Birds, Blooms and More Blueberries!

I am continuing today

with more photos

of the garden blooms,

one of my favorite birds

and

Blueberries!!!

Coneflowers are fun to photograph because of their shape and texture!:

Their centers remind me of exploding fireworks:

They are great to snip off and bring into the house for a centerpiece:

We have several Flicker birds

in our neighborhood.

We hear them all the time..

but they are very shy here...

I have chased after them with my camera more than once,

only to have them fly away before I even get within zoom range.

One day,

I was weeding my garden and heard their familiar call....

and realized one must be

very

close...

Sure enough..at the end of my driveway, sitting

in the grass...

was a Flicker!!!

I ran into the house and grabbed my camera,

figuring it would be gone before I got back out...

But to my surprise, it was still there in the grass, forging for food and not noticing me.

One of the things that I love most

about them

is their little red patch on the back of their heads:

They have long yellow tail feathers, but unfortunately, I could not capture this in the photos:

I think this was a young Flicker....

so he hadn't learned to be afraid of humans yet.

But--he was GORGEOUS!:

One of my garden flowers:

And the rewards of going into the woods for a ride:

By the way, if you think my hand is rather masculine..

well,

I DO ALOT OF GARDENING, people!!!

Who has time for a manicure????

(Just kidding....

this is my HUSBAND's hand...but I had you going there for a moment, didn't I?)

*************************************************************

You DO REALIZE that you only have THREE DAYS LEFT

to enter into the August FREE PHOTO CONTEST,

don't you????

The theme is:

Sunrises or Sunsets

So, get going RIGHT now and send in your winning photo

to me by midnight, August 31st following THESE RULES!!!

This and That From Our Trip in the Woods...

On our last trip out to the woods, we roamed some roads, saw a farm, and some other creatures. We even found a restaurant to go to to catch lunch.

Follow me, won't you...in retracing my day?:

I thought this little white moth on the bright green ferns was very pretty:

Then, I stepped over to my right and something hopped away!

I found him though, after a treasure hunt....

here is the grasshopper I found!:

My husband found a treasure and led me over to see it.

It is the ingredient in my FAVORITE pie.

Raspberries!:

Then, he found the ingredients to HIS favorite pie.

Blueberries!:




Something bright orange caught my eye from the car.

We stopped and there were the brightest orange tree mushrooms I have ever seen!:

We saw several farms on our way out to the deeper woods.

I loved this pastoral scene:

I made my husband stop the car so I could get pictures.

He said: "You aren't seriously going to take pictures of COWS, are you?"

What do YOU think I said?

Evidently, the cow was asking the SAME question:

And this big guy asked: "What YOU lookin' at?"

So, fine.

I left them alone.

Gheesh....I thought cows had more humor in them than that.

I mean don't they call the ice cream trucks: Good Humor trucks?

Oh well....so on we went.

Because I obviously have an addiction to finding tree mushrooms, I got excited over this whopper! (Did I say Whopper?..I must have all that beef on my mind yet):

But seriously, wasn't that a uniquely shaped tree mushroom in just the perfect spot?

I know you want a closer look.

I know I did.....

See how pretty it is? Almost looks like a ruffle.

We continued on our journey.

Passing a little road into a cabin, I thought I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.

I had my husband stop the car and hopped out, with camera in hand.

I just knew something was in the woods....




I was right.

Look at her beautiful eyes.

She was still, peeking at me from behind the brush.

All that talk about blueberries, raspberries and beef was making us hungry.

We knew one of the little towns on the way home had a bar that served burgers.

But would YOU want to eat....

at something called:

That's right...it is called UP CHUCKS!!!

Because upper Michigan is called the U.P. (for Upper Peninsula) it is a play on words..you know:

U.P. Chucks...turns into up chucks.....

Oh well, guess you gotta live up here to get it and find it funny.

P.S. The burgers were great.

And we didn't....

(we didn't up chuck)!!!