CT is back!!!

CT stands for "Crooked Tail". We watched this particular lizard all last year and have been wondering if he had left us. Cornpop and I were outside just now and she looked into the top of a nandina and said "Well looky here". I said, is it CT?? and she said she couldn't see his tail well enough. I leaned over the rail and YES! It's him!

Now, I know y'all think I'm nuts for naming lizards, bees, etc., but that's just me. The interesting thing about this particular lizard, and why we are able to identify him is the very end of his tail has a crook in it.

I kept thinking that during a molt, maybe it would straighten out, but it never did. We watched him grow up last year and he's considerably larger now.

We are happy to have the little feller back!

HHSMbRAMUVPPMRD

When Big Sis first moved over to the United Arab Emirates, one of the first things she noticed was that when they referred to the head honcho of Dubai, they used his WHOLE title EVERY time they mentioned him in the news.


Newscaster: "His Highness, Shaikh Mohamad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai had a meeting today with so-and-so. His Highness, Shaikh Mohamad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai entertained guests this weekend. His Highness, Shaikh Mohamad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai went to the horse race with his sons" etc...


You get the idea.


It kind of freaked her out a bit, because it was just so unusual to hear. I mean, even in our country, newscasters refer to the President as "President Obama" only at the beginning of a report. From then on, he is "Mr. Obama".


Here's the email that I had from Big Sis this morning when I got in:

Subject: Hope this picture comes through
"A friend(L) and I went into Dubai yesterday. We were leaving town and had been talking about His Highness, Shaikh Mohamad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Suddenly, L screams!! "Oh, S#$%, HE is coming up beside us!!!!" And here comes His Highness, driving down the highway, right beside us!!!!!! I had my camera, (because there are a lot of camel babies around now) and started making pictures!!!! All I got was his vehicle!!! But note the license plate number!!!! When he is out and about, he has no body guards, no other support vehicles following or leading, he was in regular clothes!!! I REALLY hope one day, we will get to meet him. D and L's husband, R, were playing golf Saturday afternoon and R got a phone call. He told D that he HAD to take it!! He answered the phone, "Hello, your Highness" It was Shaikh Mohamad calling him about some equipment or something!!!!!!! So L's husband knows him!!! MAYBE one day we will get to meet him.

I got a few camel baby pictures, but I'll wait and try to get a few more before I send any of them.
Love,
me"


I got a BIG kick out of all of the exclamation points!!!!! LOL! Can you tell she was excited?!? I, too, hope she gets to meet him one day. But I hope she goes to the bathroom first, or she's liable to pee herself!


And I want to see the baby camels!!

It's clouds illusions I recall...

Rows and floes of angel hair, and ice cream castles in the air, feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way....


When I walked outside yesterday morning, the clouds stopped me in my tracks. I, of course, ran back in and grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.


I can remember as a kid I used to lay in the grass and imagine the clouds were different things. Rather, I would decide what a particular cloud looked like. Me and my sisters or friends would say things like "That one looks like a horse!" Or, "look at that! It looks like a dog!

I'm willing to bet most folks have done that a few times in their life. Now, the thing about me is, I still do it.

For example: Can you see the face (actually it's sort of half a face of an alien in this one? Or a profile of a dinasour?

How about here? Can you see the face of Jack Frost (remember the movie with Michael Keaton)

or how about a couple of snub-nosed lizards having a face off?

I guess there are just some things you do that you never quite outgrow.

Well, I haven't anyway...

What do you see?

What I see...

when I drive up to my house at night...













I love my little place in the country. People have asked me before if I am scared to be so far out in the country alone. Heck no. I love the solitude. And I REALLY love the trees.



My yard is full of massive cedars filled with spanish moss. There is a majesty to them that is hard to describe. They are so very old and I can't even imagine what they might have seen in their long lifetime.





There is also an incredibly beautiful crape myrtle that blooms pink in the summer. This time of year I can appreciate the beauty of it's bark and the interesting way it's limbs twist and turn.


Several years ago, I went on a vacation out to Oregon to visit a dear friend. During the course of a week with her, I got to experience both time on the ocean and time in the massive redwood forest. One day I was laying INSIDE a massive redwood looking up into the tree and came to a full realization of my soul. Given a choice of being around water or being around trees, I choose trees.

I belong in the trees.

I'm so proud!

My first Marshall Ramsey original cartoon!!

