THE MORNING MARSH AIR WAS ALIVE WITH FLAGONDRYS & FLUTTERBYS

IT’S AN AMISH HORSE & MAYBE IT’S NAME IS AMOS………(THE PHOTO MISTAKE I MADE HERE WAS IN  NOT WAITING FOR THE HORSE TO BRING IT’S RIGHT HIND LEG FORWARD TO GIVE IT THE APPEARANCE OF HAVING FOUR LEGS INSTEAD OF THREE)

Kelly had herself all loaded up & on the road by 8:10 this morning & seeing her suitcase sitting in the driveway Pheebs was feeling mighty blue.

OH DEAR SOMEBODY ALREADY HAS THEIR SAD LITTLE FACE ON THIS MORNING

NOTICE THE LITTLE DOGGY FACE WATCHING AT BOTTOM LEFT

 

SAYING GOODBYE

LIKE A CAMEL KELLY ALWAYS TRAVELS WITH A LOT OF WATER

COULD TELL BY THE LOOK ON HER FACE THAT SHE WAS MISSING US GUYS BIG TIME ALREADY

HEADING FOR SPENCERPORT NEW YORK

Ten minutes after Kelly left, Spoogers & I were into the Jeep & on our way to the Hullett Marsh for a walk….via Tim Hortons first of course.  Picked one of our favorite walking spots & off we went.  I was amazed at the number of Flagondrys & Flutterbys in the air with the Dragonflies outnumbering the Butterflies about 40 to 1.  Never have I seen so many airborne Dragonflies in the air all at the same time.  Judging by their size & numbers I suspect they were all new hatchlings.  Methinks this might be the year of the Flagondry of course more commonly known by everyone but me as the Dragonfly.

NO NOT HELICOPTERS OR BIRDS BUT DRAGONFLIES & LOT OF THEM

I WAS LUCKY TO GET THESE PICTURES BECAUSE THEY WERE RARELY TOUCHING DOWN & WHEN THEY DID IT WAS ONLY FOR A FEW SECONDS & THEY WERE OFF AGAIN

 

Pheebs searched in vain for any signs of her Froggy Pals.  Still, the only frogs sighted so far this year have been a couple in our front yard pond.  Still no biting or stinging insects in the air & of course that is always a huge bonus.  Watched a Muskrat paddling around feeding for awhile.  It was so intent on it’s breakfast it had no clue I was standing just a few yards away.

HAD NEVER SEEN A MUSKRAT STICK IT’S TAIL UP IN THE AIR LIKE THAT BEFORE

I WAS WORRIED THIS 30’ MARSH PYTHON WAS GOING TO GET THE MUSKRAT UNTIL I REALIZED IT WAS JUST A TREE BRANCH:))

Coming upon that young Muskrat reminded me once again of why I so much prefer to walk alone.  When with camera in hand one must walk softly in the quietness of one’s surroundings if one is to see the best of Mother Nature.  Hiking or walking with a group of people is like walking with a chattering gaggle of Geese.  Of course there are obvious advantages to walking in a like minded group when some folks can point out otherwise unseen birds & others can explain all the flora & fauna along the way.  Always educational going with a group but it’s not my preferred way of doing things anymore.  If you want to harmonize & understand your surroundings, go alone & truly appreciate it.  Oh, and take your dog of course:))

A GREAT BLUE HERON COMES IN FOR A LANDING AT THE HULLETT MARSH

Pheebs & I were back home again before 11 & the first thing we did was lock the doors, crank up the tunes & do the dishes.  Pheebs washes I dry.  Well OK maybe we didn’t exactly lock the doors but we did do the ‘crank & wash’ thing & for the next week & a half or so we sure won’t have any more piles of dishes.  One knife, one fork, one plate, one spoon, & one glass.  We like to keep things simple and my mind understands that.

THIS IS THE LAST PILE OF DISHES UNTILL THE BOSS COMES HOME & STARTS COOKING UP A STORM AGAIN

TWO TRACTORS WORKING THIS FIELD

OUR RURAL ROADS CAN GET A LITTLE CROWDED

Our weather again is just gorgeously beautiful but I did notice the heat beginning to build while we were out walking in the Marsh earlier.  We’re not in A/C weather yet but I sure am enjoying having our cooling fans running in the house.  I park myself right in front of them.  Weather people on the 6 o’clock news said this was the warmest day since September of 2015.  And by the way 7 months from tonight will be Christmas Eve.  Well how do ya like me now:))

A SMALL RIVER NEAR DUNGANNON ONTARIO ON IT’S WAY TO LAKE HURON

NO THIS IS NOT A KING COBRA SNAKE GOING THROUGH THE GRASS IT’S A WILD TURKEY

EVEN CAME ACROSS SOME POULTRY STRUTTING THEIR STUFF

HEY, YOU LOOKIN AT ME BUD!!

