Some Of This & That

Hello . It has been another week or so since I have posted anything here lol I haven't been very busy just relaxing and enjoying the summer .

The weather has been on and off here for about a week , hot and humid then cool then damp then oh year a spot or two of rain but not really enough to water the gardens , thankfully most of my perennial's are drought tolerant thank goodness for that but I have been hand watering my annual's and hanging planters . I have been playing about with my  in camera settings which I haven't done in such a long time . 

                       These flower pics are taken with the flower in camera setting  .

                                                                            So far I am liking using this setting .

Most of our birdies are all done with the nesting so we are getting a lot about the feeders and some are enjoying the natural seed we have in the gardens as some plants are already beginning to seeding .

                                                              Whilst others are still enjoying the no melt suet .

                   The clouds have been glorious over the valley just wish they would rain on us a bit more .

Friday evening I was looking for the full blood moon as the big dark clouds came over us I thought to myself oh darn it I guess I won't see the full blood moon tonight  as the thunder rolled not far from us in the southwest and threatened  the sky's , then I took a chance and looked to the southeast and there it was big bold and beautiful the full blood moon almost to be covered by dark clouds but not before I took a few snaps FEWW ! Gotchya !

The I had to run is as we had fast heavy torrential rain that was all done in about 10min and boy did it get humid after !

                                                             The humidity has been a factor for lots of fungi about .

                          Miggs has been taking it easy in the heat and just having the odd play time  mostly in the evenings .

Poor girl  she try's her best but there are days she just has a limp and a hobble about her as her arthritis acts up , this girl has had both back legs operated on has bad shoulders and is getting lumpy and bumpy now . She is on meds for it all from now on . She will be 9 in a few weeks .  That's right on my goodness August is just around the corner   WOW  how fast this summer is just flying by .

Our August long weekend is this coming weekend and Papa will have the Friday and the Monday off so an extra long weekend for him WOOHOO ! 

    Well that's about it for me for now , if you your on Facebook at all and would like to join our closed group as some of you already have and have some photo fun with us, we would love for you to be a part of it all 

Capturing Natures Wonders One Photo At A Time just click on the link and away ya go hope to see you there.

                                 

                                                                                  Until next time .

                                                                                    Country Gal

Miggs At The Groomers

Miggs always has such a great time at the groomers and she just loves the entire process , she is soo good  to , she even helps the groomer  Ashley by lifting up the paw she needs to and switching from one side to the other all on her own with just being asked .              I quickly took these with my phone camera lol ! I stayed as Papa went shopping as we were up in town lol !

Miggs loves her  baths especially the nice smelling shampoos and special coconut conditioner for older dogs dry skin and all the scrubs she gets as she is being massaged lol !

Miggs was Ashely’s last client and this little guy in the pic Wendel was just groomed before Miggs and he stayed there for a bit keeping an eye on Miggs , he liked her and she him  .

She had her bath and now it was time to blow dry  , Ashley puts a special ear hood or ear muff hood on all her clients to protect their ears from the powerful air and sound of the dryer .

                                                                     But Miggs always manages to shake it off lol !

                                                       Now for the final last bit of drying and touch ups and all done !

Ashley says Miggs is her best , helpful , happiest and fun client to groom and I saw that when I stayed . Such a good girl Miggs  . All clean , feeling  and smelling good .

  Well  that's about it for us , It is finally raining , a good rain for the gardens and grass I can hear it all singing with joy.

                                                                                                   Until next time .

                                                                                                          Country Gal

Capturing Summers Nature

The weather has been glorious all though very dry as we haven't had any rain for more than two weeks , north  and east of us has had all the rain but the breezes  have been cool and sky's have been blue with big beautiful puffy white clouds with silver linings and the sun has been shining  . Nature has been good for me in posing and letting me take it’s photo lol !

This little guy above is the second seasons Barn Swallow baby , He has quite the smug look on his face doesn't he lol !

                                                                                       Fast food on the fly lol !

                                         Regardless of the lack of rain we still manage to the the odd awesome fungi !

We have had lots of these juvenile Eastern King birds about and  in our big old tree . They make a distinctive sound  when they squeak squeak  as they are flying about .

These two were leaning as they sun them selves  snoozing on this wire whilst they wait for mum with the food lol !

Miggs and I have been so enjoying these summer Days and our early morning long walks as nature  and the sun rises for the day !

