Say Hello to My Little Blue Friend

I had kind of given up on the bluebirds, since they didn't nest here last summer and I had only seen one or two stop by on a visit this summer. I figured they must not see this as a good place to raise their young. Sure I had a visit on Thanksgiving of all days from a few male bluebirds passing through. They landed on the nesting box for a few minutes and went on their way.

So a few weeks ago, a male and female bluebird with three babies in tow decided to come live in our yard. They showed up one day and we quickly got some meal worms at the local pet shop to feed them. They liked that treatment I guess, and decided to stay. After a few days the female, I call her Mama, started making a nest in the box.

So they've been hanging out here and I got some up close video of Daddy blue. There's a short clip of Daddy and Mama together but she soon busied herself with other things.

I uploaded a new HD video to vimeo today. You can press the play button to watch it from within this window.

Bluebirds Close Up from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

You can also click the enlarge icon on the lower right hand corner to make it full screen.


I highly recommend viewing the HD version. If you would like to see it in HD click here.

Year of the Toad

Right after I posted about Mr. Toad, I met up with Toad Jr. on the back patio. He was doing well to camouflage himself amongst the plants and bluestone, but Clarence cat cannot be fooled. I notice him noticing the toad and that's what alerted me to him. He's about a third of the size of the window well toad. At the time, I was potting up some plants there on the patio and he kept moving to get away from me as I moved about. He ended up feeling safe on a plastic tray I use to move my seedlings around. He hid among my pepper plants which had not yet been planted.

Later that evening, I went out to move my pepper and eggplants to a safe (read deer free) spot for the night. As I placed my fingers around the edges of the tray, I felt toad. Yes, I touched toad, in the dark, where I could barely make him out, but I knew what it was that I was touching. They're very delicate creatures. They kind of feel like the soft flesh and bone on the back of your hand. So I moved my plants and went inside and told hubby, "Hon! I touched toad!"

Since meeting up with Toad Jr. I've met up with small toads three more times, today being the most recent. Two of them were on the outside of my vegetable garden. One was hopping against the hardware cloth at the bottom. I helped him get inside and placed him in the garden near a tomato plant and a toad house I set up for him (a rock piled on top of some bricks). I could use his help with the insects, which I pretty much feel helpless against, since I don't want to use anything that would hurt a bee.

Toads are indeed delicate creatures. They're greatly affected by the air and water quality. They absorb moisture readily through their skin (as do we by the way). A toxic environment would not suit a toad at all. So I'm taking it as a good sign that I have so many visible toads this year. Soon the plants in the garden will be big and beefy and packed with great hiding places for my toad friends. I'll enjoy them while I can.

Mr. Toad

Every spring when I go out to the vegetable garden and start tilling the soil for planting, inevitably, I find a toad. Usually, it is hopping for it's life trying to get away from me. Of course I feel bad for frightening the poor thing. I'd like for him to stay and eat all the bugs he can handle, but alas I never really see him again after that. I guess garden toads just don't like people.

House toads, however, don't mind people. In the window well of one of my basement windows we have a toad tenant. He's been there for a few years now. I usually only see him when it rains and he comes out from hiding under the leaves that have collected down in the well. I've left the leaves there so as to not disturb his little home. Often I see only the tip of his snout (nose? what do toads have?) sticking out of the leaves. A sapling has started to grow in there too and I think it's just the cutest thing. He has the perfect toad set up.

This past week, we started painting the exterior of the house. I took extra caution to cover Mr. Toad's window well with a big thick tarp so he wouldn't get any paint on him or the leaves. Then I recalled in one of my gardening books, some advice about toads. It said to leave a dish of clean water. They like to sit in it and absorb the water through their skin. So I got a small toad sized cup, filled it with clean water, and reached down into the window well, put it on the windowsill for Mr. Toad and went about my business. I noticed later that he was sitting by it, facing it. Perhaps he was pondering if he would fit inside, or just how he would get in there.

