Lovey Dovey

This winter, we have been blessed with several doves visiting our yard and feeders.

I didn't realize until recently that doves live a long life.

One article said the longest living dove recorded lived 31 years!

We have lived in our "new" house for 5 years this March.

We got three doves visiting us the first year.

We have had about nine doves the past few years.

This year?

We have FOURTEEN doves that have stayed here all winter.

They fly in once or twice a day and roost on our apple tree and take turns flying down and eating at our feeders.

Here are some shots of some of them, I couldn't fit all of them into one frame when all fourteen come to the apple tree!

Here are half of them:

I love how they fluff themselves up and are constantly preening themselves:

Some doze off, some are the "watchmen"...some just look around:

A pair of pretties:

Bracing against the wind and snow:






Taking an afternoon nap:





Such a lovely family:

I love the subtleties of their coloring:

Another one dozing:








All three of these beauties are doing something different:

A pair of twins?:

I think their faces are so peaceful.

I love it when they "coo".....

Sometimes we wake up to their soft cooing outside at daybreak....

I can't think of a better alarm clock. Can you?????

More Useless Tidbits

Time again for MORE USELESS TIDBITS (along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics), which is alot like my Useless Trivia series, but oh well...its a long winter, and I have to amuse myself, right?

1. Caesar salad has nothing to do with any of the Caesar. It was first concocted in a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920's.

A bar? Did I say a BAR???? Good grief, I would have concocted a drink with that name! And people would be a LOT happier drinking it than eating a boring salad. Et Tu, Brutus!






2. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top.




I know you are going to buy a big bottle of the bubbly to try this, aren't you? I know I am! I heard before that if your champagne goes flat, if you add a raisan it will get its bubbles back too. So here's to you (glasses clicking)..and Me (hic!)...if we try it and it doesn't work, then we can drink our sorrows away together. Geez, I just noticed that No. 1 and No. 2 of this Useless Tidbits list involves alcohol already. Maybe I am on a roll....







3. Celery has negative calories! It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.

But, who wants to eat it? Although if I ate celery all day long I could "bank up" about 300 calories and go have a milkshake..this might work for me. Or, I could have that bottle of bubbly without guilt and use the strings from the celery as dental floss to clean out my teeth. (See? I KNEW I could work in alcohol into Tidbit #3!!)









4. You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching television.


That's IT!! I am going to publish the new diet for the world and become filthy rich! The Eat Celery all night and then go to Bed Diet"!!! Wanna join me in the Bahamas after I make a shitload of money from it? Who wants to be my first control group??












5. The two longest one-syllable words in the English language is "screeched & strengths."

I know you. You are going to go to your dictionary and go word by word to see if this is correct. I don't blame you. I hope I will still be blogging when you leave a comment to tell me this is wrong or right. Of course, now that they are making up new words at a fast pace, by then, there may be a new word that beats them.



6. Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.


Is that before her boob job, or after? She is going to have to buy all her clothes from Fredrick's of Hollywood to make sure her tops fit and then buy her pants in the boy's department for her narrow hips.













7. Barbie's full first name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.


Her mother was very, very cruel. She showed HER....she runs around naked now with her hair all cut up from all those little girls that sheared her off and hanging around the gutters of messy closets (doing who-knows-what) with Ken. Note to self: it is very important to name your children so that they have no trauma from it.




8. All of the clocks in Pulp Fiction are stuck on 4:20.


Someone look this up for us and tell us why the Producer/Director did this? Because I am WAY too lazy. I just watched Pulp Fiction for the John Travolta eye candy....like most women did. (You mean there was a plot? With symbolism? Who knew???)





9. A coat hanger is 44 inches long if straightened.

Just in case you wanted to make a back of your calf scratcher or something. And why didn't they make them 43 inches or 45 inches?? Why? Oh Lord, WHY????? And who took the time to measure this? Why did they need to?











10. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".


Ah hell, you might as well look this up at the same time you look up what words are the longest one-syllable words in there. Here I thought there was the word: pimt (as in what a prostitute is by their pimp). Or humt (what my sock is from the chiquaqua...or wait..that is humped)....sorry....I bet my computer spell check wouldn't have corrected THAT ONE! But you know, with all that texting going on, the dictionary is going to change..you just wait and see!!

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Don't forget!!

Please enter the FREE photo contest for March 2010.

This month's theme is: "Something Green or Something Irish".

Enter by March 31st, 2010, midnight EST

You can read the rules HERE on how to submit your picture!

We have a Winner!!!: February's Photo Contest Results

We have a WINNER!!!

I have contacted three seperate judges from my e-mail list.

I explained the contest.

I sent them the link to the blogpost with the twelve entries for February.

I wished them good luck, telling them I had just given them a very, very tough job to do.

But they came through, bravely choosing their favorite!

(Bless their hearts, because I couldn't narrow it down to only ONE winner!)

So, without further delay....

(drum roll, please.....)

The WINNER IS:

Congratulations, Judy (Squirrel Queen)....you did a WONDERFUL JOB!

She has TWO blogs which you can find HERE and HERE.

(If I were you, I'd send this to a company that does prints on canvas and get this baby done in a 18X20 and hang it on my wall, like a masterpiece!)

I am sending you (by e-mail) your FEBRUARY 2010 winner's widget which you can proudly display on your blog.

I want to thank ALL of the people who entered, you did a fantastic job.

I also want to mention that other honorable mentions were:

--Ratty for his deer photo

--Kim for her grasshopper photo

--Lynn for her dog's nose photo

and

--Mark for his giraffe photo

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Don't forget to enter the MARCH 2010 free PHOTO CONTEST.

The theme is "Something Green or Something Irish".

Enter by following THESE RULES by March 31st, 2010, midnight.

