Boy, you can tell I am back home because no more photos of snow mountains, but there are a lot of pretty photos of flowers.
This is a new lily bud from one of my lilies in the garden. I didn’t plant this one; it’s just kinda been around for many years, but it still offers us these beautiful blooms every year.
It has been blooming off and on for the last couple of weeks, and it will continue to bloom all summer long. Now, to get my planted lilies to bloom!
I got back home just in time for the azaleas to start blooming, so I enjoyed the few bushes that I had while I waited on the rest of my flowers to start blooming. I forgot how colorful Florida really is, and I truly appreciate all the colors.
This osprey thinks that my antenna is the best place on the block to both watch the river for fish and eat them when he has them. He goes from our antenna to the neighbor’s antenna. Neither one of us use the antenna for anything other than a handy ladder to climb onto the roof.
Even from 100 miles away in Kansas, Pike’s Peak is still an impressive piece of landscape. We were headed home, and we stopped to take this photo as we left Colorado and entered into Kansas. From there we did a Dodge City stop before continuing our trek to the south; always staying one step ahead of the winter storms.
As my journey and adventures in Montana ended, the last hurrah was this baldy who was kind enough to pose for me as a good-bye present.
We left the day after Christmas in between two very cold and windy storms, and our trip home took us several days due to driving conditions.
I will forever hold Montana as the Treasure State, and I already miss it something fierce. But, Florida sun is nice in the middle of winter! Plus, it is good to be back home where ospreys and dozens of white pelicans have been here to greet me.
You never know what will come to the pond to drink, and with pheasant season in full swing, this guy was looking for a drink before being shot at again by someone. He was quite colorful and didn’t stay long, but it is good to know that he and his mate are living comfortably in the thicket by the cabin.
Good luck to you, Mr. Pheasant.
It’s fall. The sunrises are brilliant and the leaves are all disappearing. The grass still needs mowed, but the colors are richer now, and the air is cooler. I love the way the aspens are golden against the green grass. Add a little orange, red, yellow and blue and you have a perfect fall day.
We had another visitor on the pond this month. He has been around for awhile, but normally, he is stalking through the reeds or weeds, and I cannot get a good photo.
Today, he was stalking and then flying. I just managed to capture him on take-off.
The last of the purple sage as it grows on the side of the hill and spills over into the yard. This is when it is at its most brilliant. It does not have the same scent as those sage brushes found in the Sierra Nevadas, but you can get a good whiff of this if you stick your nose into the bush. It may look silly, but the scent is very nice.
After a few years of chasing these elusive birds, I finally manged to get a lot of photos of this one magpie who had taken up a sentinel position on the fence post. He was guarding something he wanted to eat, and I was stalking him from around trees and the corner of the cabin.
Finally, a magpie photo I could be proud of. He is also now a cross stitch pattern.
Julie L. Cleveland 