More offerings from my husband

My husband borrowed my camera the other day and when I opened up these photos today, I was surprised to see all of his wonderful bird shots.

He must have been outside when he took these because shooting through the glass windows of our breakfast nook seems to distort the photographs. He took these with the Quantaray 70-300 mm lens he got me for my birthday in 2007. It is not a great lens, but for a hundred bucks, it's fine for now.

At first we thought this was a little goldfinch, but what is that red mark on its head?

Same bird with a different view.

And this chubby bird that I don't know what it is has a little seed in his mouth.

There. Now you can see the seed a bit better.

Sorry. I just couldn't resist another George photo.

And now, for a word on Mr. Puppy here.

George is a frisbee catching, stick fetching maniac. Every day he and my husband play and he's becoming quite the fine-tuned athlete. However, do you notice that one side of his mouth is black? See it on this side in this photo? Well, the other side of his mouth is white and that side of his mouth is much more sensitive. George has actually developed a hard callus on his lower lip where he catches the frisbee. And my husband has been treating it with . . . well, um . . . he's been treating it with his own cherry ChapStick. When he puts it on him every evening, George's face puckers up and it's obvious this isn't his favorite flavor.

It's also funny that it's actually working to heal the callus.

Attention Newbie bloggers who have requested interviews: I still don't have e-mail addresses for all of you. Please e-mail me at katydid56@gmail.com so that I can send your questions.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Yeah, we're cool

Thanks to all who answered my burning question yesterday. And a special thanks to Starwoodgal for the free photoshop actions and tips! One thing that I learned from everyone's responses to my question is that at ten years of age, all of us were so much more independent that many of the children today. Do children today spend all that much time out-of-doors in the summertime, making their own fun? I don't think so. Unless you're the children on this farm where I'm living now, riding back and forth on their bikes between home and their grandparents home. It's quite a trek through the woods and around the fields. It's really nice to see. They have paths all through the woods near our house, and a little bridge to go over if they're on bikes. But yeah, when we were young, for most of us, the memories are sweet.

I've arranged it at school so that I have Mondays off now. It's just for a few more weeks. You see, in the summer, for two whole months, I have summer hours. They're daily from 8-1, making it 25 hours a week. Well, with the price of gas and the amount of time I drive now, I asked if it would be okay to do all my hours in 4 days rather than stretching it over 5. And it's ok.

This morning, I took George on a walk that lasted well over an hour. The weather wasn't too bad for walking and there was a nice breeze and low humidity. We just stayed out of the sun as much as possible. Afterwards, I ran some errands and ended up tidying up the outside of the house, pulling weeds and trimming bushes a bit. When I finished, I was looking forward to having a glass of mint iced tea in the yard, under the dogwood tree.

And that's where I took these bird photos. It was just so relaxing sitting there and watching the birds flitter about. I like the shapes of the leaves and the tree branches in the one below.

Have a good Tuesday, everyone.

Evening quietude

It was a beautiful day here in Maryland and after dinner and a short walk with George, I took the camera in the backyard and laid down in the grass. I like lying down in the grass.

It smelled heavenly too, and was freshly mowed and lush and green. I apologize to those who have allergies, I honestly do.

The sun felt warm and the evening was so pleasant. I could hear the sounds of birds calling to each other and I heard a woodpecker in the tree nearby. Our cat, Blackie was outside, stalking birds, as usual. George was outside as well, and I could see him underneath the walnut tree. He'd found a stick and it was keeping him busy. Then I saw a mourning dove land by the tree near me. So I took a picture.

And then I saw Blackie had also noticed the bird. She jumped up on the fence to get a better look. And then she crept closer. I don't like it when my cats get birds, even though I know it's what cats do. I just don't like it when they do it when we're around. I'll always root for the bird when it comes to cat vs. bird. Anyway, I will not digress. The cat, she is getting closer. And before I know it, she jumps off the fence, and makes a beeline for the bird!

"George!" I say. "Get the kitty." And, like the obedient dog he is, he takes off in a flash for the kitty.

He's scared her off and here he is with the stick still in his mouth. The mourning dove is safe. Yeah, you can thank George, little guy. What a good boy he is. Yeah, you are my good boy, George. God, I love this dog.

Up, up and away

I've finally ditched the dial-up and have faster internet! I'd love to say I'm thrilled, but I'm kinda confused. Maybe it was just Blogger tonight, I don't know. I had to reboot my computer about 3 times and when it works, wow! My pictures upload at the speed of, well let's just say it's a lot faster than the dial-up that I've had for too many years.

While I was outside talking with the installer, who had just arrived and was unloading his truck, I happened to look down towards the pond and saw a great white heron wading at the edge on the far side. So I went inside and grabbed the camera and switched to the zoom lens.

I had just come home from work and still had my good clothes on, and I probably should have changed, but I walked down there anyway and sat at the edge of the pond for a while and snapped a few pictures. Ok, well 44 pictures. But I ended up deleting a lot of them. And even though I got a little goose poop on my Jones New York slacks, I managed to get a couple of decent shots.

Do you notice how the water is so blue in this last shot? It started out gray/green at the top, then green for the next two shots, and now blue. I noticed when I was looking at them on the computer. I think it's the way the light was hitting the water as the bird moved from the right to the left.

And look at the second picture. Do you see the trail in the water that was left by his legs trailing it during take-off? I just found it interesting and had to point it out to you.

So here's to faster speeds, and flying high. And yes, tj I'll give you that raspberry iced tea recipe. It's really really good! I'll post it here later this week. I'll take a picture or two. Or 42.

Bird Watching

I have two reasons to keep the bird feeders filled around our home. One, of course, is to feed the hungry little birds. And the other is to capture them, if I'm lucky, for a photograph. This is a Black-capped Chickadee resting on a forsythia branch. I shot this with my zoom lens on a tripod through our sliding glass door. I'm really psyched about this shot.

I wish I had cleaned the sliding glass door beforehand, but it's a done deal now. Besides, you really can't even notice it.

The second photo is of a female Goldfinch in her winter plumage. She's got a seed in her mouth, too. I get pretty excited when I take a good photo of a bird because they're just so hard to come by sometimes. Plus you have to be patient. And patience is a virtue I have a tiny bit of trouble with.I've come a long way since my days of ignorance about our feathered friends. But that's another story.