.
Poor Momma Chuck has her hands paws full with five babies.
.
.
Teaching them to be self sufficient and take advantage of the daily buffet we lay out is exhausting.
.
.
More often than not she beats them to it and gobbles everything up before they wander over.
.
.
Momma needs nourishment and strength.
.
.
As well as a decent support bra.
.
.
What does she think of the local paparazzi?
.
.
This.
🤣
.
.
Momma Chuck is bringing her young ones out from under the barn on daily foraging trips.
.
.
So naturally I sit on the barn porch and entice them with apple chunks.
.
.
One brave little fella gets closer than the rest.
.
.
He’s so sweet!
.
.
Yes, they’re flower munching machines…
.
.
But they’re also too cute to stay angry at for long.
💕
.
.
My first baby chucker count was off by two. There are five baby chuckers and my flower gardens are doomed.
.
.
I try to make friends by sitting on the barn porch and giving them apples.
.
.
I do this so they’ll leave my carefully tended blooms alone.
Sometimes it works, other times I’m left with a bed of bare twigs.
.
.
It seems there’s always one brave little fella in every litter… the one who edges closer and checks me out more thoroughly.
.
.
Yes, they munch my flowers.
.
.
But damn, they’re cute.
❤️
.
.
The husband and I planted three flowering cherry trees last year.
.
.
Two of them were eaten and absolutely destroyed by deer over the winter.
.
.
This one, planted closer to our house survived… even if it is looking a little spindly.
.
.
🥴
.
.
We had our first baby woodchuck sighting of the season the other day.
.
.
Momma gives birth under the Man Cave/Barn Mahal every year and this summer it looks like three.
.
.
They really are adorable.
.
.
Scampering around trying to convince mom to share her apples.
,
.
I know my flower gardens will suffer.
.
.
But damn, they’re cute.
.
.
😊
.
.
Lilacs.
.
.
From a scent perspective they’re hard to beat.
We have two giant bushes on the edge of our property that were planted by the original owners in the mid seventies.
One is dark purple.
.
.
One is white.
.
.
So of course my favorite color is the pale lavender that we didn’t have.
But my girlfriend did and about ten years ago she gave me some of hers.
.
.
That’s it in the foreground next to our old ones.
Alive, but not in any hurry to grow.
At this rate I’ll be dead before it blooms…
🥴
.
We had a new guest at Casa River yesterday.
.
.
Running up and down the driveway at lightning speed.
.
.
They’re cute little fellows we rarely see on our property.
.
.
A shorebird who often nests alongside fields..
.
.
The killdeer emits a shrill shriek of a call and is famous for pretending to have a broken wing and luring predators away from its nest with its supposed injury.
.
.
Cute.
And smart.
Not to mention fast.
❤️
.
.
With overcast skies and rain in the forecast my husband and I headed to the Barn Mahal for an afternoon of entertainment.
.
.
Stepping on the porch, I realized we had a squatter.
Do you see it?
.
.
In the upper corner to the right of the door.
.
.
Someone has built a nest.
❤️
.
.
After beating my husband at two games of Scrabble, we switched to pool… where my husband is guaranteed to win.
I like to play but I’m not very good. Can’t bank to save my life, but I won four out of ten so at least it wasn’t a rout.
.
.
How long did we play?
.
.
Long enough to require a keg change.
🤣
.
.
Why eat standing up…
.
.
When lying down works just as well.
.
.
😊
.
.
.
Lord Dudley Mountcatten is an interactive television watcher.
.
.
Especially when it’s a Nature documentary on birds of prey.
.
.
Summer is coming.
You’re welcome.
.
.
It’s been a weird, cold and wet spring. We still have temperatures dropping to 40 so while the grass is a stunning vibrant green…
Most of the trees haven’t leafed out yet.
.
.
Not that His Lordship cares, there are still mice to hunt.
.
.
The Orioles are still here and eating jars of grape jelly faster than I can buy them. They’re beautiful and hungry.
.
.
A bluebird, just because.
💕
.
River's world..... 