Sunflowers & Bumble Bees

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Martie (the Taos Sunflower).  I never look at a sunflower without thinking of her!  

I have some "volunteer" sunflowers growing in my little vegetable garden.  I think the chipmunks might have had a paw in that.......

The sunflowers don't interfere with the tomatoes or zucchini, so I let them grow because my goldfinches, cardinals and chickadees love sunflower seeds! (plus it's free seed!)

Since I don't use any pesticides, there are lots of bugs in the garden too.  They don't seem to bother my veggies or flowers much -- the birds do an excellent job of the "insect extermination" chores for me.  And I count on the bees to complete all pollination activities so I can grow lots of tomatoes.  Mr. Bumble Bee takes this task very seriously and as you can see, he's already picked up quite a bit of pollen today!

Tomato blossoms are OK, but Mr. Bumble Bee knows that he can get the biggest "bang for his buck" on the multiple blossoms of this sunflower!

Look at him go!  Making his way around the entire flower!

By the time he was ready to fly away, he had collected so much pollen on his back legs that he could barely fly!  He really had to work at getting up some speed for the journey to his pollen storage facility.  (What do they do with that pollen anyway??)

Finally got the landing gear retracted and he's off!  Good-bye Mr. Bumble Bee!  Thanks for allowing me to photograph you.  You're welcome back anytime & bring your friends too!  It's a short summer season here in Minnesota and we have to enjoy these flowers while we can!

Holly Update

It's been almost a year already since Holly left the shelter to come and live with us here in her "forever home."  Every day we're treated to her happy smiles.

Holly did very well in her scholarly pursuits at PSU (Pet Smart University).  An additional benefit is that we learned quite a bit about dog training too ("it's all about the treats!")  I only wish that we had taken our previous three dogs to obedience school.  I would recommend this training to anyone who gets a new dog -- and even though Holly was 3 years old when she started school, she was a fast and excellent learner.  I believe more classes are probably in her future.

Holly would like us to look around for a doggie driver's education class......

We have found out over the past year that Holly is a champion napper.  What a difference from the three  energetic German Shorthaired Pointers we had as pets prior to Holly!  Holly does have her high energy moments, but mostly she's really laid back.  Holly will nap by herself......

but she actually prefers napping with her people!  She's usually right between us at night.

Holly also enjoys afternoon naps  -- especially on the couch with her mom!

We didn't know Holly was a lap dog when we got her, but she's gotten her dad trained to help her up on his lap when he sits down.

Holly loves to play.  This is a "soccer" game she plays with us in the kitchen when we're washing dishes.  She brings a toy over by the sink and then she stands in the doorway while we try to kick it past her.  This is Holly's "goalie" stance.

I'm having a lot of fun dressing Holly up.  I discovered lots of cute doggy apparel and accessories at BaxterBoo.com.  They even carry Holly's "big girl" sizes.  Holly's a pretty good sport about wearing everything I buy for her -- even though she won't appreciate the benefits of this hoodie keeping her ears warm until the colder weather gets here.

When we have Holly out in public (which we try to do as often as possible), everyone always comments on what a pretty dog she is.  We think she's quite beautiful and have never experienced (knock on wood) any negative comments from people because she's a pitbull.  She's very friendly to people of all ages and sizes and I'm always thrilled when little kids come over to pet her and she gives them a "kiss."  (She's a super kisser!)  Every day is a new opportunity for us to help change people's minds about the negative, "vicious pitbull" stereotype.

When we adopted Holly, we had to sign a Dog Adoption Contract.  One of the points we had to agree to is as follows, "I agree to provide this animal with.......loving, humane treatments at all times."  I think we've accomplished that and Holly has paid us back ten-fold with joy and happiness every day.

Here's a little video of Holly at her tail-waggin' best.....

Here they are.....

It's County Fair time again!  (jeez, I can't believe it's the end of July already though......)  Here are the items this Nature Knitter has completed in the past 12 months for entry into Open Class competition at the 2012 Olmsted County Free Fair.  (Award information has been listed after each picture.)  

 Wool Houndstooth Check Mittens

Blue ribbon (first place)

Glitter Shawl

(knitted from *1 ball* of a wool/alpaca/nylon/metallic blend yarn) 

White Ribbon (third place)

Celeste Shawl

(knitted from Red Heart Stardust yarn - 70% superwash wool, 25% nylon, 5% glitter yarn)

Blue Ribbon (first place) plus Grand Champion Purple Ribbon and Best of Show Award Plaque

Click on the photo to enlarge so you can also see the copper metal beads knitted into this lovely pattern

Basic Knitted Mittens

(knitted from washable acrylic yarn)

White Ribbon (third place)

Wool Cables Hat

Blue Ribbon (first place)

Rainbow Beanie

(crocheted with Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn) 

Red Ribbon (second place)

Undergrowth Hat

(knitted with Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport weight yarn)

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Reserve Grand Champion Pink Ribbon

Top view of Undergrowth Hat



I stopped at the fair with these entries shortly after noon last Friday -- I didn't see what any of the other competitors had brought in then, but I'm optimistic some of these items will do well in the judging that was held on Saturday, July 21st.  I'll post results later this week.



