Sunday Update

My kids have called to see if their old mother is all right in this extreme heat. My oldest son, Tim, reads my blog to keep track of me. He said that they told everyone to check on the elderly in this heat....and he joked around with the elderly thing. It's nice to have kids who care. We spent yesterday with my other son,John, and today two long phone calls from Tim and LA.

I did go out very early and cut down the lily stalks and trimmed up the Lady's Mantle. I watered the flower bed and noticed a little rustling in the dried leaf material. It was a toad. There he was next to an almost buried little birdbath that sits on the ground. It had been under the Lady's Mantle and was full of gunky water. He looked at me as if to say, "Please give me some fresh water and a shower." He stayed right there, while I cleaned the little bath and then sat on a chair and gave he and the flowers a shower. I'll bet that felt good, now he can burrow into the muddy soil and keep cool this afternoon.

Do you remember me writing about the raccoons that were knocking down my hummingbird feeders? Well, Joe found out that our neighbors had been having the same problem. They put a Havaheart trap on their deck and caught two big raccoons. They took the trap away from our neighborhood and let them go. We haven't had any more problems. Now, if we can figure out who is under the big dirt pile next to the bird bath. There is no entrance hole...just a big pile of dirt. Something is burrowing under the ground.

The hot weather hasn't seemed to bother the birds other than the fact that some of them are sitting on my deck with their beaks open. I keep the bird bath full of clean water. With several bird baths in the neighborhood, the pond next door, and the river just across the road...they have plenty of water. I have read that dirty water won't hurt the birds, but who would want to take a bath in dirty water? I noticed our Dove pair sitting together on the deck railing. They seem to have stopped coming in a group of three. I suppose that one of them was a baby and is now off on it's own. It is early evening now and they take their places on the peaks of two roofs to coo until it is dark. Don't think I'm crazy, but I call them Mickey and Maude.

Well, I guess that's about it for today. We are under a huge red cap on the weather map. A whole week or more of this weather.....but I'm not complaining.. much...I'm still remembering last winter. Have a nice night...see you tomorrow.

Balisha