For Feline Friday, all you have to do is post a picture,
drawing, cartoon, or video of a cat.
There’s a chair in our living room that the cats have
mostly claimed as their own. It’s comfortable,
and it’s right in front of a window, so it makes sense that they like it.
Mortimer
Since the cats spend so much time in that chair, we decided
to put a window bird feeder in that window.
It definitely keeps them entertained!
Theodore and Mortimer
As is the case with most of our bird feeders, the squirrels
visit at least as often as the birds do.
I think the cats are more interested in the squirrels than the birds.
Last year, I set up a little
critter corner in our backyard to feed the wildlife that stops by.We also set up a camera so we can see our
visitors.
Recently, we had some Blue
Jays stop by to eat some peanuts. (The date and time on the camera are wrong
because it messed up when the batteries died and we haven’t reset it.)
Enjoy this video of the Blue
Jays enjoying their peanuts.
There’s so much going on in the yard this time of year, so
I thought another Thursday 13 featuring things around the yard was in order.
I apologize that the light isn’t the best in some of the
photos. It has been HOT here, and it was
just too miserable to go around taking pictures until after the sun started
going down.
1. This week, we’ll start with the white hydrangea
that’s just starting to bloom.
Here’s a close-up.
2.Next
up, we have the Shasta daisies, which aren’t looking good at all.
The free-range chickens like to dig in the
front flowerbed, so I thought I’d chicken-proof it with some decorative fencing.
3.Clearly,
the fence failed to keep them out. I’m
working on another solution.
4.We’ve
recently put a birdbath on a shepherd’s hook next to the front porch. It’s in direct sun, so I’ve been trying to put
ice cubes in it at least once a day. The
birds are definitely using it. We’ve seen
several, and we have to refill it every night.
5.The
rose of Sharon trees are blooming.
6. We have full flowers.
7.We
have buds.
8.And we
have some that are right in the middle.
9.We
have a birdfeeder in the backyard now.
It’s solar and lights up when it gets a little darker than it was when I
took the picture.
10.Next,
we have the flowers in the planter on the rain barrel next to the birdfeeder. I can’t remember the name of these flowers. I always think of them as mini petunias.
Here’s a close-up.
11. There are more flowers that look like mini
petunias in the planter on the second rain barrel.
12. There are also some regular petunias in that
planter. I think these look absolutely
perfect.
13.Lastly,
in answer to Live & Learn’s question about the groundhogs eating plants we
don’t want them to eat, here’s what’s left of the basil. They ate most of it two weeks ago, and it had
started growing back some earlier this week, but they feasted on it again. Apparently, they’re not planning to share the
basil with us.
Between flowers and the backyard animals, there’s a lot going
on in the yard right now, so this week’s Thursday 13 is a little look around
the yard.
1. We’ll start with some zinnias. I don’t think I’ve ever had zinnias before,
but this year, they’re one of my favorites.
2.Here’s
a closeup of one of them.
3.And
here’s the yellow one.
4.These
are all in pots on the front porch, along with a pink geranium.
5.There’s
also basil, that looked like this on Wednesday morning.
6.The
basil looked like this by Wednesday evening.
I have no proof, but I suspect the groundhogs feasted on the basil.
7.We
also have a shepherd’s hook with two hanging baskets of petunias and a suet
feeder in the front yard.
Here’s a
closeup of the flowers.
The suet feeder
is very popular. It was eaten down this
much in just a little over twelve hours.
8.A
friend gave us these beautiful hydrangeas.
We have a white hydrangea, but I’ve wanted pink and blue ones for a
while, so I was very excited to get these.
We’re still deciding where we’re going to plant them.
9.Here’s
a closeup of the blooms.
10.I put
mums in the pots on the porch during the fall and two of them came back. I think of them as more of a fall flower, so
I moved both of them to this big pot. I’m
planning to tuck it in a corner of the backyard and hope that the mums are big
and blooming by the fall.
11.In the
backyard, the blackberry bush has lots of berries that aren’t quite ripe
yet.
12.There’s
also a second blackberry bush now. I
suspect the birds are responsible for planting this one, which I
appreciate.
13. And no yard tour would be complete without a groundhog
video, so here’s a video of one of our groundhogs enjoying a peanut butter
cracker.
