Birds & Feeding

It is cool in the tautumn sitting on the deck but it can be very relaxing and enjoyable. Maybe a shower will come through and if you are up early in the morning you can see the clouds in the valley below as the sun rises over the trees on the hill across the valley. Maybe a sweater, cup of hot chocolate, and a good book is all you need for a relaxing day.





Birds enjoy the fall because every place they look there are more seeds to eat. It makes for a relaxing day to sit on the deck and watch the birds as they go from the bird feeder, to feeding on the sunflowers to fountain. It is truly thanksgiving for them. I find five birds sitting on the sunflowers and one flying to its next location. Do you find more?

Fall in the Air

Yes, Fall has arrived. As I look out the window the rain has started and the flowers show their last splashes of color before the killing frost. The once bright yellow sunflowers now droop low with spent flowers weighted down by the sunflower seeds and the chickadees and goldfinch that dart from one head to another trying to get the best of the seeds. The dahlias and roses still put forth their beautiful flowers but now it takes tree days for a flower to open as the cool nights slow the growing process.

I made my second batch of tomato sauce and now may have to make tomato soup and salsa to utilize the tomatoes that now set in the sunroom for the last ripening. Everything seems to come at once. You once wished for the fresh vegetables from the garden then the zucchini, basil, tomatoes seen to all arrive at the same time. It seems only last week I picked leaves carefully from the basil to make my pesto. Now the plants are blooming and I need to make and freeze more pesto and tomato sauce.

I made the round taking pictures of the yard and making notes of things I want to change next year. After eight years some of the plants need to be divided or moved. Other plants will move to another place next year to see if they will grow better or at least not be crowded out by the other plants. The three sticks I planted four years ago are now a mass of hydrangea bushes that crowd out anything planted near them.

Off to see the Reindeer

Well the week at Eagle Crest is over and back to the garden. We did stop at Operation Santa Claus to see the reindeer. The younger reindeer were close to the road and the older ones were in the next field. But it is always nice to stop by before they start their trips around the malls in the area before Christmas. I was very impressed with the antlers on one of the reindeer. All of the pictures of the Week are now on the web.

I guess the way to see deer is to suggest they are all gone. After the last posting, I saw two deer on my walk. They didn’t stop for photos but then at 6:30 AM the next morning two deer came by the deck. So I did get to see and photograph the deer. The complete photos of the High Desert Museum are also available.

The nights are getting cool and fall is near.

Eagle Crest Resort

We are spending a week at Eagle Crest Resort in central Oregon. Here we had a condo overlooking the river with a deck surrounded by pine trees. We spent our time reading, playing tennis, and walking. The weather was nice with cool evenings and warm days (80 degrees).
As for the tennis there were no big winners. We did play about every day at 9 AM. The only problem was that the sprinklers for the lawn would hit the court. The watering was done early in the morning but the courts were still wet. Marilyn did most of the reading and I did most of the walking. There is a nice path by the river and then up in the residential area. It makes for about 3-4 miles if you walk the complete route. Usually you can see deer and other wildlife. I didn’t see much for wildlife this year. There was a posting that a cougar had been seen in the area but I didn’t see any. Maybe that is the reason I haven’t seen the deer.
Wednesday we went into Redmond for music in the park. This week was Hawaiian dancing with mostly young boys and girls but also some older dancers. It was a nice warm-up for our upcoming trip to Hawaii. It was a much smaller group of listener than we see at the concerts at the park in Albany but here the performers are local and Albany tries to bring in some known performers. There was food to buy but we took are sandwich and soda and enjoyed the dancing.
On Thursday we made our trip to the High Desert Museum that we make each year. Always enjoy the raptors and their demo. Most of the birds have been injured or raised by humans so they would not survive in the wild. The raven was blind. There were two new cats in the exhibit that had been raised by humans and in the case of the lynx abandoned. The lynx was found in a state park in California. The animal was starving and when the caught it to see what the problem was they found it had been declawed and neutered, obviously raised by a human. I will have pictures out on the web when I return home.