Thanks everyone!

Busy as a............(nope, not a BEE, guess again!)....

We took a walk down to the lake, right down on our shore by our house yesterday.

Right away, we knew something was different.

Then we walked further, and saw

that

we had a visitor

during the night.

Look close to see the destruction we saw:

See all the branches laying in the snow?

Look to the left of the branches on the snow and ice. See that tree cut down?:




There were more cut down too!:





Oh gosh...and even MORE cut down!!!:




This one looked like he ate it like an apple and then went right for the top!
But where or where IS the tree he cut down???:



In addition, we saw that he used our fish cleaning table
for
a
BUFFET TABLE!:
See the shavings on the table?

(If you haven't guessed by now, we had a busy BEAVER visit our yard!)





Evidently a very HUNGRY beaver:

This one was chewed with a clean cut!:





Must've tasted like potato chips!:

Looks like he rested here beside the rock for a siesta, pooped out from the munchies:

Before he had dessert!:

Obviously, this must have been the main entree:

See how he chewed that stump in a circular pattern?

A side dish:







And yet another....

Good grief! He did all this eating in ONE NIGHT!!!:

No WONDER he didn't take the rest of the branches with him:

I mean....

did you SEE the size of the main entree???:

We couldn't figure out where he hauled most of the trees and branches after

he chewed them down.

Then we looked at the drainage pipe a little ways from our lot.

He must be hauling them way down the drainage pipe:

See all the sticks left

from

him trying to haul them down the drainage pipe?:

Oh Boy.

Spring ought to be interesting around here when it comes......

If I hear of the drainage pipe "not working" and of some local flooding....

well,

we now know WHO TO BLAME.................

In the meantime, we just may have to get a posse together to sit on that rock and guard the rest of the trees our yard....

because partner, I love animals....

but I love the trees in our yard beside our lakeshore just as much!!!!!

(Besides.....now what in the HECK are we going to tie our boat up to when we pull to shore?

He ATE the tree down that we used to tie our boat up to!)

Here they ARE!: February 2010 Photo Contest Entries!!!

Are you ready?

I SAID....

Are

you

READY?????

Just WAIT until you see February's Photo Contest entries of the theme: Critter Closeups.

We got all KINDS of critters.

We got inside and outside photos and all kinds of angles....

They are WONDERFUL.....

See for yourselves!

Here we go.......................

This one is from Jeannie (Jientje). She has two blogs: Heaven is in Belgium and Heaven 365.

This one is from Ratty at The Everyday Adventurer.

This one is from Ramblin' Mama (Sue) at Random Splashes of Thought.






This one is from Mark at Going Like Sixty.






This one is from Captain Connie (Connie). She has two blogs: Far Side of Fifty and Far Side of Fifty Photos.

This one is from Lynette, who does not have a blog.





This one is from L.D. (Larry). He has two blogs: Larry's Creative Zone and Larry's Photo A Day.

This one is from Judy (SquirrelQueen). She has two blogs: The Road to Here and Through Squirrel Eyes.

This one is from Ann (Grannyann) at Ann Tucker Blog.







This one is from Lynn from For Love or Funny.

This one is from Kim (Insanity Kim) at A Parent's Life to Behold: Through the Eyes of Insanity and Bliss.

This one is from Cathy at Yooper Yarns.




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

Aren't all of these WONDERFUL????

I loved each and every one, I really did....for different reasons.

I am SO GLAD I am not one of the judges this time, because it would be so hard to pick just ONE winner!

So now, I am on the hunt for three random judges over the next three weeks.

I will announce the winner around March 15th, so stay tuned!!!!

Thanks to every person who entered this contest, you took wonderful photos.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

March's photo contest's theme IS:

(What else, it is the St. Patrick's holiday month, right?....)

"Anything GREEN or Anything Irish"

You all can interpret that anyway you want....................

So please enter a photo by midnight EST on March 31, 2010 that fits this theme from your archives or a new one (if you can find anything green THIS time of year!)......

I'll be waiting....................

the RULES are HERE, in case you forgot them!!!

No thanks, Ma'm.......

I know how you all LOVE weird news stories....so here is one for you today! (Along with MY COMMENTS):




* Lisa Newsome, 42, was arrested in Zachary, La., in August,
caught trying to smuggle a 24-can case of beer out of a
convenience store. The heavyset, housecoat-clad Newsome was
squeezing the 20-pound case between her legs as she waddled from
the cooler toward the front door. When police arrived, Newsome
offered to pull up the dress to demonstrate how she carried the
case, but, said a police captain, "I told her, no thanks. I wasn't into
that." [WFTS-TV (Tampa)-AP, 9-1-09]

******************************************************************************************
1. Okay, I know you all know I went to Florida not too long ago. And I know YOU know that my daughter lives close to Tampa (in Madeira Beach)....but I SWEAR it was NOT me.

2. I don't wear dresses that often anyway.

3. Ok. I do waddle. I admit it.

4. But I am not as coordinated as this lady.

5. And I don't like beer. Now Amaretto and sour? I'd attempt it for THAT.

6. But 42 is just a memory for me at this point.

7. A memory I don't even remember, how sad is THAT?

8. In certain moods (especially after an Amaretto and Sour), I'd probably feel like flashing a policeman.

9. Because there is just something about a guy in uniform, just sayin'.

10. There are certain men (who shall remain nameless) that just might be into a woman with contortionist skills such as the ones she displayed.

11.There are certain men (who shall also remain nameless) that would LOVE a woman willing to smuggle a case of beer out this way for them.

12. I know, because I dated one once.

13. Okay. Maybe MORE than one.

14. And maybe (just maybe) I also dated a policeman or two once, too.

15. But I shall remain silent, should it be used against me in a court of law....