I see something wiggling around in there. I need my breakfast so…. I guess I’ll peck away at it.
Here I go. It’s sure hard work to get a bite to eat. I wonder what I’ll find.
ACK! Beetle grubs and ants? You expect me to eat THAT?
Oh, well. I’m hungry and beggars can’t be choosers.
Look closely and what do you see hanging out of Emma’s mouth?
She had just been over to a stack of landscaping ties that she had been visiting constantly over the last few weeks, and I saw her lunge at something.
She got what she lunged for, but then stood there not knowing if she should swallow or spit.
Meanwhile Maisie Mouse was cast into darkness. I couldn’t see what she was doing in there, but I feared the worst.
But Emma is so obedient. She knows that when I say, “Thank you,” she should give up what’s in her mouth.
After many, pleading “thank yous” Maisie was dropped onto the grass. I had to then protect her from another onslaught of Emma-attacks. Maisie ran up onto my shoes and then onto the cuff of my sweat pants. Luckily they are elasticized and she had no access to my bare leg (or anywhere else). I took a tissue from my jacket pocket and picked her up – not an easy task with her skittering here and there. But as soon as I got hold of her, the ungrateful girl sank her chompers into my finger.
Did I let go? You’d better believe it. I had to quickly distract Emma while Maisie made her way through the grass to the edge of the trees and disappeared.
I’m glad Maisie survived, but I’m still waiting for a Thank You note from her. It could be a while. Oh – wait! Here’s Maisie.
Folks, I want you to know that this year it has been great to visit Anneli’s garden. It’s quiet (she’s hardly ever out here), and it’s so-o-o-o … shall we say, to be polite … it’s “au naturel.”
She thinks it’s a mess, but to me, it looks better than ever. Bugs are hiding everywhere, under weeds she hasn’t cleared away. A smorgasbord for me!
As a matter of fact, I think I might have one of those little critters on me. “Well, surprise, surprise, little bugs. There’s no free ride on me! You will be on my dinner menu. Heh, heh, heh, haaa-hooo!”
It’s apple time again. If you’re lucky enough to have an apple tree, it’s practically your duty to make a pie or two.
Here we go:
Peel and cut up the apples into a big bowl. Save your peelings for the compost.
In a small bowl, mix up some brown sugar (maybe two to four tablespoons – depends on how sour the apples are), two tablespoons of flour, and a generous sprinkle of cinnamon.
Add the sugar/cinnamon mixture to the apples and stir to coat the apples.
In a food processor, put two cups of flour, a cup of butter, a pinch of salt, and a quarter cup of sugar. Pulse it a few times to blend.
In a measuring cup put one egg yolk and add cold water to make about 3/4 of a cup.
Mix the egg yolk and water with a fork and add to the food processor. Pulse it just a few times to mix it and then put the dough onto a board for rolling out.
Put the egg white in a dish and add a dash of half and half cream for brushing the top of the crust before baking (so save that for a bit later when the pies are almost ready to put in the oven).
Handling the dough as little as possible, press it into a big lump. Cut it in two (for two pies) and cut each piece in two once more (for the bottom and top of each pie – so, four pieces).
Roll out the pieces of dough, doing the bottom layer first so you can put half of the apples in each pie dish. I’ve found that an easy way to move the dough from the board to the pie plate is to fold it in half, lay it on half the dish, and then unfold it. Don’t worry if the rolled out dough has rough edges. Those will be trimmed off after the “lid” is put on.
Brush the top of the pies with the egg white mixture. Cut some slits into the pie crust to allow steam to escape while it’s baking. Have the oven preheated to 450. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the top crust begins to brown. Turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until you see juice bubbling as it tries to get out of the crust.
It’s best to let the pie cool a bit before trying to cut it and putting it on a plate, but once it has cooled slightly, it will hold together better. That’s the time to serve it up and enjoy!
Lincoln’s grandson, Crispin, was as small as a Coffee Crisp bar when I first saw him. He has moved into the woodshed and gets fed most mornings. Unsalted sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, and walnuts are some of his favourite foods.
But in these weeks of drought we’ve had, the most important thing is to have water handy.
I took this picture a few years ago and had forgotten about it. My white phlox plant still had a few flowers then, but later, most of the white flowers got eaten by this grasshopper and his friends.
I’m not crazy about insects, but this grasshopper had rather pretty markings. I tried to find out what kind he was. The closest I could find was a two-striped grasshopper. It looks to me that this guy has only one stripe but maybe they are counting the identical stripe on the other side of his body. Any ideas for an accurate I.D.?
It’s nowhere near dark, but Ralph Raccoon felt safe enough to come check out our yard.
Just then, the Captain brought Emma (our English cocker spaniel) outside for a pee and in no time the barking and growling started. Luckily, Emma was on the leash because she has a pulled muscle in her leg and we don’t want her tearing around the yard just now.
With one last growl, Ralph clambered up the tree for safety.
Once Emma was out of the scene, Ralph wondered what to do.
“Should I stay here where I’m safe,” he wondered, “or should I come down while I can and get out of here before some crows find me and try to peck my eyes out?”
Turn on your sound and watch what Ralph decided to do.
Again, I was in a rush and didn’t get wonderful, clear photos, but you’re all so good at using your imagination and that’s what I’m counting on today.
The woodpeckers were back. It was Pam and what I thought last week was her sister. I’ve had my eyes opened because I got a better look at the “sister.” Turns out, it is most probably her baby, not her sister.
Pam is near the bottom of the tree here, and Junior is above her. Junior’s topknot is not a brilliant red yet, most likely for her own protection. She won’t be such a target for her enemies.
Pam is working hard, pecking open the bark to look for bugs. Junior is still afraid of giving herself a headache so she lets Mom do all the work.
Pam stops mid-peck and looks around.
“Do you see her, Junior?” she asks.
“See who?” Jr. says.
“Whom.”
“What?”
“See whom, not who? … Oh, never mind. Do you see the crazy lady with the camera? She’s always hanging around near the back door, and I thought I heard it open. I don’t mind her, but that black cocker spaniel is always wherever she is, and that dog LOVES birds – and before you say, ‘Oh that’s good,’ let me tell you, ‘No. That mutt likes birds, but not in a good way.'”
“But don’t worry, Junior, we’re safe. Just open your beak. I’ve got a treat for you to make you forget all about that killer dog.”
“LOL! Gimme a break,” says Emma. “Me? Kill a bird? … Well, not a woodpecker, anyway … not today….”
The pecking of beaks on wood just past the fence of my yard sent me running for my camera. I was surprised to see not one, but two pileated woodpeckers. They were a bit shy and one of them disappeared around the back of the tree. I had a glimpse of that bird just long enough to guess that it was a sister of the juvenile pileated woodpecker I could see on the opposite side of the tree. Do you see them there on the tree that is farthest to the left? One on each side of the tree; one about a foot below the other, partly hidden by a leaf.
I know her name is Pam, not Paul, because she doesn’t have the red cheek slash that the boys have. Notice how long her toenails are. Great for hanging on and for hopping up and down on the trunk of these Douglas fir trees. Can you do that?
She was finding little bugs in the bark. I watched her eat some as she came across them. I bet they were surprised to be found, thinking they were safe in the maze of coarse bark.
You can watch Pam at work in these two short videos she allowed me to take. It gave me a headache watching her slam her beak into the bark over and over again. If you watch carefully you might see her nibble at a bug she discovered between beak slammings.
In the next one, watch how she hopped around the bark so easily, hanging on with her sharp toenails.
See you around the neighbourhood, Pam, and thanks for helping keep down the invasion of insects.
wordsfromanneli 