The Great Outdoors

In the afternoon at Chelsea on Friday, 10-14, the sun finally popped between the clouds and brightened the background at the stable, but office stayed in the dark.....

Ms. Hoppy was back!!!! Haven't seen her for months.....

Close view of MT PRPark eagle nest....

Home Plants

Last good blooms of summer--these impatiens almost died during the drought, but liked the hurricane...

Group lantana portrait! You may have to enlarge to see better color. They're a little paler than in summer....

A bumbly is there almost every AM and not moving until there's some warmth. We think he's been spending the night....

The strawberry bush has fruit and leaves are losing color.This came from the woods many years ago....

 

Close up of seeds--remind us of upside-down baskets!.....

Animal Antics

Binky (5 yrs. old) with Myki, the Mykonos donkey from Greece. She likes to shred some of her pets and then bring them to the food dish in the dead of night. We thought she was bringing her "babies" for food, but a friend who saw Myki thought she was a dog & brings them in the kitchen to BE dinner! She does have a Jekyll/Hyde disposition....

 Newer pal is a wild boar from Florence, Italy....

 To our HORROR this morning, the NCTC eagle gift joined the Halloween Spidey! The eagle stays on the mantle and is not her toy!....!

 Another recent guest has been the armadillo. Texas folks should be happy.....

 

We could not understand this morning why all the dishes were askew. Then we saw a small blue-tailed skink that the great striped hunter, Scooter, was stalking. It was rescued and returned to the outdoors...

A Tree Grows in Bastrop, TX!!!

Here are some oaks next to the garage on daughter and son-in-law's property. New green leaves!...  

The original house in 2002....

Flat Stanley Visits Forestville. MD

#1   Flat Stanley arrives from Carlin Lundholm's house in Cookeville, TN to Great-Grandpa Frank & G-Grandma Loretta Lundholm’s house in Forestville, MD.

 #2   He is tired and takes a “catnap” with Binky.

 #3   On the TV News that evening, Stanley sees a story of scientists checking for damage or cracks on the Washington Monument from the earthquake.

 #4   Stanley goes to Washington, DC (10 miles away) the next day to visit the Monument. He offers to help the scientists. They thank him but he can’t go up with them, as they don’t have a safety harness his size.

 #5   Stanley visits one of the Park offices where Grandma Loretta works. It is on an old farm called Chelsea.  Stanley checks the stable, but the ponies and horses are not there.

Flat Stanley at Kids Day 10-8-11

#6   Stanley goes with Grandma Loretta to the BIG Park where she also works . It is called Patuxent River Park and is in Upper Marlboro, MD. Stanley reads the banner which tells about the Annual Kids Day program. He visited at a good time!

 #7   Stanley finds where the ponies went and takes a ride on Ginger!

 #8   Stanley makes a toy wooden tractor with helper Chuck and then rides on it.

#9   Stanley decorates a pumpkin. 

 #10   Yum, yum!  Stanley visits a log cabin museum that is about 100 years old. The ladies dressed in old time clothes have fixed a whole dinner in the fireplace!  Boy, that apple cobbler smells good.

 #11   Everyone went on a hayride!

 #12   Stanley is ready for a pontoon boat ride.  Notice he is wearing a safety vest.

    

#13   The Captain was a little late, so Stanley thought he would try out the driver’s seat!

   

 #14   After the boat ride, everyone was very happy to see a Bald Eagle in a tree by the dock!

River Sightings, 10-4-11

After work at the Park, took a trip to the boat ramp. Saw some vultures, a heron, and large white gulls flying and these mallards snoozing on tree that recently slid into the River after the storms.....

 Downstream was a very large bird in treetop!.....

 An EAGLE!!!! In this pic it looks like a spot on side of head, or wind is blowing feathers....

 Decided to go down to the tower for a closer view. Probably an aster was next to the path....

 A coral fungus looks like a sponge....

 From the tower, could see he was trying to hide among the leaves!...

He flew down to edge of River and there was a lot of flapping, some from lots of waterfowl getting out of town! He flew out of sight with no prey. From the tower, a barred owl was heard "whooing"..... 

 On the way back from the tower was a white turtlehead!...

From the boat ramp parking lot, got a far away glimpse through the wild rice of that bird again! He/she was back on the prime perch!... 

Park River Cam 10-4-11

First two pictures are about 8:40 AM...

 At 4:00 PM, there was  some sun!! The fencing  you see is to prevent the geese from eating the wild rice. They don't like to bother flying and landing inside area....