf.  After all, this has happened before.  Sigh. This is what I need sometimes, a cabin, a lake.  Sigh.

Then, of course, there is the phone call.  Normally I get normal type phone calls which are just normal but this phone call was not normal and certainly was the most abnormal phone call I have ever had.  Kind of an odd one.  Some guy calls threatening to kill me.  Amazing really.  I mean, it’s not the normal type of phone call that a person normally gets.  At least I don’t.  That’s a first for me.  And I will admit, not exactly a thrilling type of phone call, even though I figured it was obviously a prank.  The police figured it was too.  Sigh.  It was meant to happen at a specific time, which has come and gone.  I’m still here. But you probably guessed that already.  Especially since I am writing this now.  Which I wouldn’t be if I wasn’t.  Some people think my blog should be more of a serious type.  Okay, this is my serious inclusion.  Don’t expect that to happen much.  This blog is not meant to be serious.  It’s meant to bring a smile to people.  Maybe even a giggle or two.  Or a chuckle.  Or an outright roaring laugh.  That’s the idea anyway.  Speaking of ideas.  Oh no!  This is long enough.  That idea will have to wait until next time.  Hopefully some new changes will be coming soon to my site.  Until next time, enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.