I would like to just mention that any of you that are on Facebook and are looking for a nice group to join , I am running an amateur nature photography closed group meaning no sharing others photos and all stays with in my power not  others and having the respect for my members and their photography  is key . I am the Administrator the group  is  called  Capturing Natures Wonders One Photo At A Time  , if any of you would like to join please contact me through my Facebook page  Elaine Wood    I have some of my followers from this  blog already joined and we would love for you to join in the fun to .

                                 Well that's it for me for now hope you all are enjoying your nature and summer days .

                                                                                              Until next time .

                                                                                                  Country Gal

Loving These Summer Days

It has been glorious here , warm air , lots of sunshine and cool breezes , the old fashioned kind of summer I remember as a kid ,

Miggs and I have been enjoying early walks in the mornings before the sun really gets its heat on and then just lazing about through out the day , ok she is lazing I am happily tending to my gardens and taking lots of photos lol ! Some of my favorite things to do in the summer as well as back porch patio sitting watching the birdies lol !

The field beside us is full of soon to be blooming Goldenrod and  Common Milkweed this year and I have been enjoying all the pollinator's that's been in it as I have spent many a day in the field getting some of them used to me being there so they know I do not pose a threat and then click click I go lol !

I haven't seen a lot of a Monarchs in the field well at least when I have been lurking about with camera in hand  but I did manage to get a few shots of this little beauty .

I have been seeing lots of these little guys here again this year  Yellow Cabbage moths as well as the White Cabbage moths , they just love my Latris in the gardens .

                            There are so many types of butterfly's and moths I cant keep up with who is who lol !

Lots of this Queen Ann’s Lace about now , I just love its tiny perfect individual flowers . This photo is part  blurry part clear on purpose as it is called Motion Blur Photography . Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames,It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or long exposure. In this instance it was caused by the winds moving this plant as I took its photo.

The clouds have been so fluffy and pretty the past day or so as they float on over  with their silver linings and looking like they are in  3D .

The other morning I heard a ruckus across the road as the Barn Swallows were chirp chirping their warning sound , so I went to the front to have a look and this is what I saw .

A Turkey Vulture landed on our neighbor's roof  as the field beside them had a carcass in it and he seemed hungry lol ! Natures cleaner uppers they are  . Ugly faces but they do look wonderful as they soar and play in the sky’s over our valley .

I just love all the wild flowers starting to bloom in the field beside us to ! Most are weed types but they sure are pretty !

And I have some weed type in my gardens to like this pretty orange flower , Butterfly weed, another plant that has perfect individual flowers .

It’s Friday the 13th and the every Friday the 13th all the bikers come out to play at Port Dover .The Friday the 13th Motorcycle Rally is a motorcycle rally held every Friday the 13th^[ in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada since 1981. Its typical summer attendance exceeds 100,000 bikers. The event has been described as "the biggest single-day motorcycle event in the world, a title also claimed by the Rolling Thunder rally in the United States. Although hundreds of attendees arrive during winter months, attendance is at its highest when the date falls on a summer day. In August 2010, the rally drew more than 150,000 attendees. Estimates for the July 2012 event ranged from 90,000 to more than 170,000 . So we don't live to far away from Port Dover and we can hear the rumble of motor bikes through our valley  village main street as lots of them take the hiway that runs through it to get to other ports on the way and they like the scenic routes of lake shore .

Well that's about it for me for now Papa and I will be puttering as usual enjoying our weekend of summer . Hoping for some rain we are dry as sand / dirt lol !

                                                                                   Until next time . Have a good weekend !

                                                                                               Country Gal

Finally Caught Him On Camera

I have been hearing this guy about for the past few weeks and he l;likes to stay hidden and make all his odd sounds defiantly not a song bird but an interesting bird to say the least .  Miggs and I were outside early this morning at 5:30am I set up my sprinklers in my gardens to give them a good drink as it has been very dry here due to the lack of rain . I heard him and tried to follow his sound but he was elusive till he decided to come out of hiding and be nosey , I am glad I had my camera on the patio porch table .

He landed in our spruce tree in the back of our little forest . A Juvenile Green Heron. As the river and marshy swampy area are so close to us latterly steps away we have them about but they just like to keep out of sight until this guy wanted a birds eye view lol !

