This post begins and ends with grandchildren.
But in between it shows the true meaning
of eclectic.
Brianna adores Kitty Cat, as do all the
grandchildren. When Kitty is being sociable
("tolerant"), he will allow others to observe him
during mealtime. Better than missing a meal!
Here's the emerging fall scene at Grandpa's
log, a favorite outdoor bench for the kids.
We see these sights every day, sometimes
twice a day, because it's all on the path to
our 100+ year old pear trees. Which are
doing just fine, thanks. We've harvested
plenty and the bent limbs are still heavy laden.
Look closely to see the dainty, light blue
flowers. There are so many beautiful flowers
around that I have yet to identify.
Sticking to the plant theme, do you notice
anything odd about this picture? Well, this
fence used to be totally independent of this
dogwood tree. And that piece of frog jewelry
on a chain is likewise permanently attached,
and has been since our girls were small. We
left it hanging just a bit too long.
A similar phenomenon is on display
here. This is a horseshoe pin which
I laid in the fork of this maple tree about
the time Amanda was in college. I know
that because the last I played horseshoes
was about that time. Time to brush up!
Let's switch to animals. I've been keeping
busy filling three birdbaths, four bird feeders,
and three hummingbird feeders. We've noticed
just during the recent cool-down the return of
purple finches, tufted titmice, and Carolina
chickadees. Almost daily we hear a flight of
geese overhead, but they haven't stopped here yet.
I tried for quite a while to get a video of these
finches cavorting in the birdbath, but they
vanished every time I pressed the start button
on the camera.
Now, from the two-legged to the eight-legged.
Ever since Charlotte's Web was a fall classic in
my classroom, I've been particularly attentive to
spiders in our own yard. Two of these black and
white spiny-backed orb-weavers have had webs
over our driveway and in Judy's prayer garden.
Thanks to Google Images for these
two pictures, because our spiders
disappeared before I could blog about them.
This humpbacked orb-weaver at the back
of the garage is much more reminiscent
of Charlotte's Web. Of course, there's no
writing in this web. Some sad news. I tried
to feed it a small beetle, and when there was
no response, I realized this spider had
met its demise. These things happen in nature.
Just one more spider, and this is a late addition.
It's a Green Lynx spider and Judy has observed
it for several days on her healthy basil plant.
This morning she noticed it had created an egg sac.
The spider is only faintly visible here and is no
longer the bright green it was a few days ago.
The following two pictures from Google
Images illustrate the egg sac and typical
appearance better than my photo. Read
Wikipedia's interesting article here.
Okay, back to the two-legged critters.
Oops! It's Claire and Evan. After three
non-stop hours of active play, they decide
to kick back while waiting for Mommy.
And when Evan relinquishes his seat,
Claire gets even more comfortable!
Well, lo and behold! That's not Mommy.
It's a surprise visit from Grandma's Mommy.
Otherwise known as Granny and Thelma.
What a great surprise!
If you've stuck with me this long, you might
as well watch this 38 second video of giant
bubbles. Not surprisingly, I reeled off a dozen
of them before asking Judy if she'd shoot a
video. Four more were the best I could do on
camera. Such is life.
I had to scramble around to come up with
these pictures. You see, I've been so busy
playing with the grandchildren when they're
here, I never seem to pick up the camera.
But I'm staying busy whether they're here or not
With gardening, yardwork, reading, music, keeping
up with friends on Facebook, writing about
Camp Cherokee and Mystery at the Loyd
Homeplace, and much more. I'll be even busier
the rest of this month, and you'll be hearing about it.
P.S. One more late addition to this blog. I had
no recent pictures of HUNTER, so after lunch
at 195 with him, Bri, and Amanda (and Judy, of
course), I snapped this sun-in-the-eyes photo.
What a trooper!
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