Tag Archives: animals

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Things I like today…. chapter 3.

July 14, 2019 Rivergirl 30 Comments

1. Peonies!

Great big colorful, heavily scented blooms.

If you’ve never smelled one?

I’m sorry.

They rival roses and lilacs for heavenly natural scent….

And I fill our house with them while I can.

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The husband’s little nephew used to call them Pee On Me’s.

But either way?

They’re glorious.

I like.

2. The combination of wine and chocolate?

Always a winner.

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But actual wine flavored chocolate?

Score!

Get yourself some immediately…. you won’t be sorry.

I like.

3. A bean bag store that stacks their products like an ice cream cone?

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I like.

4. Two for one jewelry.

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Buy a bracelet get a necklace…

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And they both look good.

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It’s true, I can.

Don’t hate me.

I like.

5. A fox with attitude.

This one stuck his tongue out at me.

Cheeky little bugger!

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I like.

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Wild Kingdom… the River edition.

July 6, 2019 Rivergirl 22 Comments

It’s not just the woodchucks who show up for a nosh at Casa River.

We have a beautiful pair of foxes who are denning down in our woods.

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Hey now… I’m sharing the sights and sounds of my backyard.

Please be respectful.

Early morning shots through a wet window are a little blurred.

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This is sharper.

Then there are the daily seed raiders…

This not pregnant anymore doe just dropped her fawn in the woods 2 houses down and is late in blowing her winter coat.

Of course if we had this type of deer, our seeds would be safe.

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But if we had these?

We might not be.

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Yikes!

And do you remember the Catbird nest with it’s bright blue eggs?

Well….

New life is popping there too.

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Although momma Catbird doesn’t like it when I photograph her babies. Turn up your volume to hear her cry.

And then there’s this fellow…. who I stumbled on by accident and took one quick out of focus shot of before I hightailed it inside.

At least I wasn’t looking at the business end.

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Baby chucker update.

June 29, 2019 Rivergirl 28 Comments

What…

You thought I’d run out of cute baby woodchuck pictures?

No, they’re still here.

And still adorable.

So there will be baby woodchuck butt shots….

Baby woodchuck eating apple shots…

Baby woodchuck following momma shots…

Baby woodchuck napping on the deck in the sun shots…

And various baby woodchucks just looking too damned cute shots for days, okay weeks, to come.

There’s even woodchuck baby I’m too ~~fat~~ fluffy to take a bath without falling over videos.

Which, btw…. took me two and half hours to upload to YouTube with our slow as molasses internet connection.

A little appreciation would not be unwelcome.

That’s better.

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In case you didn’t know….

June 28, 2019 Rivergirl 39 Comments

Don’t worry..

I do.

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Did you know…. after the battle of Waterloo in 1815, dentures were made from the teeth of dead soldiers? They were given to wealthy people who experienced tooth decay due to consuming too much sugar.

I’m not sure how bad my teeth would have to be before I wore a dead man’s… but I’m guessing pretty bad.

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Did you know….. mosquitoes are attracted to people who have recently eaten bananas?

This explains why I’m swarmed every time I start my morning with a smoothie.

Did you know…. castoreum, the vanilla flavored food additive used in baked goods can be listed as “natural flavoring” because it comes from the anal glands of beavers?

Thankfully it’s hard to procure and prohibitively expensive, so I doubt we’ll be finding it in our Twinkies anytime soon.

I’m sure the beavers aren’t thrilled either…

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Did you know…. preparing an Egyptian mummy took upwards of 70 days, and dead noblewomen were allowed to ripen for few days prior to the procedure so the embalmers wouldn’t find them too attractive.

Makes you wonder just how desperate for a date those fellows were….

Did you know.… Kemosabe means “soggy shrub” in the Navajo language?

Good ole Tonto, not quite the faithful sidekick you thought he was.

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Did you know…. woodpecker scalps, porpoise teeth and giraffe tails have all been used as currency at one time or another?

This is good news for me as I am currently awash in woodchuck poo and am hoping it will be the next monetary trend.

Momma gonna make it rain up in here!

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green. Green. GREEN!

June 27, 2019 Rivergirl 28 Comments

We had a very wet spring… and it looks like we’re going to have a very wet summer as well.

Our lawn is still part swamp, numerous perennials have drowned and I am beginning to feel moldy.

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At times it feels like we’ll never dry out.

But the result of all this infernal moisture is green.

Sprawling lawns of verdant green…

It took us a little longer to get Casa River in shape this year….

Because as soon as the warm temperatures hit there was an explosion of growth.

My pink honeysuckle was glorious and grew twice as wide.

Every single shrub is screaming for a haircut.

And the plants aren’t the only ones growing.

We have a pair of foxes with a den in our woods. They come up every evening to feed and carry pieces back to their young.

The woodchucks babies are scampering every where and curious as all get out.

These two were fascinated with the husband’s wet, smelly work boots.

No accounting for woodchuck taste apparently.

Summer may have been long in coming…

But it looks like it’s going to be an abundant season.

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More baby chuckers!

June 21, 2019 Rivergirl 33 Comments

Remember how I warned you there would be ~~more pictures of baby woodchucks than you ever thought possible~~ future photographs of our backyard wildlife?

It starts now.

Calm down, they’re babies and they’re cute.

How bad can it be?

In the evening, it usually goes like this…

Mother woodchuck comes out to see if the coast is clear.

And must give some kind of silent signal…

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Because before long….

The little ones are scampering around everywhere.

They love our deck and run back and forth so quickly it’s hard to snap a shot.

Two of them chase each other around and love hiding under the grill cover…

While the other two are busy eating deer grain.

With their mother…

Who is in serious need of an 18 hour bra.

Sorry girlfriend, but it needed to be said.

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I know you can’t un-see that.

Apologies.

Maybe this bit of cuteness will make up for it.

He doesn’t quite have the hang of it yet…

But he’s trying.

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Because I promised I would….

June 15, 2019 Rivergirl 27 Comments

Squirrels.

Love ’em or hate ’em, you have to admit they’re marvelously clever and acrobatic creatures. Entire industries are built on deterring them from raiding our bird feeders, but squirrels?

They train for it.