For the story on how I came to be the proud owner of this one-of-a-kind drawing, click here: http://dhcoop.blogspot.com/2009/02/hearts-against-aids.html

WOOHOO!

I give you flowers...

I was approaching the daffodil field and no one was behind me. Then I see a car coming up fast (as usual), so I turned my blinker on and pulled off to the side of the road.






The wind was blowing HARD and I wasn't sure if the pics would come out. I got out of my car and walked across the road to get a better shot.



The wind was whipping them pretty hard.

Mission accomplished!

Well, foot!

That's what my Mom says when she's disgusted.

"Well, foot!" Now, where that comes from, I have no idea, but it came to mind when I created this post and didn't want to title it "Well, sh!t!", or "Well, crap!"

I passed a field of daffodils the other day going to work and wished there was no one behind me so I could stop and take a picture. I decided to go that route again this morning in hopes that I could get the shot. Right before I came to the field, a car was coming up fast behind me. Darn it! I slowed as much as I could, rolled my window down, and got this picture.

Obviously, it's a bad picture, but you can get the general sense that this is a HUGE field of daffodils. I've already decided that I need to go by again and actually PARK on the side of the road to take some pics. It is really beautiful.

Now, back to the subject of expressions. My Mom is in the hospital right now and heavy on my mind, so I guess that's why I'm led to thinking about some of the expressions she uses. I've never heard my mother say a cuss word in all of my life. But, she DOES use exclamations from time to time that, I guess, are common amongst people of her generation.

"Well, foot!" - substitute as demonstrated above. Could mean Shit! or Crap!

"Well, I'll be John Brown!". Now, keep in mind, for YEARS I thought my Mom was saying "Well, I'll be jun brown". I had no IDEA what it meant, but I heard her say it a LOT. Along comes google and I looked into it. John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish all slavery. ...he was hanged for revolt and treason.

So, I guess the expression "Well I'll be John Brown" equates to "just hang me!"

I did google "Well, foot!" but didn't get any results. Perhaps she made that one up on her own...

Do you have any memories of expressions your parents use or used? Just curious.

Oh, and I WILL get a pic of that field before it's finished blooming. I MUST!

Ok, so I couldn't stand it...

I've done 5 posts about something other than cats and I couldn't stand it any longer.

That's because I got treated to something I hadn't seen before during the night last night. I was awake with extreme hip pain and saw Bruno jump up into Scooter's chair. I figured the next thing I'd see was Scooter bailing out of the chair. Nope. So I reached out and gently swiveled the chair so I could see them. Obviously, grabbing the camera was my next action.

Scooter bathed Bruno a minute, then gave herself a little bath, then they snuggled down to sleep.

I envied them.

HeARTS Against AIDS

I joke about how I shouldn't be allowed to go to silent auctions because I'm bound to come home with something I do NOT need. Case in point being a 4 foot tall metal flamingo that I got the last time. Scooter is a full grown cat so that should give you some perspective as to how big this sucker is. It was just one of those things that I HAD to have once I put my name on the bid form.

Well, last night, I went to the HeARTS Against Aids benefit and spied a Marshall Ramsey original cartoon in the silent auction.

Needless to say, there was no WAY I was walking out of there without bidding on it.

I placed my bid and circled the room and came back and saw that someone had outbid me. Well! That just won't do! So I upped the bid, went and got a drink and looked around some more and circled back in on the prize. There was quite a good turnout for the event.

I upped the bid again and asked someone for the time. There was an hour left. hmmm, well let me see, circle around and hover, but don't look too conspicuous about what you are after in case someone else is after it. In this case, CLEARLY someone else was after it because they kept OUTBIDDING me!! WHO IS THIS BEAST! I placed another bid and circled and looped back and THERE he is, upping my bid. mmmmm Do I know this person? Is he MRBA?? Does he DESERVE this original Marshall Ramsey print as much as I do??? I think NOT!

So, I bid again and hover and circle and take more pictures and bid on a cheese tray made from a flattened Grey Goose bottle.

I circled some more and when there was about 20 minutes left I saw the guy (handsome young man) go over and up the bid on the MR original. HOW DARE HE!?! It's MINE!!!! At this point, I would have probably paid a ridulous amount for the thing because I was so determined to have it.

