Thursday, May 27, 2010


Kingdom: Animalia

Class: Mammalia

Order: Rodentia

Family: Sciuridae ....is that not the perfect name for a little squirrel?...scurri-day...well, close enough

walk out back of the dog kennels, down the wooded incline to the path....

make your way through the umkempt, overgrown woods to the tree where the turkeys roost....

turn left, make your way over and around the downed pine...through the marshy spot and on to the big sugar pines.

Look waaaaay up at the top of the one closest to the path and you'll see a large, loosely knit ball of sticks and brush ....looks about three foot across.

It's a gray squirrel nest....many years old. This one has a domed roof and is used to raise babies....although I've seen simpler stick platforms...probably not to raise babies in

When our rain pours down and the chill winds blow I like to think of the little scurri-days all curled up together in their roofted home lined with soft mosses and hair and lichen.

their nests are called dreys....I have no idea why...I'll have to look that up.

We have a scurry of these Western gray tree squirrels... I love to watch them. I've read they are the largest of the tree squrrels, and I think the prettiest....

Their tails are as long or longer than their bodies and banded white, black and gray. The tails on the largest and most furry are beautiful....the mamas use the hair to line their nests.

These squirrels are being displaced in California...our border state some other type of squirrel.....In Washington state grey squirrels are considered "threatened" and in Oregon, "sensitive".....I guess these are warnings on the continuum that leads to endangered.

We have dozens of them in our yard, scurrying around, busily getting food and burying it....chasing each other through the spring sun and the bright yellow forsythia.




Friday, May 21, 2010

spring rainbow in southern oregon
taken by a friend and neighbor, a neighbor if you are a flying crow



FIRST 2010 PICTURES OF MY SPRING GARDEN


TA DAAA!

My new Allium

I want to try drying them for bouquets


yellow rose buds and pinks


new poppy buds with raindrops still on them



Bekka checking out the rhodie newcomer


hostas and pinecones

Sally

come on....let's go in...it's sprinkling again


I woke up with a headache that waxed and waned all day....along with the rain showers...I kept thinking if they would get in sync I would be able to dash out and check out the garden....but nope...ain't happening.
I'm spending too much money on my garden. This isn't something you're going to see on a garden tour....you're not even going to see it if you drive by because I live deep in the woods....You're not even going to see it if you are the occasional visitor unless you go to the back of the house and peer to your extreme right out of a window....so what on earth am I doing!
Not only that but I'm not a garden designer...so someday someone is going to buy this house and look at the garden area and say OMG and yank the whole thing out. But...for right now, it's mine and I love it like my new BFF.
It's the only exercise I keep at for more than two days. I do wish I had started gardening younger when my back was young and strong....I never know if I'm digging my last shovelful or not.
Right now I'm digging up a small plot to plant giant sunflowers and birdhouse gourds....I haven't even shook the seeds out yet but I'm anxious to post pix of the coming wonders.


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I had my 76th birthday this week. The marching song, 76 trombones leads the big parade has been flowing through my head all week....and that's how I feel...like 76 trombones leading a big parade....I feel as good on this birthday as I did bad on my 40th....

(what a waste of time to feel bad on your 40th....haha)

but as the old saying goes youth is wasted on the young
Speaking of sayings...this from my granddaughter.

"If a cop in Arizona says papers and I say scissors, do I win?"