This is not my best of Miss Red-tailed, but it shows why I have been finding a slew of feathers in the grass around the fence. She’s molting up a storm, with a kind of fluffiness to her.
Last night, I was coming home late from a board meeting for RAPTOR, and one of our frogs was lounging on the sidewalk. This is the closest I have been able to get all season. Frogs are just so cute.
I cleaned out our entertainment center today, because it’s a mass of flat surface that collects all sorts of weird paraphernalia. This is my treasured pottery: On the left is a bowl brought back from Michigan by my in-laws. The pottery on the right is from North Carolina, a wedding present from my cousin Sue. The crystal in the front is a science experiment Isabelle and I did a long time ago. We got a rock from our garden and sat it in some solution and it grew crystals.
Oooh…one of my favorite things: A wedding present from Jim’s cousin, Phyllis. There’s a great store around here called “A Show of Hands” which sells local artist’s work. This is a solid glass paperweight with glittery sand blown into it. When I sit it in front of a light, it throws a beam for a foot or more.
I haven’t been birding for long, so my collection of bird “sit-abouts” is small. The big white thing in the back is something Shannon found in her rafters left by a previous owner. It looks like an ostrich egg, but it doesn’t feel like one. (She also found animal pelts…the guy was weird)
The photo on the left is my favorite of Mom and Dad.
A clean mantel is a joy forever…at least until one of the girls throws a ball and breaks something.
I had taken a “before” photo of the entertainment center, but it didn’t save for some reason. Just imagine this filled with toys and books and cables and so on.
When is this dog ever going to learn how to RELAX?
Poor Nellie: She has yearly allergy issues, every August-October. We show up at the vet like clockwork, the same time every year for steroid injections and pills and antihistamine. We took her 2 weeks ago because it was just starting, thinking we would nip it in the bud before it got worse. But the same thing happens every year…she scratches and rubs her face until her eyes are bald, like above. And today, as I was wiping her eyes, I noticed that they were bleeding and draining pus. So she got more high power steroids and eye drops and more pills. She also chewed her leg raw and there’s a bald spot near the top of her head.
She gets better after the first frost.
Something else I noticed about Nellie today…she has always had a white chin, I guess from her checkered pedigree. But today I saw just how gray her upper lip is getting. She’s going to be 6 on November 13, still not “old”, but her fur is showing that she’s not a puppy, either.
Susan Gets Native 