did you want some Cake?

whitetail fawn

Baking birthday cake, putting dishes in the sink, look out the kitchen window and there is a small visitor. Mom was resting in the thicket behind him. We grabbed a couple of photos through the garage door. They declined our invitation for cake, and took off with "flags" waving.

Celebration!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie

eyes on the Prize

 

This is Paula

Paula is one of those retrievers who will swim endlessly after a frisbee thrown in the lake.

Paula is headed for the gazebo, she totally missed the frisbee floating to her left.

Paula aims to retrieve a duck instead.

"Paula, turn around, you stupid dog."
 Paula finally draws a bead on her frisbee.

Paula returns proudly to shore and shakes cold water all over a shrieking little girl child.

Paula barks and barks then rolls in goose goobers.

Don't you wish Paula was your dog?

The End

make a Wish

Torenia Catalina Midnight Blue

Meet Torenia, commonly known as the Wishbone flower. Ok, I never saw the "wishbone" until I brought the photos I took into Photoshop and looked at the macro shots. Do you see it??

It is a gorgeous little shade plant that I am growing for the first time, supposed to be friendly to hummingbirds.

We shall see if the returning migrants give it a stamp of approval.

a question of Horsepower

4 Horsepower and no Horsepower

is this a Cowbird?

The mountain bluebird is watching for his open range companions who should be arriving in their summer pasture any day this week. Will he be startled when Angus and Black Baldies show up instead of Jerseys???

Why in the world do they sell "beware of dairy cows" signs out here in the prairie grasslands instead of ones for the omnipresent beef animals? No idea.

prairie Afternoon #4

little flake of the empyrean

prairie afternoon #3

Happy 88th Birthday to my dad, Robert Booth!

He and my mother (Helen) were, and still are, the inspiration and expert references for a family of birders, conservationists, gardeners and nature observers.

4th of July

Happy Birthday, America!

prairie Afternoon #2

Brewer's blackbird in silhouette

prairie Afternoon #1

Waiting for the afternoon shower

for your garden variety Earache

Polygala alba

White milkwort, a prairie perennial wildflower, Lewis and Clark noted in their trip journal, and preserved a sample for their collection. The Native people of the northern plains brewed a decoction of the roots of milkwort to treat earaches, the Corps of Discovery botanist does not mention if they had need of earache relief.

truckin' Along

FedEx truck

Real FedEx Truck in Art Alley

a colorful Household

I am betting YOUR shingles don't look like these! A very global family lives here, they fly the Stars and Stripes on the roof and the Canadian Maple Leaf over the front door.

art alley morning Details

the growing season is glacially Slow

mushroom gills

We have had so much precip that my tomatoes are sulking and my begonia is hosting mushrooms that look like glaciers in their pots!

Mendenhall glacier photo from Internet

butterfly Power

Our friend and neighbor up the street is one of South Dakota's hardworking Highway Patrol officers. With his patrol car parked in their driveway when he is home, we have our own "Neighborhood Watch" sitting silently there. When I came by yesterday, it was hot and sunny and this windshield screen was all tucked in.

The fact that he has a teen-aged daughter might explain it, but I'd like to think he did it himself.

if you don't pay Attention...

and you wander around with a digital camera turned on, and you are trying to change lenses in a hurry because there is a newborn fawn in the middle of the front lawn, you sometimes get some very strange pictures, if you are not paying attention.

at 6 pm...

they were 18" tall, by 7 pm Ma Nature had created chiveslaw!

We had a whopper of a thunderstorm with 70mph winds, rain coming at 1" per 30 min and hail of various sizes. No real damage, but my back deck is now a first aid station for most of my container plants. Drat!

i wanna be a library Lion

Lucifer

New York Public Library photo source