Greetings to all my readers and even to those who are not!  Notice…I didn’t say good morning this time.  A rarity for me.  With me it is always morning.  No matter what time of day.  Because I like morning.  It is the best time of day.  Especially in the summer with the very early mornings we enjoy and the sun shining brilliantly on the tops of the trees and the birds singing, chipmunks chipping, squirrels chattering, Sir George and friends calling loudly.  Ahh, so nice indeed.  Amazingly there are some people who do not enjoy listening to gulls squawking.  Hard to believe.  It’s almost as nice as listening to the mournful call of the loon.  Almost.  Nothing beats those loons.  For some reason I don’t hear them much this summer, must be nesting farther away.  Speaking of pics.  I know some of you would like to see more pics of this beautiful area, especially since you have never been to this area of the world.  And pics will be coming.  I’m just waiting for the right weather so I can get some great new photos to use.  Speaking of squirrels.  I like them too.  There were 6 around here.  Now there are 3.  The 3 friendliest are no more.  I think I mentioned already that 2 of them met with the unfortunate fate of moving cars. Now, mama, drowned in my neighbors rain barrel.  Here she is on a much nicer day.

I was sitting outside the other day TRYING to get a nice photo of a blue jay.  Sigh.  They do not like to cooperate.  But I will keep trying.  Anyway, as I was sitting there, something landed on my back.  That caused a bit of panic on my part.  The first thing I thought of was one of those huge spiders that like to live here.  Then it moved to my arm.  Not good, I’m thinking.  Then it moved onto my shoulder.  Now I’m sweating.  I know how big these spiders get.  And I am no fan of spiders.  Then it jumps down onto the cup of peanuts I had with me, which I use to help bring those uncooperating blue jays a little bit closer.  Okay, so that’s not a word.  It is now.  Anyway, to my surprise, it was a hairy woodpecker.  This was only the second time in all my years of feeding birds that a woodpecker has landed on me.  That was definitely a nice surprise.  Just wish I could have gotten a photo of that.  Oh well.  Perhaps one day.  Speaking of sharp knives.  I have a few in my kitchen. I had just washed on of them and it slipped out of my hand and straight down it went landing on the floor RIGHT next to my big toe.  And it stuck into the floor quite firmly.  Now, that would have hurt.  I am glad it hit the floor instead of my toe.  My landlord might not agree.  But really, I did not try to do that.  Speaking of huge spiders and bare feet.  Wait.  I must have mentioned that one already.  No point in telling the same story twice.  Sigh.  As I mentioned, I was washing dishes.  I also dropped a bowl with dirty water in it.  That went all over the kitchen floor.  The water.  Not the bowl.  The bowl landed on my foot.  Direct hit.  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That was what I said.  And I went all over the kitchen floor.  Which was wet.  And therefore slippery.  And I went sliding everywhere.  Which happened because I jumped around after getting hit with that bowl.  Got quite a bruise on that foot.  Sigh.  It was supposed to rain today.  Beautiful blue sky instead.  Fine with me.  We have had a lot of rain lately.  Went from being extremely dry to very wet.  Sigh.  Speaking of wet.  Poor dad.  On our way back to the car from our little hike it really rained.  As I mentioned last week.  Good thing I brought my rain jacket, said I.  Dad just looked at me.  He certainly was wet.  Drenched actually.  At least I was only partly wet.  I kept mentioning this to dad all the way back to the car.  Just couldn’t help it.  Wheehee!  Don’t forget, next time we go bottle digging, I said.  Next time? HA!  Not quite sure what he meant by that.  But I figured he must already be looking forward to it.  Birds are calling for food.  That’s normal.  I am still amazed at how many peanuts in a row a little squirrel can eat.  Must have very large stomachs.  Yes, I am aware that squirrels are not birds.  I have added some new photos to my gallery, and more will be added this week.  Enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

Good morning everyone!  It has been beautiful these days.  And those mornings, wow!  Going out on the deck with my cup of COFFEE and listening to all those different birds singing their beautiful chorus of songs.  What a great way to start the day.  If you have never done that then you are missing something you should not be missing so stop missing what you are missing and get out there with your cup of COFFEE so you don’t miss anymore of what you are missing which you don’t want to keep missing even if you don’t think you are missing anything when in reality you are missing what you are missing whenever you are missing what you are missing so don’t miss out anymore.  Sigh.  What do you mean you don’t drink COFFEE?  What else is there to drink in the morning?  Nothing else, and I mean nothing else is as good as COFFEE in the morning.  Now here is something for you to think about.  COFFEE is good for you.  Do you agree that vegetables are good for you?  Well, COFFEE is a vegetable.  After all, COFFEE is made from COFFEE beans.  Beans are vegetables.  Therefore, COFFEE is a vegetable.  Therefore, COFFEE is good for you.  How is that for logic?  And everyone knows that my logic is logically logical.  Sigh.  Just think about it.  I always like a good reason for drinking COFFEE.  Even if the reason isn’t reasonable, it’s still a reasonable reason.  I think.  I actually did today for a while.  It was kind of boring.  Sigh.  It gets rather hot in here on these warm sunny days.  In the low 90s.  And there isn’t much wind these days which makes it feel even hotter in here.  I do like warm weather, but hot weather affects me now.  But poor Muffin.  She is definitely not a hot weather cat.  She likes it better on the cool side.  So she is having a tough time these days.  She either lays down in front of one of the windows to catch any stray breeze that might come along, or she lays down under the ceiling fan.  But it can get worse in this little apartment.  Like hitting 100F or more.  Has happened.  Then I use several fans.  No, not air conditioning.  That’s too hard on my joints.  Sigh.  Maybe I am getting old.  Can’t be.  But it is less than a month to the big day.  My birthday.  Not looking forward to this one.  Sigh.  Might just start banging my head. Like this fellow.  Speaking of heat.  Poor dad.  When he yelled after pouring the COFFEE on his leg, it made me jump.  And I dropped the thermos.  BUT…I caught it!  Unfortunately it was upside down.  And the COFFEE poured out.  On dad.  Things always happened to dad.  Good thing I was always there to help him.  Anyway, with the extra COFFEE on dad I was expecting a bigger yell.  But he was quite quiet.  Though he did start doing his happy dance again.  Though oddly he didn’t look too happy.  Then he finally yelled, ‘BONEHEAD!’  That’s better.  Now I know he is enjoying himself still.  Though I must admit it seemed a bit strange that he would be enjoying this particular moment.  Oh well.  We never did find out what caused that loud cracking sound.  Guess dad’s yell scared whatever it was and it ran off.  A yell that loud would probably have scared away every animal within a mile’s radius of where we were. My apologies to those of you who don’t understand proper ways of measuring things.  I do not like that archaic method of metric or celsius.  Also, by the time dad settled down it had clouded over.  Very dark clouds.  With a few drops of rain.  We better head back, I suggested.  Dad agreed.  Especially since we no longer had any COFFEE.  We had barely gotten started on our little hike back to the car when those few raindrops became a downpour.  With thunder and lightning.  Might get wet, I said.  Bonehead!  That was all dad said.  Amazing.  Hard to believe he could be enjoying this.  Oh well.  Everyone is different.  Personally I would rather stay dry.  Speaking of clouds and thunder.  That is what is happening right now.  Poor Muffin.  She does not like thunderstorms either.  And I might have to close the windows.  Terrible thought.  Makes it hard to breathe.  Good thing I have those fans.  I hope you all enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.