DUELING TORNADO'S

This is a picture taken by someone I know at a small town west of here about 10 miles. Pretty exciting! Dorothy.....Todo.... Auntie Em.......where are you??????

SATURDAY

This is a Eurasian Collared Dove nest and eggs from my yard.

Happy Saturday! Today was a quiet kind of day. I couldn't do much birdwatching because of the wind. Whew. It was strong and right out of the north. Of all of the weather conditions, I dislike wind the most. It makes me nervous. I spent quite a bit of time knitting on a sock. It is the second sock so this one has taken much much longer than the first one. If any of you knit socks, you will know about the "second sock syndrome" where you are gung ho on the first one and can't imagine starting the second one right away. It is akin to reading a book and immediately starting the book over again. Tomorrow will be beef stew for supper and I will have to talk daughter into baking something good for dessert. Hmmmm. Any ideas? That is all for now. Take care.

BIRDS AND TEA

Birds and tea are two of my favorite things. Then comes knitting and baking bread and well....the list could go on and on. My most WONDERFUL cousin sent me some tea blossoms and this really cool teapot. I collect teapots. I have lots and lots. Thank you cousin for the wondrful tea and teapot. I have at least 4 Harris's Sparrows today in full and I mean full breeding plumage. They are so pretty.

TURBULENT DAY

We woke up to rain this morning which is really unusual for here. Then until 4:00 pm there were at least 5 tornado's in the area. Luckily, none of them were within 5 miles of the farm. Last June we had a tornado in the field by the house. You can see pics of the storm over the barn in a previous post. I am a trained weather spotter but there wasn't anything to spot today. We had hail and lots of wind but NOAA isn't interested in that unless it is excessive. We got 3/10th of an inch of rain out of it. We will take it! I really overloaded myself with tv coverage, police radio coverage, weather radio and regular radio. I finally turned it all off so I could settle down. I could tell we weren't going to blow away by then anyway. Oh yes, I forgot the radar on the internet. There was way too much technology for this tiny brain. My husband went to town to work out at the gym and said that there was penny size hail in town (about 10) miles south of the farm. Our hail was much smaller than that and lots of it but not enough to hurt the crops.

Tomorrw will be a good bird watching day. We have what is called a "bird drop" during storms so that the migrating birds will stopp off until it is safe for them to go on. You just never know what you will find at the feeder. I had lots of Grackles. They have a right to live too but I hate providing seed for them because they are like pigs and eat up all of my sunflower seed. The three Harris' Sparrows are still here. Someone saw two in town today so I don't have the ONLY H Sparrows in the county. Darn. I took an Ambien and now I'm having trouble spelling my words correctly. Don't hold it against me. There has been lots going on the last few days plus today was my Mother's birthday. She passed a year ago on April 30th. Happy Birthday Mom. I made you and the whole staff at the nursing home fresh apples pies!!!!! It was so much fun.

I'm going to insert a picture of my wonderful mother in this post. She was a sweetie pie. I miss her.

HARRIS'S SPARROW

This is one of the Harris's Sparrows that I had at my feeder today. Good bird for this area.

I ALMOST LOST CONTROL

I know I am prejudiced but my husband is the cutest being on two legs. Last night, while we were eating supper he said the cutest thing. Honey goes to the gym almost everyday to work out and keep his back muscles in shape. He is a retired farmer and has had three back surgery's. We were talking over the day's happenings. Honey said......I almost lost control today. I looked at him with wide eyes and said.....did someone make you mad?.......he said, no I almost stole a piece of pizza.......I said, could you go into more detail?.......he said that he got really hungry and was walking by the employees break room and could smell pizza. He said he was tempted to go in there and take a piece of leftover pizza.......I said, was there anybody around?........he said no.......I said, were you afraid that Dorothy would catch you?.......(Honey taught Dorothy's kids in elem. school and they know each other well)......he said well, I didn't want Dorothy to catch me and I didn't want you to be mad at me.......I laughed and laughed.......I said, do you really think that Dorothy would call me and say.....H took a piece of pizza from the break room........Honey is 66 years old......It was a hilarious conversation. I told Honey to say to Dorothy the next time there is leftover pizza in the break room.......Dorothy....I am really hungry and with all of this working out I feel a little faint....could I have a piece of pizza?.........We really had a good laugh over this one. I have posted some funny stories about my husband in previous posts having to do with conversations that we have had because he is hard of hearing due to years spent on a tractor.

MY LIFE THROUGH THE LAUNDRY ROOM DOOR

Yesterday I saw the most beautiful cloud formation. (see previous post) It lasted for only one minute or less and then it was gone. This morning, as I stood at the laundry room door I had an idea. I might start posting what I see from my laundry room door! I am a birdwatcher. Every morning I stand at the door with my coffee and see what birds are in that part of the yard. My yard is a little over 3 acres but this small area is what I see the most of. Today the ground is wet because we had about a half inch of rain last night. It was great. The 60 mph winds are over! I hate that kind of wind. It is scary and causes a lot of damage. I have lots of Grackles, White-crowned Sparrows, Harris's Sparrow ( 3), Dark-eyed Junco, Robins, Eurasian Collared Doves and Mourning Doves, House Sparrows and a Sharp Shinned Hawk. He is a pain because he sits in the cedar tree and eats my little birds. This is not a blog of manufactured glee. This is my life.