I decided to take preemptive action. I walked over to the guy (by this time he had already seen that it was me he was bidding against) and just asked him "Should I know you? Are you MRBA?" He laughed and admitted to being a lurker, he knew exactly what I meant by "MRBA" but isn't in a position where he is able to post. He said he had posted a couple of times right after the blog was begun but I don't remember what name he said he used. I said "I'm dhcoop". He laughed again and literally bowed to me and said "Then I defer to you. I will not bid any more. You can have it"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA It's now MINE! *doing the happy dance*

Mockingbird Sky

I've gotten to where I try to remember to take my camera with me when I go outside for break, just in case I see something worth taking a pic of. Most of the time when I do see something, I don't have it with me. I got lucky today. CornPop and I were outside and a mockingbird flew into the top of the bay tree by the porch. It was singing in response to another mockingbird in the bushes.

I love the way the pic shows how incredibly blue the sky is today.

4 & 20 Blackbirds...

...baked in a pie?

I think not.

When I told friend in CS my tale of the starling show I saw the other day, he told me of a time when, as a boy, he asked his mother if she would bake a blackbird pie with ALL of the birds he could bring in. He had seen a large flock of blackbirds descending on their property, but he didn't tell her this. She said yes, so he set out with his shotgun. He said that he crept up behind a tree and BLOWWW! BLOWWW! (his words) As the story goes, he went out with a Piggly Wiggly bag and picked up more blackbirds than would fit in the bag (this was long enough ago that it had to be paper, not plastic). He took them back to the house and gave them to his mother, who was overwhelmed (my word, not his), but she baked him a blackbird pie. He described layers of bird breasts and dumplings... ewww

Now, I had just seen the starling spectacle, but was a little skeptical of his story, particularly when he told me some of them were red-winged blackbirds. I had my doubts that red-wing blackbirds would be amongst your regular, run of the mill blackbirds. So....

This morning I was sitting in my living room with the doors open where I could see thru the storm doors to my yard. Suddenly, a huge flock of birds started landing in the woods outside my house. A cacophony of bird calls filled my ears. I thought I was being visited by a flock of starlings. Cool! I grabbed my camera and ran outside.

I started trying to get some pics of the birds landing in the trees and on the ground. It was awesome! But, I realized fairly quickly, these weren't European starlings. No. They really were BLACKBIRDS. Within a few seconds after I started taking pics, they got spooked and took flight.

The sound was indescribable!! I've never heard anything like it! They took off directly over me.

I was taking pictures as fast as my little camera could handle it. I was standing just under the
edge of my porch and snapping as fast as I could.

Now, the cool thing is, once I took the pictures, I looked back and, sure enough, it looks like there are some red-winged blackbirds in the mix! If you'll zoom in on the pics you'll see what I mean.

I googled it this afternoon and sure enough, different types of blackbirds will migrate together. I had no idea. Interesting. And thought provoking. Wouldn't it be nice if humans could take some lessons from nature?

It was a wonderful experience and I'm thankfull to have had it.

God is wonderful.

Tagged!

Jen (aka choclablover) tagged me with a photo challenge. Here are the rules:

1) Go to the 4th folder in my computer where you store your pictures.
2) Pick the 4th picture in that folder.
3) Explain the picture.
4) Tag 4 people to do the same.

I happen to be down in CS where I have my own folder of pics, which contains multiple folders. The fourth folder contains pics I took in Hazlehurst when Big Sis and BIL were about to head back to the UAE. The fourth pic in that folder happens to be of my BIL's kids.

This was taken at the BIL's family Thanksgiving gathering.

I am going to tag

tgtank: http://tanksgetaway.blogspot.com/

MMrsH: http://mrshatlarge.blogspot.com/

Clucky: http://flinky23.blogspot.com/

tnmsu: http://johnnybeaver.wordpress.com/

Have fun!

For The Birds

The starlings, that is.

The past several days on my drive in, I had been noticing more and more birds congregating in and around the pecan groves I pass. This morning, I started seeing them well ahead of where I've been seeing them, then realized that it was like a continuous highway in the sky. They were undulating in and around the trees like a long black ribbon. I wish I could have gotten a better shot, but this was the best I could do and still stay on the road.

I got to wondering exactly what it was I was seeing. I know that every year at a particular time we seem to see large numbers of starlings traveling together. That led me to google "starling migration". Interestingly enough, I can't really find any information specifically about what prompts the migration, where they are going or where they are coming from. I'm going to keep looking though.

