Playing Catch Up

It's good to be back.

First off I should apologize to all of you for not getting back on here quicker, for not logging in at the library or somewhere else to let you know of my computer woes. I should have contacted someone to pass the word along. I had planned on it, but time seemed to be slipping away and before I knew it I had been AWOL for more than just a few days.

A lot got accomplished though on my end and I have planted, mulched, watered, string trimmed, and all of that other yard work related stuff.

I got paperwork done, some closets and drawers cleaned, the garage swept and tidied. I got a lot of stuff I had put off accomplished, some stuff that I had put off for months. None of it really exciting stuff, but stuff that needed my attention eventually.

I even picked my camera back up and took more pics. Nothing too interesting, but still it helped to keep me in practice of having my camera out to try and capture a few moments in time.

 

 

You will be interested to know that even my big tree was taken out during my computer absence. I had waited all summer for it to be removed. After my last bit of string trimming, and looking at how badly and quickly the tree was deteriorating, I called the tree trimming people again to see where I stood on their job list. They promised to be here at the end of the week and they were. Just long enough to park the boom truck across the street and take off.

I had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn't work that day, the wind was picking up. I was positive that the tree would fall that week-end before they came back. The wind blew hard, more bits of bark fell, but the tree stood tall and proud til they showed up on Monday and got to work removing the branches one by one til all that was left was a stump.

 

 

 

I was glad that I did the 30 day pic challenge as I spent more time actually looking at the tree and it's inhabitants than I had in all my years of living here combined. Squirrels, cardinals, woodpeckers, flickers, doves, pigeons, nut thatches, sparrows, wrens, chickadees, blue jays, robins, and more birds that I could hear, but couldn't see in the tall leaf canopy. I hated to see them lose their home but I do have other trees, as well as my neighbors and hopefully they have found a place to nest in them. Below is a pic of a flicker? I think? that seemed a bit confused on just what exactly happened to it's home...

 

 

 

I did happen to notice while out studying my tree that there seemed to be an influx of hummingbirds. Most likely getting busy for their soon migration. I hadn't seen them all summer, figuring they had gone along with any hopes of rain. So I put out a feeder only to have an ornery little hummer refuse to let the others drink from it. Another trip to town and another feeder and still a very selfish littler hummer that thought it now had two feeders. I did feel a bit sorry for it as it wore it's self out chasing off all of it's competition. The bird would chase and chatter one hummer, only to have another one sneak to one of the feeders. The bird would rush back chattering/twittering loudly to chase another hummer off and it continued like that for several days. They all scattered when the tree trimmers were here and I only saw two hummers return when all of the noise and commotion was over.

 

 

 

 

It is amazing the change in the landscape there is from just removing one tree, even my neighbor remarked how open it was. I like open fields, grand sweeping lawns and landscapes...for others. For myself, I like the cozy feel of shaded nooks, and unexpected plantings or secluded sitting areas when rounding a corner. I guess I feel as it is some sort of insulation created by Mother Nature. It has my thoughts whirling on what to plant there, what tree or series of tall shrubs to take it's place. I am waiting til spring to plant though, still without rain, the hopes of getting anything to take roots this fall is a bit slim. I did manage to plant a few things, and I keep eyeballing the fall bulb catalog, but there has to come a time when I have to say enough. Enough for this year, to leave something for next spring.

 Kind of like my computer. Trying to catch up on updates and blogs, and websites. It was after midnight when I shut things down and said enough. It will have to wait for tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that...