Category Archives: wildlife

Jul25

Butterfly Paradise

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We have a bay window facing the backyard in our family room. The family room was the garage at one time. Why waste a big window facing the road when you can view a peaceful backyard? I have a butterfly bush planted under the window here. It’s as tall as the house and attracting a ton of butterflies. Right now I see a yellow shallowtail on it. I can’t even see the pond, but it’s nice to see the pretty purple blooms and the ‘flutterbys’.
I planted the 4 iris rhizomes yesterday and am expecting 10 more next month. My hibiscus seeds started to pop out of the pots. I planted10 and 6 are coming up. All the new plants benefited from the storm that went through here at 4 am.
I was just outside showing the guy where to pump out the septic tank. That’s country living for you though we now could get public water and sewer. Maybe someday if it becomes a problem. It’s the law to get them pumped every few years. Our toilets haven’t been flushing all the way and the shower isn’t draining that well. This should help as they pump out 1,000 gallons of waste.
I hope you saw the shows on the Titanic last night on the Discovery Channel. They were really good. Just when you think you have heard or seen everything about the Titanic, something new is unearthed. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, went down to the wreck again and had smaller robots to view parts of the ship that haven’t been seen before. They got to see the Turkish baths! The tile was still in good shape after 93 yrs! It was so neat. The other show talked about the building of the Titanic which was interesting and ‘reinacted’ very well. Five years of work for a ship that sunk in less than 3 hours.

Apr24

Act of kindness

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So I was on my way to MickeyD’s for dinner and two teens in an SUV in the other lane made me stop. Here a baby squirrel was sitting right in my path! I wouldn’t run over him! The driver got out and kinda swooshed at it (it was so cute I am getting all smoochie thinking of him). That didn’t work, so her pal got up and scooped him right up in her hands! I was praying that he wouldn’t bite her and he didn’t. The gal stayed on the side of the road to make sure ‘lil’ fuzzy tail’ got on his way. Isn’t that just too sweet?

Apr14

‘Helis’ from Canada

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This is the name of the white Beluga whale hanging around the Delaware River. Seems he’s a Canadian dude who’s about 30 yrs old with a propeller blade wound (how he was recognized). They are worried about him being in fresh water instead of salt water. Apparently the fresh water isn’t good for his eyes. I’ll keep you posted about what happens to ‘Helis’.
From WPVI.com website….
“Helis is a very distinctive animal, so it was easy to identify this guy,” said Robert Michaud, scientific director of the Canadian group.

Photos showed a scar along the whale’s dorsal ridge and other blemishes. Helis, pronounced ay’-LEE, is derived from the French word helice, or propeller. Experts believe Helis’ scar was probably caused by a propeller when he was younger.

Helis was first sighted in the St. Lawrence Estuary and was seen regularly until 1994, Michaud said. But since then he had only been spotted twice – in 2000 and 2003 – until he turned up in the Delaware River.

Apr13

Wayward Whale on the Delaware River

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As of yesterday (when he was first spotted), a 10-12 foot white Beluga whale has been swimming around in the Delaware River near Trenton. They say to get where he is, he had to swim by Wilmington and Philly. It’s a big deal around these parts and he made the news. They think he is headed south which would be good as he’s headed toward the ocean. If he doesn’t seem to be getting the idea about heading out to sea, guess he will get some help. Thanks to our local affiliate WPVI tv for the following map and photo of our new friend.

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On ‘The Daily Show’ (I watch the repeat from the night before the next morning), Jon Stewart mentioned that the Beluga was near his hometown of Trenton (I didn’t know this). He said the only reason anyone would go near Trenton is for condoms and cheap champagne-so you know what he said the whale was headed in that direction for-well… he said ‘a blow hole dance’.
I happened to watch the DVD of ‘Shark Tales’ last night. Talk about a tie-in to this current event! It was really a funny movie with Will Smith (another local boy) as the voice of Oscar the main ‘fish’ character.