<<< AND I DO MEAN A-STRUTTIN

Had 2 priorities for today & they both involved wheels & motors.  With the cold wet crappy Spring we’ve had my motorcycle has not had much use & with a new battery I wanted to keep a good charge on it so I hopped aboard the bike this afternoon & took me on a little trip around the countryside.  I could sense the bike was happy to get out for a good run so I gave her the reigns & she ran with the wind.  No sooner was I back with the bike when I loaded up the furry little Buggety Bugster into the Motorhome & off we went.  It’s the first time the rig has been on the road since returning from the South-west in late March over 8 weeks ago.  Just like the bike I could sense Libby was happy to again be out on the open road purring along like the well tuned Workhorse she is.  Maybe next week or the week after I can begin the big clean-up on the rig.  Huge job of course but she sure needs it & the exercise will be good for me.

LOOK AT THESE 3 BUMS RIDING ALONG IN THE BACK….PHEEBS, SPENCER, & FROGGY

“WHY ARE WE DRIVING ALONG IN THE MOTORHOME WITHOUT MOM”??

“OK I’M JUST NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT IT”

“REALLY DAD, WHERE’S MOM”??

AMD IT’S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN FOR COLORFUL WILD PHLOX TO BE GROWING EVERYWHERE

  

Of course every time a car goes by now Pheebs is running to the window all excited thinking Mom’s home.  I haven’t had the heart to tell her Mom won’t be home for about a week & half so I’m just going to have to keep the little Monkey busy to keep her mind off things.  Tonight for supper I had……..a peanut butter & honey sandwich on a Tortilla roll.  What!! You expected me to cook something or eat my greens.  No Sireeeeee, no greens for me cause there’s nobody here to hold me down & make me eat them.  Now that is a Yahooie Louie for sure:)))))))))))))))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  After the North American Beer Festival, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer. The guy from Corona sits down and says, “Hey Señor, I would like the world’s best beer, a Corona”‘ The bartender dusts off a bottle from the shelf and gives it to him. 

The guy from Budweiser says, “I’d like the best beer in the world, give me ‘The King Of Beers,’ a Budweiser.” The bartender gives him one 

The guy from Coors says, “I’d like the only beer made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors.” He gets it.

The guy from Molson Canadian sits down and says, “Give me a Coke.” The bartender is a little taken aback, but gives him what he ordered.

The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, “Why aren’t you drinking a Molson?”

The Molson Canadian president replies, “Well, I figured if you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither would I.”

SAY, DID I EVER TELL YA ABOUT THE TIME

I ALWAYS LIKE HOW SOME OF THE FARMS HAVE NICE LANDSCAPING AT THE END OF THEIR LANEWAYS BY THE ROAD

Another great weather day but I spent part of it again crabbing around on the floor ripping out carpet in Kelly’s bedroom & loading it into our utility trailer along with the sunroom carpet.  We purged one of our sheds too so a lot of stuff from there went into the trailer as well which I hope to haul off to Holmesville’s landfill site sometime in the next few days.

We’re in a bit of a renovation dither here right now & with rain predicted for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, & next week’s Wednesday as well all inside things we have temporarily moved outside to the deck have to now be moved under cover until all things are complete in the house & can once again be moved back inside to their respective places.  (OMG was that just my longest sentence of ever) Furnace installers will be here Wednesday & Thursday & the phone could ring at any time with the carpet installer guy on the other end saying he’s on his way.  Things could get very excitingly busy around here shortly & for the most part I like when that happens. 