However, I did learn a few very interesting (to me at least) facts about these birds. European Starlings are not native to the United States. In 1890 and 1891, 60 to 100 were released in New York's Central Park as part of a misguided effort to bring every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare into the US. They now number over 200 MILLION and are considered a pest by many. A migrating flock can number 100,000 birds. They roost communally in flocks that may contain as many as a million birds.

Get this - both the male and female starling CAN MIMIC HUMAN SPEECH and some people keep them as pets. Who knew?? One website I found is specifically for people who have them. They are actually quite beautiful birds.

Anyhoo, if you have any interest, here's a link to some more info on starlings: http://www.sialis.org/starlingbio.htm

Momma's Little Helper

Where the heck is my notepad?? Or my fabulous binder notebook that CornPop gave me??? I can't find either one of them. So...I'm writing on the back of a Medication Guide for Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs that happened to be laying on the end table beside me.

When I turned the TV on, Katie Couric was just beginning an interview with Taylor Swift. I've heard of her, but since I don't listen to music on the radio (I listen to PRM), I can't say I've ever heard her sing. Anyway, this little lady is quite impressive!

Ok, so I'm trying to write something about this young lady for my blog, when suddenly, I'm getting some help...

Of course, I have my trusty camera handy and start taking shots of my little helper.

Alrighty then...

So, this post was originally supposed to be about how cool I thought Taylor Swift was and it ended up being about WHAT??? A CAT!

No surprise there.

I am apparently not capable of writing about anything else.

Well, unless you count lizards, dogs, trees, flowers and fungus.

Oh, and for the record, yes the book I'm using to write on is The Reptiles and Amphibians of Alabama. It should not come as any surprise that particular book stays on the table beside me at all times.

Go figure...

Introducing.......

.....BRUNO!

Ok, so I can't do more than a couple of non-cat posts without then following with catnews.

Meet Bruno. He is one of the wild kitties that I've been feeding for months that I have been unable to actually touch. I named him Bruno (hoping it's a boy) because even as a little, tiny kittie, he had such a masculine, tough look. Most kittens have kind of a sweet little face. Not Bruno. He's looked like a tough guy from go.

A few days ago, I had to get up early in the morning to potty. Didn't turn the light on (hoping I can go back to sleep afterwards) and, of course, am joined in the bathroom by Scooter and Ringo (as usual). I'm sitting there petting them both and suddenly, little Bruno joins us. He actually stuck his face out and sniffed my hand, then ran off. After a couple more days of this same morning ritual, he let me pet him and actually rolled over on his back for me to scratch him! Anyone who has ever had a cat knows that a cat allowing a belly scratch is almost unheard of. Cats just don't get into belly exposure.

Anyway, another couple of days passed and I woke up with extra pressure on my legs. My hip was hurting bad and I needed to move but didn't want to disturb whoever was asleep there. Too bad. Hip pain was awful and I HAD to turn over. I slowly started moving my legs and saw Scooter get up and then realized the little weight on my thighs was none other than Bruno! I felt around in the dark for my camera and started making pictures.

He is really handsome. Ivory colored with blue eyes, orange tinted ears, nose and feet, and a perfectly ringed orange and ivory tail.

He's not but a few months old, yet he has the look of a very mature cat.

The good news is that this is yet another kitty that I will now be able to take to the vet (when he gets old enough) and have "fixed up". The bad news is he now thinks my feet are playtoys to grab and bite while I'm trying to sleep.

It tickled me when he reached out and "touched" Ringo who was trying to sleep on the hassock.

Then he had to get up and "test drive" Gracie's basket. Fortunately, she had already gone out for her morning constitutional.

I thought he was going to go over the edge, but he managed to not tip it all the way.

The thing is, if it turns out it's actually a girl, Bruno may not be the best name choice. Oh well...I'll think of something.

Two words...

...and I have no idea what they are.


Last night I saw something on TV and it struck me as something I wanted to blog about. I knew I'd never remember it today if I didn't write myself a note. I thought, all I need to remember is two words...


So I dug out a pen and piece of paper and wrote the two words down. I THOUGHT I had put the piece of paper in my purse. Apparently not.


When I got to the office today I dug around in my purse for the paper. Nothing. Darn it! All I needed was those two words to prompt me in writing a blog.

I do know it wasn't about cats or trees or lizards or fungus, but I have NO idea what it was!


Maybe I'll find that little piece of paper tonight...