Apr9

Waterfall

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Brian and I am major achy tonight. We were bailing out water from our little 50 gallon pond today. It was really muddy. Three of my water plants lived, but two really need repotting as there are about 1 foot of roots coming from the mesh containers I bought them in last year. It’s nice to hear the waterfall from the open window. I have three solar lights out there near the pond, one of which is a big sunflower and the only bright one glowing tonight.
Did I say it was a picture perfect day with clear blue skies too? So nice to get some more cleaning up done as we raked leaves out of the flowerbeds. My roses look sad and I lost a few. I feel like giving up on roses all together as they are hard for me to grow.
Bri filled in the hole mentioned in the the post below with that expanding foam stuff. “How does a redneck fill in a hole-with expanding foam stuff!!!” LOL I’m wondering if it will work. I can just imagine all the flying bug eggs under this floor where the garage floor use to be. Ugh.
I am trying to get myself in gear for weeding next. Yard work seems like so much more work than ‘fun’ as the years go by. I ask myself too why I made so many themed gardens? Man I’m getting old.


Can you see the fox in this photo? We were busy outside cleaning up debris and saw this little fella lying in the sun. He got up, grabbed something (not sure if it was another animal) and took off because he heard Brian come out to take more photos of him. Posted by Hello

Mar26

‘Finger Food’ and Skunks

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The last few days have provided enough ‘gross out’ for everyone concerning the digit found in the chili. We were discussing how it got in the chili in the first place. I think it was planted there by a disgruntled employee who may have been in a gang. Someone else said maybe the woman who had it in her food is a weirdo and planted it to sue Wendy’s. I know how they make the chili-the burger comes from ‘leftover’ patties that were probably cooked too long. Someone who was an employee at the chain years ago ‘enlightened’ us about how it is made.
Tonight I was sorting through my cross stitch stuff (sitting on the floor) looking for another project and it started to get really stinky in here. Brian happen to be sitting next to me in the lounge chair. I was blaming his feet! But then it dawned on it that it was more of a skunky aroma. So we opened the front door and it was like 100 skunks had lifted their butts to our house! We can’t understand why it’s smelling so much in here, all the windows are shut. Maybe it sprayed on one of the basement windows, or I hope it didn’t stumble in the window well outside one of them! I was actually wearing a painter’s mask for a while. Phew!

Jan27

Poor deer

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Just looked at the thermometer and it’s a balmy 14 degrees out. So glad I food shopped yesterday. I ate almost the breakfast I was suppose to-2 turkey sausage links with a regular English muffin and a slice of honeydew. They wanted me to eat a whole wheat muffin. I want to make the beef stew for dinner, so will have to sub the lunch for something else as I don’t want to eat beef for two meals in a row.
So I got up and looked out the bay window and there is a deer across the stream and up on the hill. He is just sitting there with his head up like a statue. Brian said he had been there hours! If he wasn’t wild, I’d surely him in and lay him by the fire. I wish he would snuggle up next to another deer for warmth!
Yesterday probably the same deer and his sibling walked right through the backyard close to the house. I had to show Cosmo the cat and he was really interested! When they took off down the hill, Cosmo did a double take like, ‘what the heck?’
As I said earlier, it’s all the new houses around here pushing the deer closer to my house. The land behind us is very hilly, so I don’t see houses there in the near future, hopefully. So that means with deer in my yard, I’ll have more ticks which can carry Lyme Disease, and I don’t care to get a double dose of that. I heard there are Guinea hens that eat ticks, through Christie Brinkley when she was on the Rosie O’Donnell show a few years ago. Seems that both women lived in Connecticut and had tick problems. Christie bought the hens and it helped! I wouldn’t mind having them though they are dirty and their coops need cleaning out all the time. I am sure hawks or other wild life would be interested in them as a snack. I wouldn’t mind having a few sheep and goats, but don’t know if we are allowed to. The guys wouldn’t want to be bothered either. What to do, what to do?

Nov26

A slimy Thankgiving gift from my cat…read on

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We were bustling around here getting ready when Brian went downstairs to get something from the basement and said loudly,’ What the heck is that?’ There at the bottom of the steps laying on a little sunflower floor mat was a dead green garter snake. I am pretty sure my cat Cosmo did him in and left him at the foot of the steps as a ‘gift’ to us. What I want to know is how he got in? We never had a snake down there before even though a hole is cut in the floor as a drain. We brought in a few big flowers pots a few weeks ago. I sure hope that critter was the one and only snake and I will quote from an Indiana Jones movie and Harrison Ford-‘why did it have to be a snake?’ Brian picked it up with a paper towel and tossed it down the hill where he could see it. A few hours later it was gone. A nice feast for Thanksgiving for another critter.