Monday, April 28 ~Spring Is In The Air and at my feeder~

Oh, what a glorious week end this one turned out to be.  On Friday I was not so sure as it rained off and on all day, but Saturday was a perfect day so we drove south on I-71 to Caesar's Creek Flea Mkt.  We met Sara, Matt and Evelyn and proceeded through the isles of treasures, first outside and then to the more commercial inside booths.  We were a little disappointed that there were not a lot of vendors set up outside like we usually see but for Andy and Evie's short legs I suppose there were enough.  We decided that for lunch we would drive into Waynesville for lunch.  I can't remember the last time I had been there.  My aunt and uncle lived in Springboro near here and we used to visit regularly.  The town of Waynesville looked as though it had not changed much since then.  Sara and Matt were shopping for chairs to put with the dining table that he made during the winter.  So after we had our lunch we hit many of the antique stores that are abundant on the main and side streets there.  The weather was so nice and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon looking back into another era by way of the many handmade tools and furniture.
 

This Red-breasted Grosbeak is a welcome visitor as he fuels up before heading for more northern climes

This Blue Jay thinks he needs to move on NOW!

The Fox squirrel really doesn't care who is at the feeder as long as they drop something for him.

I also spent a lot of time watching my bird feeding station for new arrivals and migrants on their way back to their Canada nesting grounds.  One of my favorites is the red-breasted grosbeak, so far I have only seen one.  I have always had one red-winged blackbird that comes to my feeder with the many grackles but this year I have seen 3 males and on Sunday I saw the first female to visit the feeder.  In the photo you can see why you wouldn't notice her as she looks a little like an over grown sparrow with a white eye line.  Yesterday afternoon as I was walking to the barn I was greeted by the first 2 barn swallows of the year.  Although that means we will have to start covering our mowers in the barn, I always welcome them back.  They are quite the aerial acrobats and consume thousands of mosquitoes as they perform.  Andy got all of the yard mowed so we are ready for the week of rain that has been forecasted.  As I write this the house is shaking from the rumbles of thunder.  Pray for the many who lost there homes and loved ones over night to the tornadoes that hit Arkansas and Oklahoma.  Sharon and I were driving through that area a little more than a month ago.

The male red-wing blackbird

The Easter bunny left baby bunnies in my flower bed

The less flashy female red-wing

White-breasted Nuthatch

The American Goldfinch is starting to get his bright yellow feathers

This House Finch is showing off his pretty red head feathers

This little Carolina Wren seldom sits long enough for a good photo

The Mourning Dove on the other hand is very photogenic

The Blue Jays are the party animals and are quite noisy!

We have 3 species of squirrels that frequent our feeders.  This is a gray squirrel.

These do not come to the feeder, but they are among my favorites to watch , Turkey Vultures

I also hung out my hummingbird feeders yesterday as two of my friends have spotted Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in their yards!  Despite the spring showers this week, ENJOY!!

Monday, April 21 ~Easter Weekend~

One of the best parts of this weekend was the weather. Hopefully, spring is finally here!  Sara and Matt both had Good Friday off from work so after Evie's egg hunt at her daycare, they drove up for the weekend.  I picked up my mom from the Madison House around noon and then we ordered lunch from Los Mariachi's take out and we spent the day just enjoying the wonderful warm weather.  Evie and I picked up sticks, well, I picked up sticks and Evie rode along in our UTV or jeep, as she calls it, and later in the evening we built a fire in our fire ring and had hot dogs and toasted marshmallow s'mores.  On Saturday, Matt and Andy spent the morning at the High Street Flea Market while Sara and I took Evie up to the John Deere place on 42 for their egg hunt.  It was a great time!  There were quite a few kids there but with 4,000 eggs no one went home with out a few eggs in their baskets.  They also got a small rubber JD tractor with all that chocolate.  Kudos to JD Equipment.

Of course the eggs were JD green and yellow

In the afternoon we all drove to Springfield and had Andy's favorite lunch, Cassano's Pizza.  Since we were so close we couldn't go home with out some ice cream from Young's Dairy.  Evie got to feed the goats, ride a tractor and sit on a cow, and Mam-maw had her ice cream!

Sunday morning we all went to Sunday School and enjoyed watching the little ones hunt eggs in the parsonage back yard.  We stayed for the Traditional service and Evelyn was very well behaved.  Dinner was a delicious spiral ham from Kroger with all the fixin's.  After dinner Andy and Matt napped while Sara, Evie and I went over to have bunny cake with my brother and his family and Mom.  What a glorious weekend celebrate "new life" and the selflessness of our Lord.  I pray your Easter was as wonderful as ours!

Asher was so sweet helping Evie find Easter eggs

Monday,April 7~Zoo & Thurman's

Sara, Matt & Evie came up from Cincinnati for a visit this past weekend.  Evie has become quite the little conversationalist and is ever so polite using her "thank yous" and "er welcome".  She still has to be reminded sometimes about her "pleases" as her asking often comes out as a demand but that is to be expected of most 2-18 year olds!  Saturday we spent some time at the zoo.  It was a little cold so we stayed on the west side of the zoo with the fishes, snakes and manatees.  We wanted to walk through the walk-about with the kangaroos but it was closed.  We had lunch at the Old Bag of Nails Pub in Powell.

Sunday I was bad and skipped church and we drove over to German Village and ate at Thurman's.  They hosted Man vs Food in March and Matt wanted to try one of their gourmet burgers.  It was fortunate that we got there at 11 when they opened because we got the last table.  The service was ok but we were there nearly an hour before our food came out and when we left there was a huge line of people waiting.  The burgers were good and Andy liked the deep fried portabella mushrooms.  We ordered a basket of onion straws that were good but nothing like the ones at The Counter in Honolulu.  We decided that it was great for our first time visit but probably not high on our "can't wait to go back" list.  We stopped at the Scioto Audubon Park on the way home and walked some of the paths around the visitor's center and took the walk across the wetlands to the play area.  It was such a pleasant afternoon and I could almost believe that spring is nearly here to stay.

Andy's bacon, cheese burger

Sara and I split the Western Burger (cheddar cheese, bacon & BBQ sauce)

We've also been watching the wood ducks in the creek as they search for that perfect hole in a tree to lay their eggs.  I'm hoping it is somewhere close so I can watch them through my spotting scope that I got for Christmas.  We saw the female again this morning.  Yesterday it was the pair.  I think they are the prettiest ducks that we have here in Ohio.

The male is beautifully colored with iridescent blues, purples and greens outlined in white with red eyes

The female is buff brown and gray with a distinct white eye ring

These ducks are easy to identify by their sounds.  Unlike the quacking of other ducks, wood ducks squeal or squeak making a woo-eek, woo-eek sound as they fly

Wood ducks are perching ducks with sharp toes on their webbed feet that can grasp tree limbs enabling them to land in trees.  Mallards on the other hand are dabbling ducks that tend to look for food near the edges of ponds by dabbing their heads under water.
There are also diving ducks...but that is information for another day!!