The Insect Exterminators

June 25, 2024July 14, 2024 Amy14 Comments

Attention spiders and their prey: you have larger problems, and they’re called sparrows. 🐦

birds · bunnies · daily prompt · Humor · Nature · squirrels · Summer

Chasing Bunnies

June 22, 2024June 27, 2024 Amy14 Comments

How do you waste the most time every day?

Bunnies, birds and squirrels – oh my!

animals · birds · cats · Flowers · Nature · Nature photography · Photography

Spring Photos

May 19, 2024June 9, 2024 Amy25 Comments

I’ve been capturing a lot of flowers lately. We’re still waiting on the Calla lilies, the daisies, the clematis and the hydrangea. Everything else is blooming or almost done blooming. Special bonus photos at the bottom.

DIANTHUS!!! (Yes, I’m yelling – look at this thing!)

White peony with dashes of pink. Yes, they smell divine. Unfortunately, the rains have decimated the peonies.

This is my lavender seedling. Unfortunately, the rains have caused this little guy to struggle. Lavender does not like a lot of rain, and that’s all the skies are giving.

BLUE HASTA is taking up so much space I had to clip some of the leaves in the back of the plant so that the Calla lilies could survive. They are not quite blooming.

Wild strawberry growing amongst the clover.

Coral-colored rose. Yes, it smells divine.

Ma’am. I can’t resist her little hands folded like that. Yesterday we almost had a crisis, however. Ma’am was over-eager for the peanuts and tried to enter the house. Crisis averted.

Don’t ask me how, but I captured this male cardinal in mid-flight. He loves peanuts. He will yell at me through the window if he sees me in the house. He doesn’t go to bed until very late, and will yell at me until about 8:30pm. I yell back that he should be in bed by now, he’s a bird.

animals · birds · Nature · Short story

As The Crow Flies

April 28, 2024May 3, 2024 Amy81 Comments

To go as the crow flies is to take the most direct route somewhere. Going as the crow flies is the shortest path between two points.

This expression has to do with traveling—in a very specific way. If you travel as the crow flies, you've gone somewhere as quickly and directly as possible. A shortcut is a good way to go as the crow flies. A direct airplane flight with no transfers is another way to go as the crow flies. When you think of this term, imagine a bird flying in a straight line from point A to point B.

I moved to the state I live in now when I was just turning seven. For reasons, Mom and I were graciously taken in by family members who lived one state away from our previous home. It wasn’t terribly far, but to a six-year-old, an hour-long car ride seems like a great distance to travel.

From there, Mom and I moved across a two-lane highway – which is now a four-lane highway – to an apartment complex. We lived there for seven years.

Mom found her final home in a neighborhood she admired for years and would drive through on her way to pick me up from my friend’s house.

I just realized the other day, that if you plot all three of these points of residence on a map, the triangle is very small. In fact, I determined that the distance from Point A to Point B to Point C forms a very small triangle, with each arm of the triangle being about 300m. 300m translates to 0.186 miles.

Some people may think this is incredibly isolating and not very worldly, but it was entirely coincidental and not planned, as far as I know. And since I didn’t even realize it until a few days ago, I guess it could be a statement about how much I like my neighborhood and my surroundings.

You guys know Jerome, right? He’s my crow. Well, it’s more true to form to say that he is my nemesis. He is the crow that’s mad at me for eternity because I wouldn’t let him put his dirty bagels and french fries in the birdbath. He and his friends and family caw at me as I’m walking in the neighborhood. If I’m at the local pharmacy and strip mall, they’ll do it there, too. They somehow know when to show up. If I walk out of my house and Jerome starts cawing from somewhere far enough away that I can’t see him, but close enough that I can hear him, I know I’m in for quite a mouthful. Other people have crows bring them money and shiny objects. Jerome has given me intergenerational hatred. I would prefer money or shiny objects, at the very least.

This is not Jerome. But Jerome would do this: join a gang of crows and become violent against ravens and also me, most likely

“I hear you, Jerome! Good morning to you, too!” I say loudly. I’m sure my neighbors think I’m crazy, but that crow and I have beef. I wonder how old Jerome is, and how long he’s been watching me. Maybe his great-grandfather, grandfather and father saw me at Points A and B. Point C is Jerome’s territory now, as the crows fly.