6 July 2014 - Splashing in the Fourth

What a way to celebrate July 4th!  First, my sister arrived for a visit. Since she is such a fog flower and this week has been in the high 90s, I thought it would be a good idea to get the little pool cleaned up and the fountain running so she could at least dip her toes in cold water. It's one way to stay cooler. 

My brother arrived first thing in the morning with his bag of tools and proceeded to clean out the drains and hoses. He had to dig out the well for the pump and get it reinstalled. In no time at all (okay, a couple hours) we had falling water. What a treat!  There is nothing like the sound of water on a very hot day. And dangling toes or feet in the water makes it even better. I was thrilled. 

David was smart enough to put a couple of chairs in the corner of the pool surround. It is a lovely cooling spot to sit now. 

I left to collect Robin from the airport and David packed up his bag of tricks. I was one of two houses on my street to hang a flag. Can't decide if I'm shocked or disturbed by this. We celebrated with food. Robin wanted hotdogs and toasted marshmallows while I wanted root beer floats and watermelon. Ended up with all that and more. Although we didn't get to the marshmallows, we had more than we could eat. 

Meanwhile, the yard is full of babies. Baby magpies, blue jays, chickadees, robins, downy woodpeckers are all being fed by harried parents. I keep suet out all year and the parents are going through two cakes every three days. You'd think the babies would get so fat they won't be able to fly. I could watch the antics of these babies all day. It is so much fun to watch them move through the stages of being fed, to learning how to feed themselves. It is always an adventure.

In addition to bird babies, I have squirrel babies and bunnies. Tonight I ran into three raccoon babies. That was quite the experience. I ran out to the shop tonight, and in the dark I heard really strange grunting, whuffling, whistling noises. I went back for the flashlight. Came back out to see three babies. That made me really unhappy. I started shining the light in their eyes, yelling, stomping and waving my arms around. They were unimpressed and started making agitated noises. Great. I chucked a few rocks in their direction. About this time the two labs next door got involved -- barking and growling at the fence. The babies were between me and the dogs. They charged me! WTH?  Oh yeah, I moved in a hurry. 

The babies were freaked, growling and making distressed noises.  I heard a bunch of scrabbling noises and located one of them climbing up a large pine tree. I think the other two were hiding in the myrtle or pyracantha.  I am so not happy about this. Time to get some traps out.  

Last night Robin and I went out to look at the moon. It was flanked by Spica and Mars--an amazing sight! The star and planet were one finger width away on each side of the moon in a perfectly straight line. 
Tonight I went out to check on them again and found the moon perfectly balanced on a pine tree. 

Quite a joy ride on our Fourth!