August Moments 8/18/2016

August Moments! 8/18/2016

Each and every day something incredible "happens" around here!

I look outside the family room patio doors to witness "critter activity". Current update: one young mother deer and her one fawn enter the yard to check out the crab apple tree's booming crop of crab apples. They spend a lot of time scooping up mouthfuls of small red fruit. Their tails in down position flick back and forth when all is "safe" Their tails "alert" to "up" position if some other critter (meaning me) knocks on the glass patio door. Off they go to scout out the entire neighborhood for more evening deer fare!

In "all the years" here (nearly 40) I have never seen a ground hog! I couldn't believe it! A ground hog! Angel Lois had a big ground hog at her home on Carterway Drive, Milford, Ohio.  She took pictures of her ground hog and fed him, too.

"My ground hog" seems to be a youngster. At first I though I was seeing a big squirrel, but its fur was brown and its tail was shorter than a squirrel's tail. It was sitting at the edge of the patio in front of a large grass plant. It didn't move and was giving me "the fish eye". I finally moved and it saw me move. That's when it jumped off the patio ledge and disappeared. I hope it has a cozy home nearby and keeps company with all those chipmunks that live under the patio, too.

For my contribution to the butterfly population, I've planted butterfly bushes and milkweed. All are blooming nicely and plenty of butterflies visit these plants. I hope a few monarch butterflies find the leaves of the milkweed to be a comfortable wrap as they go into their next phase of development!

For those who believe in "Spirit", I call the little white butterfly that follows me around, Mrs. Garrison (my late mother-in-law, first marriage to Harry). Mrs. Garrison loved butterflies! She really LOVED butterflies! She had butterfly "this and that" everywhere! And so, I figure that little white butterfly IS Mrs. Garrison.

The cone flowers (Echinachea) are prolific this year and offer plenty of seed picking opportunities for Gold Finch (Angel Loise loved gold finch and purple finch, too). The finch seed that I used to put into feeders dropped to the ground and grew into a huge "garden" of thistle! The thistle plants were removed - they are just too thorny!

There are other creatures of nature that do a lot of buzzing about around here, around this time of year: locusts (cicada - not the 17 year ones), bees, hornets, wasps, dragon flies and some no-see-ums!
There are plenty of crickets, tree frogs and bigger frogs, toads and other creepy critters that surround this neighborhood that I call "home".

I certainly know, for sure, that I am not here, home alone! Not for a moment am I alone!

Onward!