Yesterday was a rainy day and hubby and I decided to do some woodworking in our shop in the basement. We have a sink under the window of Mr. Toad's home. I looked up to see him in the dish of water outside the window. For some reason, it struck me as adorable, so I had to go outside and get his picture. He fits perfectly in the cup of water. He stayed there all day. His toes must have gotten pruney as he finally decided to get out late in the afternoon and sit on the windowsill next to the cup of water. Ah, the life of a toad...

More Richter Park Photos

I thought I'd share some more of my Richter Park Golf Course photos. These are some of my favorites. You'll notice, it's doesn't look very golf course-ish in these photos. These photos exclude the greens for the most part, although I did photograph the greens as well. I'm lucky to live in such a pretty neighborhood.

This is the very right edge of the putting green on the 3rd hole.

A view of the West Lake Reservoir through the trees along the edge of the 7th Hole.

Boggs Pond behind the 13th Tee Box.

Swans on West Lake Reservoir by the 7th Hole Red Tees.

Looking towards Middle River Road.

Trees along 2nd Hole.

Lit up trees along 2nd Hole.

New Banner

Today I decided that it was time for a new blog banner. This summer and fall, I've been working on a little photography project for the local golf course, Richter Park. I decided to make my new banner one of my panoramas that I shot at Richter. It was the peak of the fall season and a beautiful day when I shot this back in October.


Click here to see an enlarged version.

Bee & Artichoke

Bumble Bee on an Artichoke flower.

I sort of lost track of my artichokes and missed my opportunity for harvesting a few of them. They went to flower. No matter though, the bees love a nice big artichoke flower. I spent a few minutes watching a bumble bee explore this artichoke flower in the morning sunshine.

A few other visitors came by while he was at it. Another smaller bee, a long horn bee, was sort of bothering the bumble bee. He kept landing on the bumble bee. Not sure why he was doing that.

A long horn bee pestering a bumble bee on an artichoke flower.

I uploaded a new HD video to vimeo today. You can press the play button to watch it from within this window.


Bee & Artichoke from Jen Hill on Vimeo.

You can also click the enlarge icon on the lower right hand corner to make it full screen.

If you would like to see the video in HD, click here. I highly recommend viewing the HD version.

Rainbows

Raise your hand if you've ever seen a rainbow. I haven't seen many. To tell you the truth I don't really remember seeing them until recent years. Seems since I met my hubby, I've seen a lot more rainbows. I mean the real kind, that are up there in the sky. Sure, I can make my own rainbow any sunny day with a garden hose. But I'm talking about the magical visions that conjure fairy tales. Maybe the reason I see them more now, is that I believe I'll see a rainbow... if I look for it. Whenever there's a sun shower, I go out and look for the sun, turn my back to it and scan the sky for a rainbow.

July 1, I think I saw the best rainbow ever. It was early evening and there was a thunderstorm. We've been having a lot of those around here lately. Hubby and I went out to pick up some take out for dinner. Then, there it was a rainbow. Hungry as I was, I wanted that picture more than dinner. I said aloud, "I wish I had my camera. I want to go up to the golf course and photograph that rainbow." With that, Hubby turned the car around, brought me home, where I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. We rushed up to the course. I hopped out of the car and started shooting away. Below is the resulting shot. If you look carefully, there is a faint second rainbow to the left of the predominant one.

July 1 a late day thunderstorm brought us a rainbow.

This bowl of veggies is colorful, even if not quite a rainbow. Things have been a bit delayed this year. We had a cold May and too much rain (and clouds that go with it) in June. Finally, finally July is giving us some sunny weather. Maybe that July 1st rainbow was a omen of good things to come.

Today I picked a couple handfuls of Dragon Tongue snap beans, Red Swan snap beans, a yellow zucchini, 2 Sungold tomatoes (2nd & 3rd to ripen so far!), and one baby Fooled You Jalapeno pepper.


A couple days ago I picked this pair of Cue Ball zucchinis. Aren't they cute? They look like little mint green pumpkins to me.



Peas and carrots on July 8th. These went into a salad and it was delicious.




A baby eggplant forming. It won't be long now. All we need is some tomatoes!