Good morning everyone on this very beautiful, sunny day!  Well, mostly sunny anyway.  It’s been one of those days again.  Actually, it started yesterday.  Sometimes things just don’t work out the way they should.  Or something.  Yesterday I went to get an ice cube for my glass of water.  It was stuck in the tray.  Finally after twisting that thing almost in half it decided to let go.  With a bang.  And it went straight up above my head.  Then it went straight down but missed the tray and landed directly on top of my bare foot.  Right on the bone.  It did hurt somewhat.  Thought it cracked the bone.  It did hurt somewhat.  Then it went sliding across the floor.  Picking up a bit of dust and cat hair along the way.  That wouldn’t be so bad except it was the last ice cube.  Sigh.  Muffin came to investigate, found it wasn’t food and left right away.  She always likes to check whenever I drop something.  Just in case.  I would have had today’s ‘musings’ out a bit earlier except I was having some trouble with my internet connection.  It didn’t work.  That part was simple.  Getting it to work wasn’t quite so simple.  But then it started working.  Great.  Then it stopped working as soon as I wanted to start.  Naturally.  Had to wait.  Had to figure out what to do again.  Same fix didn’t work the second time.  Naturally.  Finally it started working again.  Not sure what happened to bring that to pass.  But that’s okay, it was working.  So I decided to send an email first.  No problem.  Except when I went to send the email.  It wasn’t working again.  Naturally.  This was starting to get annoying.  Now it’s working again.  I hope.  Speaking of chipmunks.  GPS came back today.  And immediately began to let the other chipmunks know he was the boss.  That worked with Rusty and Skamper.  But then Chester came along.  He didn’t like the idea of losing his top spot.  It was quite the show.  So Rusty decided to get in on it too.  They were going so fast it was hard to keep track of who was who.  Meanwhile, Skamper ignored the fun and came over to me for peanuts.  Which he very happily carried off while the others were occupied.  The other day I was standing on the deck and I felt a tug on my pant leg.  I looked down and there was Rusty standing on his hind legs looking up at me.  Such sad eyes.  Which is why I always carry peanuts in my pocket.  Chester doesn’t wait.  He just climbs up my leg.  And all over me, looking for those peanuts.  Skamper just jumps up and down on my foot to get my attention.  Speaking of food.  Sir George is getting braver all the time.  I could actually feel his wing tips hitting me as he landed on the feeder to get his breakfast this morning.  So I just stayed there and talked to him.  He really is a big bird.  One peck from that beak of his could crack my skull.  Amazing.  Speaking of big.  There is a rather large black bear around again.  I would say he is pushing 400 lbs.  For something so big he can certainly run fast.  I can’t.  The other day he was out here at 7:15am.  Today he was here at 8:30am.  That is not so good.  I usually head out at 5:30am with breakfast for all the critters.  So now I try to check as thoroughly as possible before heading out the door.  I wouldn’t want to surprise him.  I know he would most likely run when I open the door.  But I still don’t like the idea of him out there.  However, I would like to get a good photo of him.  Or her.  From a safe distance.  Though I am not really sure what that distance would be.  Sigh.  Time is short.  The big day is coming.  Fast.  Too fast.  I really am not looking forward to this.  Sigh.  It’s cloudy.  And cooler.  Oh well.  Guess I better stop.  Okay, so it wasn’t too exciting.  Speaking of sunflower seeds.  For the birds.  That was bad.  Dumped them all over the kitchen floor.  I was picking up seeds for days.  Okay, 2 days.  But that’s still days.  Amazing how they could hide in the weirdest places.  Oh well.  Until next time, watch out for spiders, enjoy your week and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

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.