Raptor Spa

For a lot of people with backyard bird feeders, the appearance of a hawk is a horrifying experience.  For me, the appearance of a hawk is always greeted with excitement.  The ratio of hawks to songbirds in my backyard is probably about 1:150, so I'm not worried about the hawks decimating my songbirds (the free-roaming cats and raccoons cause much more damage).  I know there is a Cooper's Hawk who visits my backyard regularly and usually the chickadees, robins and bluejays sound the alarm.  This time of year, the grackles are especially watchful because they have all kinds of nests around here and I've found several piles of juvenile grackle feathers lately (not gonna complain about losing a few grackle babies, that's for sure!)

Since the weather's been so hot already this summer, keeping the birdbaths full is almost a full-time job and on this 90+ degree day back on June 10th, a Cooper's Hawk decided to take advantage of a shallow birdbath in my backyard for a little spa session.  Fortunately I was home on this day and managed to capture these photos out the kitchen window.  Hope you enjoy them!

Hope you're enjoying your summer and be sure to keep your birdbaths full during these hot days for all of the backyard critters and birds -- raptors included!

The Misadventures of Holly

Holly loves hearing her dad talk about cheeseburgers!

Last Thursday Holly and Mr. Johnson were playing a little game of ball toss while waiting for me to get home from work.  Holly's pretty aggressive when it comes to chasing after her ball and on this particular afternoon, Holly took a really bad spill on the concrete driveway.  Mr. Johnson phoned me in a panic to tell me about this accident and he thought Holly had broken one of her hind legs because she couldn't walk.  I got home and was able to determine that her leg wasn't broken, but it did look like her hip was dislocated.  After a couple phone calls to pet hospitals to find out who could see her, I broke many speed limits racing back in to Rochester with our poor doggeh and her heartbroken dad in the back seat.

In her fall, Holly suffered a number of other injuries including some serious "road rash" on the inside of her hind leg.....

and a really bad abrasion on her elbow that required a couple of staples (ick!)

She was in a lot of pain at the pet hospital, so the doctor gave her an IV (the little shaved spot on her front leg is almost grown over again).

Fortunately, x-rays revealed no broken bones or dislocated hip, but Holly had to stay in the hospital overnight so the vet could monitor her condition.  It turned out that when Holly fell so hard from her fast run, she ruptured a disc in her back.  For anyone who's ever had a ruptured disc, you probably can remember how painful that was and how your doctor probably recommended bed rest for a couple weeks.  Holly's a pretty active girl, but she is trying to follow the doctor's orders as much as possible! 

   

Holly also came home with some presciption meds to help her feel better (no co-pay on pet meds though!)  For 2 weeks she's taking Rimadyl (an NSAID) and Tramadol (for pain).  She loves the Greenies Pill Pockets and so do I. (I wish I had know about these years ago when I was shoving pills down Sophie's throat every day!)

Holly's doing much better now.  Her back legs are getting stronger and she's enjoying all the special attention we're lavishing upon her during her recuperation (including licking off the supper plates).  We're looking forward to her full return to health and regular activities again -- especially those daily walks that we've had to discontinue until her injury has healed.

It's a Boy! or maybe a girl.....

Congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird!  Proud parents of these newly hatched babies.  I think there might be a third one underneath, but I didn't want to mess around with them too much on this chilly afternoon.

I'll check back in a few days to see how these little ones are progressing.

Memorial Day Holiday Weekend

Looks like summer has definitely arrived in time for Memorial Day weekend here in Minnesota.  It doesn't seem very long ago that we were wondering what happened to winter and now summer is here.  We had storms on Saturday that dumped quite a lot of rain (which we needed) then a nearly record-breaking warm day yesterday (high of 89 degrees). 

Today has turned out to be a perfect day and I'm taking a break from getting my gardens in shape to do this blog post.

It's really nice to hear all the birds singing in the backyard again and I have some birdies taking advantage of the houses and nesting material I put out for them.  Here's the cozy little nest the chickadees made with moss, grass and some of the alpaca fiber I provided for their use.  There are 6 little eggs tucked into this fuzzy nest!

I took a look yesterday and here are 3 little baby chickadees almost ready to fledge.  They are just the cutest little things!  I'm not sure why the other 3 eggs didn't hatch, but 3 babies will be more than enough for the parents to take care of.

Mr. & Mrs. Eastern Bluebird also moved into one of my Peterson nestboxes.  They built a nice multi-layered nest with alpaca fiber on the bottom, then some grass and lastly a good layer of white pine needles.  This is the first time I can ever remember the bluebirds using white pine needles, but it definitely makes a nice, substantial nesting material for them.

There are 3 pretty blue eggs in here.  They should hatch sometime in the next week.

I've been working on getting some more native flowering plants added to my butterfly and hummingbird garden.  I bought this Golden Alexander plant at the garden center a couple weeks ago.  On the plant info card, it said Golden Alexander is a host plant for swallowtail butterflies.  I was happy to find this little swallowtail caterpillar on the plant stem.  Now I'll have to be really careful when I plant it so I don't dislodge the little bugger! 

I'm starting to see lots more butterflies in my yard already this season and I'm hoping that all the new flowers I'm planting will encourage them to stick around for the summer.  I had a nice Question Mark on the hummingbird feeder yesterday and also saw a couple of Mourning Cloaks earlier this spring.  Quite a few Monarchs are already flying around and the milkweed is coming in nicely, so there will be plenty of food sources for the monarch caterpillars.  I bought 2 new milkweed plants for my butterfly garden too -- one has orange flowers and the other has yellow flowers.  Probably won't be long and I'll have to think about getting the monarch ranch up and running again too......