Last night before we went to bed, we saw that a deer had decided to rest in our back yard. The flood light was shining in her face, but it didn”t faze her. She was by herself, too. Was she resting before she was going to feast on my shrubs?
We noticed that there was some grass being deposited in a motorcycle helmet that is up on the top shelf in the garage. While I had the garage door open on a few occasions recently some birds came into the garage and began building a nest inside the helmet.
I don”t mind them having a nest but they will nead their own garage door opener if they stay in my motorcycle helmet.
We heard the sound of something hitting the house and looked out the window to see a small bird lying in the flowerbed. I went outside to see if he was still alive and he was not. He had obviously flown into the window and killed himself. Then I noticed a bunch of other birds the same as this one in the tree and they were eating the red berries that had been on the tree for several months. I think they had begun to ferment.
Birds that eat fermented berries often fly drunk. Is there a lesson here? DON”T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Doug wrote a blog the other day about our snow. People that have moved here from the north asked how often this happens. We say, “Rarely, and never as early as December 10th.” I was rehearsing for the church Christmas program from about 5:30 to 9:30 pm that evening. When I came out my car was covered with snow. There was even snow as far south as Channelview, which is southeast of Houston. Our city was quick to respond with sand on the bridges. The next day was a beautiful sunny day, but still cold (for us). Here is a picture of the frozen birdbath water:
This morning it was frozen again, and we saw about 9 little birds trying to drink from it. However, today the temperature is supposed to get up to 65, so we will have an un-winter-like weekend. Crazy Texas weather! Doug will be glad to get back to golfing.
We had a light snow last night as you can see from the photo. (Try clicking on the photo to make it larger.) Around here this is a big deal. It is very little snow but as far as I”m concerned this is a true Winter Wonderland. The reason is that the snow melts away in just a couple hours and by next week the temperatures will be such that we can play golf again. It”s kind of fun to watch the reaction here about this very small snow fall. One school system near the Houston area (about 80 miles from here) is closed today because of the snow and the resulting traffic problems in that area.
We have the Christmas lights up. Notice that they are on the porch railing. Very suitable for lights being installed by an older person. I really don”t want to get on a ladder to put up lights on the fascia around the house especially since some areas around the house have a difficult slope and would make it difficult to support a step ladder. Here is a photo of the lights:
Now that we have been in our new house for about 9 months the deer seem to treat our yard just like any other in the neighborhood – it”s a place to get something to eat. A few days ago I was having my coffee and we noticed a herd of deer that leisurely strolled through our yard, crossed the street and began feasting on our neighbor”s flowerbed.
As quickly as they came, so quickly the love bugs have disappeared. We are so glad. Every day I had to sweep up dead ones from the floor beside the windows–inside the house. When I would go out on the back porch, I felt like I was in one of those horror movies where insects swarm all over you. I would have to sweep off the door and brush them off myself before I came in. I had thought all the rain and wind from the hurricane would drive them away, but it didn”t. But now they are gone–until next year, I guess.
Though we are 100 miles from the Galveston coast, our town suffered greatly from Hurricane Ike. The eye went directly over us and knocked out our electrical power for 5 days. We had a small generator that we were able to hook up to the freezer and the refrigerator. We have a gas cooktop, so we were able to cook almost anything we wanted. We had hot water, and a cool front came in and kept us from suffering without our air condtioning. In fact, we had our windows open the next day because it was still so cool. We had no damage, only a lot of tree debris in our yard. Some of the damage in our subdivision was quite bad. One woman died in her bed from a massive tree falling on her house. We had quite a few light poles down or broken which is why we were without power for so long. But people further south have had it much worse. We are very thankful to have been so safe and untouched. Areas less than 20 feet in elevation along the coast comprise most of the severe damage. The news media focuses on the worst damage and most of the photos in the news will be from the coastal areas such as Galveston and Freeport, Texas. Houston is 50 or 60 feet in elevation and we are at 300 feet. The damage in our area is directly related to the wind pushing trees down as you can see from the photos. You can see photos of the damage in our area by clicking on the link to the right entitled “Hurricane Ike”.
We are being inundated by love bugs here. (I don”t know if that is the real name; that”s what we call them here in Texas.) They are crawling all over the porch column, hanging out by the door so that they can stick to our bodies. They must not have a long life span because there are dead ones lying around everywhere. I even find dead ones inside on the floor. Maybe Huricane Ike will blow and wash they away.
Recent Comments