A FEW MISCELLANEOUS PHOTOS FROM SUNDAY MORNING’S DRIVE & HERE’S AN OLD FORD COMING & GOING ON HIGHWAY 21 NORTH OF GODERICH

A LOT OF PEOPLE ON THE GOLF COURSES & HERE AN OLDER COUPLE PATIENTLY WAITS ON 3 FELLAS AHEAD OF THEM WHO I THINK WERE TAKING THEIR TIME

ROWS OF CORN HAVE ALREADY BROKE THE SURFACE WELL ON IT’S WAY TO AN AUTUMN HARVEST

A CLUSTER OF BARNS AT 3 DIFFERENT FOCAL LENGTHS

THIS BLUE TUBING AWAITS NEXT SPRING’S MAYPLE SYRUP TIME

SO NICE TO SEE ALL THE GREENERY FILLING IN AGAIN ALONG OUR COUNTRY ROADS & I’D SAY JUST IN THIS PAST WEEK MOST ALL TREES ARE FINALLY FULLY LEAFED OUT

SOMETIMES IN OUR TRAVELS PHEEBS LIKES TO DO A LITTLE BACK SEAT DRIVING

AND SOMETIMES SHE REALLY GIVES ME THE EYE IF SHE THINKS MY DRIVING IS NOT UP TO PAR

A bit of humidity in the air today so had to kick a couple fans into operation.  Other than that it was another work around the house day.  Kelly heads off for Spencerport New York in the morning & will be gone for about 10 days or so.  Pheebs & I have a heavy schedule lined up & will be keeping ourselves busy & out of trouble for sure.  I ate as much as I could tonight for supper & that should hold me till Kelly gets back.  This is actually a good opportunity for me now to dump some tonnage over the next week & a half so I’ll be working hard to keep my food intake to a minimum.  I’m not a bit foody person anyway.  Well except for peanut butter of course.  I’m way over the top on that:))

ALL EYES WERE ONCE AGAIN FOCUSED ON THE PHEEBS AS WE STOPPED TO VISIT HER ALPACA PALS SUNDAY

NOW I KNOW THIS ISN’T A RUBY THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

I was pleasantly surprised today when I had a look in on my Buddy Jim’s new blogsite Lifetime Sentences.  I knew he was going to feature other writers from time to time & knowing Jim as well as I do I thought he meant ‘good’ writers.  Imagine my surprise when I saw he had featured my ‘Me And Queen Elizabeth’ post.  Of course years ago while district editor for the Stratford Beacon Herald I thought Jim was looking for a good free lance photographer too but he hired me instead to randomly slip on out into the countryside & bring him back any interesting rural related scenes I could find.  One time he sent me to a little burg of a place somewhere north of Stratford as I recall  to cover a small local agriculture meeting or something.  I think the burgs name may have been Poole.  It was in the evening & he just needed a short write up & a few photos for the Beacon Herald’s weekly rural edition.  Well as you might expect I was pretty nervous around all those home grown country folks up that way and so much so that I went home that night without my camera!!  Yup, in my rush to get out of there after the meeting I had just up & took off out the door leaving my camera with the meetings photos undeveloped inside sitting on a table I guess.  The people there had to phone the Beacon Herald’s district editor next morning to tell him his ace reporter had left his camera behind.  Needless to say it was a sheepish return to that little Burg the following day to retrieve my camera at Yost’s General Store.  I have no idea what I wrote about that meeting but it may very well have ended up in Jim’s trash bucket…..Ya’think!! 

CAN YOU GUESS WHAT THIS WATER REFLECTION IS

A CLUE

A MORE BETTER BETTER CLUE

WELL BY GOLLY THERE IT IS RIGHT SIDE UP THROUGH THE TREES & NOT REFLECTED

Say did I ever tell ya about the time I was called upon by one of my former places of employment (T.B. Woods in Stratford) to take an outside photo of all the office staff standing in front of the factory.  No?? Well I guess I didn’t tell ya about it because it’s still too embarrassing for me to think about but I can tell you this much…….I showed up that day with no film in my camera & no film in my camera bag.  And to add insult to injury I knew each & every member of that office staff & they all knew me.  In my nervousness I had forgot to pre-load my camera:((  Say did I ever tell ya about the other time I…………..

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Two hunters -Sam and Stan – got a pilot to fly them into the Canadian wilderness, where they managed to bag two big bull moose.  As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only the hunters, their gear, and one moose.  The hunters objected strongly, saying, “Last year we shot two, and the pilot let us take them both. And he had exactly the same airplane as yours.”  Reluctantly the pilot, not wanting to be outdone by another bush pilot, gave in and everything was loaded.  However, even under full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down, crashing in the wooded wilderness.  Somehow, surrounded by the moose, clothing, and sleeping bags, Sam and Stan survived the crash.  After climbing out of the wreckage, Sam asked Stan, “Any idea where we are?”  Stan replied, “Ya, I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”