Hot, Hot Weather and Some Birds

The weather here in the Chicago area is very hot, in the nineties. Checking on the flowers and gardens often to make sure they're not wilting in the sun. The cool air-conditioning is too welcoming. I love to have my doors and windows open because I love to hear the birds chirping outside. We have so many birds. I hate the closed-in quietness of the air-conditioning, but I hate the hot, humid weather more. I do love summer, but summer does have a tendency to get just way too hot. I did see two small birds outside of my kitchen yesterday morning. I had the wrong lens on my camera, and I didn't get the close-up I wanted, but I was afraid if I went to get the lens, the birds would fly away. After I took this picture, I did go get my other lens, but, alas, one bird flew away, and the other bird showed me his back.

Birds and a Gosling

I love spring. Today however was more like summer, 92 degrees. I'm not ready for that yet. It is so great seeing the birds. I also have a goose family with one gosling.

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Jessie Rose Looks Out. . . .

Jessie Rose, one of my sweet Maine Coon Cats, is an inside cat, but she loves to look out the screen door at the outside world. Here is Jessie Rose and some of the things she might have been looking at today.

Jessie Rose is safe behind a screen door. Let's see what she finds so interesting outside of that door.

That's my purple clematis bush. I think the purple flowers are beautiful. I bet Jessie Rose would love to climb up the trellis.

Here is a picture of the flowers up close. I think Jessie would like to hide in those flowers. Her green eyes would probably light up when she tried to sniff the flowers.

Is that a rabbit that you see Jessie Rose? He's hiding by the plants in the nature area. I bet Jessie Rose would be more afraid of him than he of her. Jessie is a "scarredy cat."

My purple pansies have such pretty faces. I know Jessie would love to walk around in them. I love pansies because they bloom in the fall and in the spring. The fence is there because we have so many rabbits that they eat all of my flowers if I don't fence them in.

This is the side garden that Jessie Rose looks at. I love the standing glass prism that I found at a craft show. It reflects the sun and is so pretty to look at, especially in the morning and late afternoon.

The red-winged blackbirds nest in the cattails behind our house. They are beautiful to look at, and their wings are much redder than they appear in this picture. There are so many of them nesting that Jessie can't see all of them at once.

Finally, Jessie Rose looks at the wild grasses blowing in the wind. They are so delicate and add so much to the scenery behind my house. I feel fortunate to live in an area with so much beauty.

So there you are. Jessie Rose is an inside cat, but she has so much to look at every day. She can see flowers, animals, and birds. It isn't safe for her to be out, but her imagination is stimulated every time she looks out at the world.

Birds and Other Critters

One of the greatest advantages about where I live is that I'm ten minutes from great shopping, Starbucks, and Ulta. The other great delight is that I can go outside or look out of one of my windows, and it appears as if I live in the country. There are blue and white herons, many varieties of birds, rabbits, ducks, geese, deer, and then there are the predators, coyotes and hawks. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I took around my house this week.

Mr. Bunny was watching me as I took his picture, but he didn't run away. We have so many rabbits. I have to put a fence around my flower garden just so I have some flowers over the summer.

This pair of ducks decided to hang out in my raspberry patch. Hopefully, little ducklings will be around soon. After the ducklings hatch, the duck family lives in the nature area behind my house.

The bird in the feeder was an interesting bird with a yellow face and white on its wings. I have never seen a bird that looks like this around here. The red-winged blackbirds were not too happy and tried to chase him away.

This is another picture of the yellow-faced bird. He is really pretty. I believe he is a yellow-faced blackbird.

I took this picture of a hawk from my dining room window today. He was flying from fence to fence, but the red-winged blackbirds chased him out of the yards. He was quite magnificent. Maybe this is a sign that I should start stitching Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow.