Sunday Stills -Flowers

Click to enlarge photo.
~~~
Iris from my grandmother's garden
greet me every Spring.
So many memories bloom bringing remembrances
of a little girl with pigtails and freckles
helping her grandmother gather large bouquets.
There were so many iris ... every color of the rainbow.

And now, I gather these blooms from my own garden
while thinking of her and those wonderful times together.
~~~
I just discovered Sunday Stills and have had a delightful time
looking at the photos posted by others.
Now I shall add mine to the list.

Thank you, Ed, for being such a great inspiration.
I've finally blown the dust off my camera

Single Mom Arrives With 10 Kids

Click photo to enlargeArrival and Move In Day

It was Saturday of Easter weekend when we heard the paddle of many little feet.

We were busy digging new drainage lines in the backyard when we looked up just in time to see the arrival of mom and her kids.

She walked with confidence around all the construction and straight to the geese feeder. It was strange how she seemed to know her way around.

My neighbor told me that she saw this young lass come out from under our front yard trees, walk across the front lawn ... with 10 babes in tow. This young mom knew exactly where she was going, which was under our gate, into our backyard ... and home.
Perhaps this young Miss is the one that had been doing frequent "flyovers" and surveillance during the past couple months.

I quickly made a mud puddle, which is amazing in itself, since we were hard at work trying to clear up the mud puddle problem we had during the past rainy season.

Now, I was making puddles for the newcomers.

Amazing how adorable a puddle full of ducklings can be.

It was only a matter of minutes before the pond was theirs.

And it was even less time before we were no longer working, but just sitting around in our chairs watching this adorable line up of ducklings following mom from bushes to feeder to pond ...back and forth all day.

Before long, two male Mallards arrived claiming paternity and residential rights.

I'm told that this is now home for this bunch. And ... that they will return again next year for more breeding, more ducklings and more time on our pond. Let's see ... that would be mom plus her 10 grown up kids.

That makes the possibility of how many ducklings?

Hummm ............

With our two Canada Geese and our own resident ducks, I'm not sure this is going to work out.

Next spring, I think we'll need to make arrows pointing to all the area swimming pools. That just might be a better plan.

In the meantime, we're back to work, but frequently leaning on our shovels still watching the parade.

Ain't Love Grand !

Click photos to enlarge
Charlie and Katie's Girlfriend,
Their Vet

There was so much love floating around our house, yesterday.

"The Girlfriend" arrived and Charlie and Katie were beside themselves. They didn't have a clue that this was health check up day. The minute Dr. Kelly arrived, it was "Me-Me-Me" time.

Katie's tail was wagging like a grandfather clock, and Charlie was immediately ready to have his slobbery tongue examined at close range.

Charlie dragged his toys from the toy box and had them piled all over her lap, especially his huggy baby.

In between examining these two big smoochers, the cats got their chance to have their purrs checked.

Happily, everyone is in great condition, well, ok, maybe a bit overweight, but we'll work on that.

Dr. Kelly has a way of convincing all our creatures that this is nothing but a social call. How lucky we are to have her come to the house.

It's was one of those great "fun was had by all" days. And what peace of mind to know everyone is fine ... and that she is just a phone call away.