                       Checking out the goings on below as two other bird species were making a ruckus .

They are quite nice looking birds and even nicer when they get all their shiny greenish blue colours when they are adults like this one .

I haven't seen to many adults stopping off in our yard just in the river and swampy area of our valley .

But I am he did cause I have been wanting to get his photo for some time . Thankyou young Heron for striking a few poses for me .

The weather has been wonderful and sunny every day and not to hot either with nice cool breezes and Miggs and I are out from sunrise to sunset taking it all in . I have been monarch counting and sending mu numbers in to a Facebook group I belong to  called Monarchs Migrating Through Ontario  who most of them raise tag and release their monarchs and some even follow them down to Mexico a very wonderful group and I have also been able to report to them that we have lots of common milk weed in the field beside us and soon to be tons of Golden rod two of monarchs favorite nectar flowers . This fall I am going to try my hand at harvesting the milkweed pods from the field and grow my own in a wild flower garden for next summer .

                                                                            Until next time Have a great week !

                                                                                             Country Gal

Some Of This & Some Of That

Hello . I cant believe it has been a week since I have posted last , usually I post something with in the week lol !  Hope all our American bloggers had a nice  4th of July  .

This can be a busy time of year for lots of people  and it was kind of busy for Papa and I as he had the week off of work for a small summer staycation as they call it when you don't go away on a vacation lol ! We are home dweller's and love our gardens and wildlife which is what we would of done like camping or something like that  had we not lived in the country in a valley any ways lol !

This weeks weather was very hot and humid so we didn't get into a lot of yard work but did putter about some . The weather as of today has cooled right off and it is lovely now , the cool breezes and fresh air with lots of clear sky's and sunshine today was just perfect for getting down and dirty in my gardens weeding  so that's what I did .

                                  I found a few fungi that caught my eye in the grass earlier this week .

                                                                                       I love photographing fungi !

Last weekend was our Canada Day long weekend and every year on Canada day weekend  we have three Harvard aircraft fly over as a salute to our country . They station at our St Thomas small aircraft airport that's only about a 35 minuet drive from us and we get lots of hobby type aircraft fly over all through the summer but these ones are my favorite . They are flown by a few retired fellows who also run the St Thomas  Harvard aircraft club and they also perform in the St Thomas air show every summer and other airshows around  our Ontario   .

The sky's were hazy with humid air when I took photos of the Harvard's  flying over our house and valley .

Our Mrs Molly Wren has moved in her old house again this year , we were kind of getting worried for a bit there as we hadn't seen her about in the beginning of the season which was odd but happily she has been busy  stuffing nesting material in it and sitting up on it singing and trilling her little heart out .

                                      It is soo nice to have her back again , I could watch her come and go for hours . . Papa and I will be building another  Dutch style barn bird house like this one in the pic above in his  work shop over the weekend and will be painting it the same colours as our house,  grey and white , we have two others he built about the yard, one is red and white and the other is green and yellow .

Miggs has been puttering about to with the heat this past week and she has a sore elbow now to as her elbow  had  been so dry and she has been licking it like mad and made it bleed , so Papa and I have rigged up a few ideas to help protect her elbow from getting dirt in it and from her liking it making it worse for a while and our vet gave us some antibiotic's for 2 weeks to help whilst it heals and she has to wear the cone of shame every now and then if she is to be unsupervised as well . I am really amazed at how good she is with the cone , she really doesn't mind wearing it and puts her head in it all by herself for us instead of us struggling to put it on her . Such a good girl, bless her and little cotton socks .

I saw a few Bald Eagles soaring over head but they were wayy up there and tried to do my best to get a pic or two of them but they were just out of my lens reach . We often get these beautiful prey birds flying over our valley and some even nest in the valley along our river .

This weekend weather is going to be cool and sunny and Papa , Miggs and I are just going to take it all in sit back and enjoy as much as possible , we may take a trip to our water gardens place and get some thing else for our little pond garden . I am in the midst of designing and making a pond garden sign and Papa has printed some stencils of pond things for me to transfer to the sign  then paint them after  so that will be fun , I love siting outside on a nice summer day  painting , be it painting fences, signs or what ever needs to be freshened up  ,   which we both repainted  and freshened up our porch polls  and back garden picket fencing  during the week  

                        Well that's about it for me for now .    Until next time ,  Have a good weekend !

                                           Country Gal